JERUSALEM (JTA) — Syria’s government orchestrated the infiltration of Israel’s northern border by hundreds of Palestinians, a British newspaper reported.
Michael Weiss, blogging on The Daily Telegraph website, reported that he had been forwarded "what appear to be Syrian state documents" leaked by the governor of al-Qunaitera, in southwest Syria.
The documents, Weiss writes, show that the Assad regime "fully orchestrated" the May 15 Nakba Day border infiltration by Palestinians from Syria.
According to one document, the regime ordered 20 buses to cross the border into Majdal-Shams in the Golan Heights to set up a clash between the Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, thus shifting international attention from the Syrian revolution.
One document calls on the group of buses to "infiltrate deep into the occupied Syrian Golan Heights" and orders all military people accompanying the buses not to carry their military identifications in order to keep "a strict emphasis on the peaceful and spontaneous nature of the protest."
Weiss, spokesman of Just Journalism, which monitors the British media’s coverage of Israel and the Middle East, wrote that he believes the documents are genuine. A photo of one of the documents is posted with his blog post.
As many as four Syrian protesters and up to 10 Lebanese protesters were killed during the infiltration attempts on Nakba Day, or Catastrophe Day, marking Israel’s achieving statehood.
