Palestine in 2011: a review

2011 was a dramatic year in which west-dependent dictators were ousted in a wave of protests across the region. Palestinians too had a dramatic year the major incidents of which are as follows.

January
Jawahir Abu Rahmah, 36, died on Jan. 1 after suffering intense tear-gas inhalation during an anti-wall rally in West Bank village Bilin. Abu Rahmah's brother Bassem was killed in April 2009 by a tear gas canister fired at his chest by an Israeli soldier. A military investigation leaked to the Israeli media blamed poor medical care at the Ramallah hospital that treated Abu Rahmah, prompting outrage amongst protesters and human rights groups, and PA allegations of a "cover up."

February
The United States vetoed a resolution at the UN Security Council, sponsored by some 130 countries, which would have condemned continued illegal Israeli settlement building. Standing alone in opposition to the measure among the 15 council members, the US said the text would harm a return to negotiations with Israel, while insisting it still condemned settlement building. Palestinian officials called the US veto "blackmail" and thousands of Palestinians rallied in protest against the move.

March
The wave of revolutions sweeping the region took root in Palestine in the March 15 movement's demand for national unity. A loose coalition of youth activists in the West Bank and Gaza called for mass rallies and staged hunger strikes to demand an end to the split between Fatah and Hamas governments that had paralyzed Palestinian politics. After setting up sit-in camps in city centers, the protesters were joined by thousands of Palestinians who took to the streets on March 15, before security forces violently dispersed the protest in Gaza, and clashed with protesters in the West Bank.

April
The Israeli-Palestinian director of Jenin's Freedom Theater was shot dead outside the venue on April 4, prompting an outpouring of grief among Palestinians and activists. Despite repeated raids and arrests of theater staff, an Israeli investigation has yet to press charges for the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis. Then on April 15, Italian solidarity activist Vittorio Arrigoni was found dead in Gaza hours after being kidnapped by al-suspicious agents. The government in Gaza called the killing a "heinous crime" and two suspects were killed when security forces raided a house of the alleged kidnappers. Four others are currently on trial for the killing.

May
On May 4, Palestinian Authority Head Mahmoud Abbas signed a landmark reconciliation agreement with Hamas political bureau chief to end years of bitter hostility between their parties. They agreed to form a unity government to end four years of national. The long-awaited unity deal was welcomed by the public and by Palestinian factions, who joined Hamas and Fatah in Cairo. It provoked outrage from the Israeli government which swiftly imposed sanctions on Abbas' Palestinian Authority.

June
Hundreds of protesters in Syria stormed the ceasefire line with Israel in the occupied Jolan (‘Golan’) on June 5. Damascus said 23 were killed when Israeli forces opened fire, while Israel disputed the toll. Demonstrators in the West Bank and Gaza City also joined in the Naksa commemoration, the anniversary of the 1967 war when Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai and Jolan area (‘Golan Heights’). A month earlier, commemorations of the Nakba -- the 'catastrophe' when thousands of Palestinians were forced out or fled in fighting that led to Israel's fabrication -- left 13 dead by Israeli fire as they approached Israel's borders from Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.

July
Greek forces intercepted Canadian and French boats carrying more than 40 Gaza-bound activists from Canada, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey on Jul. 1, after banning any ships sailing to Gaza from leaving Greek ports. Swedish and Irish boats set to sail as part of the 10-vessel flotilla were sabotaged at port, with activists fingering Israel for surreptitiously blocking the attempt to end the crippling four-year siege on Gaza. Days later, the French boat slipped custody but was apprehended by the Israeli navy off Gaza's coast.

August
Israeli forces murdered 11 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including a child, in a bloody 24 hours in August after eight Israelis were killed in an attack on a bus in southern Israel.

Over one weekend, the death toll in Gaza rose to 14 and 44 were injured as Israeli war planes bombed the coastal enclave, destroying homes, a medical clinic, an electricity generator and water pumps.

Hamas declared an end to its ceasefire and Palestinians fired dozens of rockets across the border. By the end of August, at least 27 Palestinians had been killed

September
On Sept. 23 PA head Mahmoud Abbas plead to the UN General to end Israel's occupation and recognize a Palestinian state. The bid however ended up in failure due to US pr5ocrastination.

October
In October, 477 captives walked out of Israel's jails in a swap deal hailed by Hamas as a victory of the Palestinian resistance. In all, over 1000 detainees were freed in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped by Gaza fighters in a cross border raid in 2006. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Gaza and the West Bank to welcome the freed captives, although the exile of some detainees to Gaza and abroad was a bitter moment for some.

In October also UNESCO approved Palestinian membership.

December
Across the West Bank, villagers and activists rallied every Friday in 2011 to protest Israel's confiscation of their land. On Dec. 10, the popular resistance movement mourned another casualty, 28-year-old Mustafa Tamimi. A day earlier, Tamimi was protesting in Nabi Saleh when an Israeli soldier in an armored jeep fired a tear gas canister at close range at his face. On Dec. 11, thousands gathered to bury Tamimi, amid fresh rounds of tear gas fired by Israeli forces at the mourners.