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Nakba Day: evidence of Syrian plan

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Fresh evidence has emerged that Syria organised last month's Nakba Day clashes on Israel's border.

Michael Weiss, the spokesman of media monitor Just Journalism, this week said he was forwarded a Syrian state document which details plans to dispatch 20 bus-loads of demonstrators to the border with Israel.

The document, which describes a meeting between Syria's chief of staff and military intelligence representatives from the province that borders Israel, gives "permission… for crowds to cross the ceasefire line towards the occupied Majdal-Shamms", and allows them "to engage physically with each other in front of United Nations agents".

Official Israeli sources would not comment on the document's content, authenticity or provenance, but did say that if the letter was indeed genuine, it confirmed what Israel already believes, that there has been a "Syrian guiding hand" behind the two attempts to cross the border fence over the past few weeks.

Senior IDF officers said that in both cases, "Syrian police just stood by and did not interfere when the protesters charged forward, even though they knew that it would be very dangerous for them."

Document details plans for 20 buses to transport protesters

May 15 was the first time in more than 37 years that the Syrians allowed any incursion of its borders with Israel.

One IDF general said: "Bashar al-Assad is cynically trying to divert the attention of the Arab world and the international media away from the disturbances within his own country by creating an incident here on the border."

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