During the first day of the Eid, a special holiday which normally marks the end of the month-long Ramadan fast with much celebration and feasting among Muslims everywhere, Palestinians in Aida refugee camp, in the northern part of Bethlehem, marched in the streets Monday, in symbolic funerary procession for the victims of Israel’s merciless and indiscriminate military assault on families of the Gaza Strip. Participants raised a coffin wrapped in the Palestinian national flag, while carrying placards bearing the images of the numerous children who have been killed in the Israeli attacks.
According to the Palestinian News Network, a group of children and youth from the camp led the march to the beat of a funeral drum.
Organized by the Youth Center of Aida, the demonstration saw several local leaders to be present, including Jibril al-Bakri, the former Minister of Detainees Issa Qaraqe, the secretary of the province of Bethlehem Mohammad al-Masri and Munther Amira, Chairman of the Popular Resistance Committees, along with several other institutional and civil representatives of Aida camp.
Beginning at 8 this morning, the event included the unveiling of a mural, painted in black and bearing the names of 264 children who have been killed in the recent attacks on Gaza over last three weeks.
The children added some of the missing names before proceeding with the march.
Palestinians are uniting in the face of colonial aggression, through mass community participation and involvement of all political factions all over the West Bank. Furthermore, the children of Palestine have been subjected to no less than what can be deemed a massacre, both in Aida refugee camp, in Bethlehem, and all over Palestine.
The event is but a small reflection of unified cohesion throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in this symbolic gesture of solidarity with the victims of Gaza.
