Israel asks Lebanon to keep protest from border

Israel has asked Lebanon, via intermediaries, to prevent Land Day protests from reaching its border, Haaretz reported Monday, adding that the Jewish state suspects Iranian involvement in the planned march. The newspaper also said that the forum of “eight senior cabinet ministers will consider security preparations in Israel and the [occupied] West Bank when they meet [Monday].” The Lebanese branch of the Global March to Jerusalem announced last week that the march would not go to the Israeli-Lebanese border as planned but would instead head to Beaufort Castle, east of Nabatieh, south Lebanon. Last spring, the Israeli army killed around 10 Palestinians and wounded nearly 100 more when protesters split off from the route of a Nakba Day march and rushed to the border at Maroun al-Ras. Land Day has been commemorated on March 30 since 1976, when Palestinian protests against planned Israeli land confiscations were met by violent crackdowns. Haaretz also reported that Israeli authorities collected evidence pointing to “high-level Iranian involvement in planning the protests in Lebanon.” It referred to a visit to the Lebanese-Israeli border by an adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In mid-March, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, press adviser to Ahmadinejad, visited several Lebanese border villages with Israel. “Ahmadinejad met in Tehran recently with a large group of activists that is expected to participate in the events near the border,” the paper said. Participants have been registering their names in person at points inside Palestinian refugee camps, or online. One Shatila-based march organiser, Rima Dawood, told Lebanon's The Daily Star last week that it was not yet clear how many people would take part in Lebanon, but she expected as many as 30,000.