Palestinians confront Israeli occupation on Land Day [Al Jazeera, Qatar]

Presenter, Female #1
On the 36th commemoration of Land Day, a Palestinian was martyred near the Beit Hanoun crossing by the gunfire of the occupation forces. Twenty others were injured during massive demonstrations held for the occasion. Marches were launched from the Gaza Strip and Arab countries towards the border to take part in the "Global March to Jerusalem," which was called for by Palestinian activists. Meanwhile, the Palestinian territories witnessed demonstrations in a number of areas, during which clashes broke out between Palestinian youths and Israeli occupation forces. At the military checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, dozens of youths threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded by firing tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the protestors. Clashes erupted shortly before a march planned from the Kalandia refugee camp towards the military checkpoint on the occasion of Land Day. The occupation's authorities imposed a complete military siege on the West Bank for 24 hours. Shirin Abu Aqla has the details.

Reporter, Female #2
The city of Jerusalem woke up to its constant siege. The world's attention was on the city, but the occupation's control of the city was stronger. Thousands of Israeli forces were deployed in the city, its surroundings, and its entrances on the occasion of Land Day. The Palestinian territories were completely sealed off for 24 hours. The fuse for the confrontations was quickly ignited. Male Jerusalemites under the age of 40 were prevented from entering the Old City to perform prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque. Occupation forces attacked Palestinian youths with their horses, batons, and tear gas. Some youths were injured, and a number of others were arrested by the Israeli occupation forces. Around the city of Jerusalem, the atmosphere was just as tense. At the Kalandia checkpoint that separates the city from the northern West Bank, hundreds of Palestinians gathered to participate in a centralized march. The march did not reach the military checkpoint. The occupation's forces mobilized hundreds of its members and confronted the march with tear gas and rubber bullets, causing additional injuries and asphyxiations.

Guest, Male #1 (Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian Legislative Council Member)
This is a great day for the rise of the Palestinian people's popular resistance. This is a day to strengthen the contemporary Palestinian revolution, the day that begins the Palestinian spring.

Guest, Female #3 (Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian Legislative Council Member)
Our message to the international community is that there are a people robbed of their land every day. There are pervasive settlements violating international law.

Reporter, Female #2
One of the familiar methods used to crack down on peaceful protests is "skunk" water cannons. Regardless of the different methods it uses, Israel is not able to suppress Palestinian protests since it continues to confiscate their land.

Guest, Male #2 (Poli Mordechai, Israeli Army Spokesman)
We are seeing fewer protests, and we hope we can completely get rid of them.

Reporter, Female #2
There are approximately 150 settlements in the West Bank, including Jerusalem. Nearly half a million settlers live there. Palestinians say they threaten the possibility of establishing the state they dream of. Yet another heated day in the life of the Palestinians, a day linked to this specific occasion. But, it should be known that 40 percent of the West Bank's land is threatened by the settlements and the separation wall, so even if the situation calms down, it remains ripe for an escalation. Shirin Abu Aqla, Al Jazeera, from the Kalandia checkpoint, north of occupied Jerusalem.

Presenter, Female #1
Protestors gathered at the Jordanian-Israeli border to mark Land Day. Palestinians living in Europe and other parts of the world took part in the demonstrations, as well as Jews from the Jews United Against Zionism movement. They demanded an end to Israeli occupation. Hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese also gathered in southern Lebanon to commemorate Land Day. Demonstrators rallied near the border with Israel in the village of Arnoun, raising Palestinian and Lebanese flags and chanting slogans against the Israeli occupation. The Tunisian capital saw protests after Friday prayers to commemorate Land Day. Protestors raised slogans expressing their support for the Palestinian people and condemning the occupation. They also demanded the criminalization of normalizing ties with Israel. Political groups and parties organized a rally in front of the Constituent Assembly in the Tunisian capital, demanding the implementation of a constitutional article that criminalizes any form of normalization with Israel.

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New Kadima head doesn't trust Netanyahu on Iran nuclear issue [IBA, Israel]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is keeping the threat of a nuclear Iran on the forefront in order to divert attention from pressing domestic socioeconomic problems, claims new Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz in a variety of media interviews since his primary election victory. Mofaz says he does not trust Netanyahu to competently handle the Iranian issue, adding that the prime minister is dealing with a matter much too publicly when it should be handled behind the scenes, and that a premature military operation would be disastrous and limited in its effectiveness.

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UK foreign policy chief stresses Iranian concessions key to easing sanctions [IBA, Israel]

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also addressed Iran during a speech on foreign policy in London. Hague said that Tehran should not doubt the determination of the major powers to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons. He simultaneously suggested that international sanctions would be eased if Iran makes concessions.

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Land Day turnout affected by Syrian crisis, media focus on Iran [IBA, Israel]

Joining IBA in the studio to discuss recent regional events is Bloomberg in Israel senior correspondent Calev Ben-David. On Land Day this year, there were no deaths, nothing similar to the events that took place on Nakba Day on May 2011 when the border was successfully breached. Can this Land Day be considered a victory for Israel?

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Pakistani lawmakers debate reopening NATO supply route [Press TV, Iran]

Pakistan's parliament has formally opened a debate on whether or not to reopen the supply line for the US-led troops in neighboring Afghanistan. The majority of lawmakers urged the government not to allow transportation of arms and ammunition. Some groups opposed the reopening of the supply line altogether. Others argued for only letting food items to be allowed through. Islamabad closed the supply line in November 2011 after a US air strike killed over two dozen Pakistani soldiers.

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Yemenis stage fresh anti-regime protests after Friday prayers [Press TV, Iran]

Protestors in Yemen have taken to the streets across the country after Friday prayers calling for freedom. The protestors also called for the government to sack all members of the government affiliated with the old regime, especially the relatives of deposed leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. The rallies were held in several cities, including the capital Sanaa and the southern city of Taiz.

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Amnesty International urges release of prominent Bahraini activist from jail [Press TV, Iran]

Human rights group Amnesty International has urged the government of Bahrain to release prominent activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. The rights group has warned al-Khawaja's life is in danger. He has been on hunger strike for over seven weeks and has lost 16 kilos since he stopped eating. Khawaja has been held since April 2011. He was jailed for organizing and participating in rallies against the regime.

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Hezbollah chief: 'dialogue in tandem with reform' keys to resolving Syrian crisis [Press TV, Iran]

The Secretary-General of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says dialogue in tandem with reform are the only ways forward to resolving the Syrian crisis. Seyyed Hassan al-Nasrallah said that Syria has already promised reform and dialogue, and that it's time for the opposition to take advantage of it. He also criticized the Arab League for completely ignoring the crisis in Bahrain at their summit in Baghdad.

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Syrian unrest tops talks between Clinton and Saudi king [Press TV, Iran]

Visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh. The unrest in Syria reportedly topped the agenda of the talks. This comes ahead of a meeting of anti-Syria countries in Istanbul on Sunday. Saudi Arabia and some other Arab states have joined efforts by Western countries to overthrow the Syrian government by arming opposition groups.

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Egypt's Ganzouri government to face vote of no confidence [Al-Alam, Iran]

Presenter, Female #1
The Egyptian People's Assembly is continuing the process of withdrawing confidence from Kamal el-Ganzouri's government due to its failure to solve the country's issues. The ruling military council held a meeting with party representatives to look into dissolving the government and forming a constituent committee to draft a new constitution for the country, after some of its members resigned and al-Azhar refused to participate in it.

Reporter, Male #1
It seems the crisis in Kamal el-Ganzouri's government is continuing. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party held a press conference to announce it will begin the process of withdrawing confidence from the government. The party denied the military council's threat to dissolve the People's Assembly if the Brotherhood's ministers insist on their demand to dissolve the government.

Guest, Male #2 (Osama Yassin, Youth Committee President)
We are not afraid of any threats, we do not accept the threats of dissolving parliament, and we do not work with the aim of gaining power or a position.

Guest, Male #3 (Hussein Ibrahim, Leader of the Majority Bloc)
All committees of the assembly discussed the government's program, and all 19 committees refused the government's program.

Guest, Male #4 (Khaled Mohamed, Freedom and Justice Party Representative)
We will not give the government a vote of confidence. If we do not, then the current political authority's duty is to dissolve that government. If it does not dissolve it, then it will be instigating crises that we cannot endure at this point.

Reporter, Male #1
It seems the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military council has reached an unprecedented level of tension in light of the fate of the Ganzouri government. This led the People's Assembly to hold an important session to respond to the government's latest statement. The answer to the government's statement was clear, as committees rejected it and pointed to the government's failure to manage the transitional period. Other representatives accused government ministers of taking money from private funds. This led some ministers to withdraw in a scene that expresses the real crisis between the both sides.

Guest, Male #5 (Ashraf Badr Eldin, Freedom and Justice Party Representative)
Tell us how much you take out of the private funds, tell us, tell us the number of these private funds. Sir, until this day, the government has still not announced the number of private funds or how much money they contain.

Guest Male #6 (Mohamed Attia, Local Development Minister)
The government does not take any money out of private funds. This is a false accusation, the government does not take any money out of private funds.

Guest Male #7 (Gamal al-Arabi, Minister of Education)
I challenge him. I will resign if he has any documents on me, if there is any proof that I took one penny from those funds.

Reporter, Male #1
Politically, and away from media outlets, the military council held a meeting with various political party representatives to reach an understanding on the dissolution of the government and the constitution's constituent committee. This, after a series of repeated resignations from the committee and al-Azhar's complete rejection to participate in that committee. Islam Abou el-Magd, Al-Alam, Cairo.

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France arrests 19 suspected Islamist militants in raids [BBC Arabic, UK]

Presenter, Female #1
French police have arrested 19 suspects to question them on their affiliation with Islamist radical groups. The suspects were arrested in several French cities, including Toulouse, where French police killed Mohamed Merah, who was accused of killing seven people. Following Merah's death, the Paris district attorney said investigations will focus "on the search for possible accomplices." President Sarkozy ordered police to evaluate the level of danger posed by those known to sympathize with radical Islamists.

Reporter, Male #1
The case of Mohamed Merah, who announced his affiliation with al-Qaeda, is still raising many questions over his motive to carry out a crime that claimed the lives of seven French citizens. The siege, which ended with Merah's death at his home in the southern city of Toulouse, didn't suspend the French authority's search for those described as "collaborators and accomplices to the crime." Arrest operations were launched across the country. French police said twenty people with a "radical Islamist background" have been arrested, adding that the arrests were not directly linked to Merah's case.

Guest, Male #2 (Khatar Abu Diyab, French Affairs Expert)
These detentions are not directly linked to Mohamed Merah's case, as confirmed a short while ago by a French security source. The raids targeted a group calling itself "Forsan al-Izza," or Knights of Pride, which was dismantled after its members called for disrespecting and burning the French penal code. The group also called for protecting women, who wear the niqab or full veil, and preventing police from harassing them. Weapons were seized from the group.

Reporter, Male #1
Agents from the French domestic intelligence agency's central command carried out the arrest campaign, with elite raid police units providing support in some cases. The arrests were concentrated in Toulouse and the Nantes region. The raids come one day after the burial of Mohamed Merah in the Muslim section of a cemetery in Toulouse, with the participation of thirty youths from his neighborhood and the absence of his family members. The burial caused anger among Toulouse's residents, who said burying a person with ties to al-Qaeda in their city is "inappropriate." However, amid the French president's intervention in the burial arrangement, the threats by Mohamed's father to sue the French state for killing his son, and the intensifying competition for the French presidential office, all sides seemed to be pursuing their own political interests, even if it comes at the expense of national security and humanitarian concerns.

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Annan calls for 'immediate' Syria ceasefire [New TV, Lebanon]

Presenter, Male #1
Deaths and injuries were reported following anti-regime protests on the Friday of "the Arabs and Muslims let us down" as clashes broke out in a number of areas in Syria. Meanwhile, UN-Arab League Envoy Kofi Annan asked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to immediately implement his plan.

Reporter, Female #1
Muslims and Arabs have let us down, but God is with us, and our resolve will bring victory. This was the slogan of this Friday's protests in Syria. Some were killed and injured, according to opposition sources. Participants in the protests chanted for the downfall of the regime, and condemned the initiative of the Arab summit in Baghdad. A demonstration was held in the Jubar neighborhood of Damascus. Security forces attempted to disperse the protest. Regime forces also dispersed demonstrations in al-Qadam neighborhood, as activists confirmed security forces clashed with protestors in the neighborhoods of al-Qadam and al-Maydan in the center of the capital. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and opposition websites, protests were held in some areas, while other regions witnessed fierce clashes between regime forces and members of the Free Syrian Army. Most notable clashes broke out in the towns of Duma, Harasta, Arbaeen, and al-Ghouta in the countryside of Damascus. Activists asserted a military checkpoint in central Arbaeen city was targeted, killing one soldier from the regime's forces and damaging a heavy military vehicle.

Reporter, Female #1
Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees reported violent clashes this morning in Gharb al-Mashtal district of Hama between the regime's army and the Free Syrian Army, as well as clashes in the Ghassan Abboud area of Deir az-Zour. In Damascus, the observatory confirmed that security and army forces stormed the neighborhood of Barza and carried out a raid campaign on houses surrounding the square, where protests are organized. The observatory reported the Syrian forces began a military campaign in the town of Jarjanaz in the countryside of Maarat al-Numaan in Idlib province. Meanwhile, opposition websites uploaded images asserting violent shelling is targeting the neighborhoods of Homs city, specifically Bostan al-Diwan, al-Hamidiya, al-Safsafa, Deir Ba'alaba, and Bab Tadmur. Politically, a spokesman for the international envoy said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should implement Annan's plan immediately. He said military operations continue on the ground, and that is causing great concern. He indicated the violations and killings should stop immediately.

Reporter, Female #1
This comes as the United States imposed sanctions on Syrian Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, and two senior officers in the Syrian army, Munir Adanov and Zuhayr Shalish. The sanctions include freezing their assets and barring Americans from doing business with them. At the same time, representatives of a number of countries are meeting on Sunday in Turkey for the "Friends of Syria" conference to increase the pressure on Damascus and push it to adhere to Annan's plan to end the violence. It is expected for 17 countries to participate, including the US, but excluding China and Russia, to determine measures that guarantee the regime will not withdraw from its commitment to the plan President al-Assad agreed to.

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Syrian soldiers raid Lebanese border town [Future TV, Lebanon]

Presenter, Female #1
Residents of the town of al-Qaa in the Beqaa Valley appealed to the Lebanese government not to distance itself from their lives and their properties.

Reporter, Female #2
Nearly 24 hours later, the Radi family returned to their house in Mashari'a al-Qaa after having been displaced, and this is what they found. It looks as though war passed through here, while it hadn't. A few soldiers from the Syrian forces penetrated the Lebanese territory. They opened fire and launched rocket-propelled grenades at an opponent that remains unknown.

Guest, Male #1
The Syrian army entered our homes and started to fire mortar shells, and they fired at the homes and damaged them. They displaced us from our homes; we fled, we ran away.

Reporter, Female #2
They entered dozens of houses and damaged them. Their humanity did not prevent them from destroying a room that housed Syrian refugees, or a vehicle carrying wounded Syrians to Lebanon for treatment. They stole whatever they were able to steal, and destroyed whatever their hands and rifles could reach. They even stole water pipes and threw them in the garden.

Reporter, Female #2
Cautious calm dominates the scene, while citizens continue to live in fear. These residents were forcibly displaced to surrounding groves and their relatives' homes. Their resentment is mostly directed at the Lebanese government, and the question, "Where is the government?" is no longer a satirical saying.

Guest, Male #2
The Syrian army entered 500 meters into the Lebanese territory. If they have a revolution, if they have a revolution, then Syrians must work on it between each other. We, the Lebanese, can only provide humanitarian aid, nothing else. Humanitarian work is our duty, but that's it. I tell you, the situation is extremely tragic, tragic, because of the shelling and the arbitrary gunfire. So we had to flee because we're near the border, while we're inside Lebanon.

Reporter, Female #2
Assad's brigades, who have not found anyone to deter them from undermining Lebanon's sovereignty, felt no shame to occupy some houses, which were used by snipers to control the entire area. Even fleeing to Lebanon is no longer safe. For these refugees staying in shelters that lack life's most basic necessities, security has become increasingly elusive. They turn their faces away from the camera, while their children still have tiny hopes and dreams because of their youth.

Guest, Male #3
We ran away from death and we came here. It's better than dying in Syria.

Reporter, Female #2
When are you returning to Syria?

Guest, Male #3
When the situation is calm.

Reporter, Female #2
Here, a rocket fell. And here, Russian-produced shrapnel. And at this exact spot, the Lebanese government is completely absent. The residents of these villages call them "the empty quarters," because those who are supposed to guard and guarantee their security are nowhere to be seen. These bullets refute claims made by those who deny Lebanese sovereignty was undermined, sovereignty that is now based on a mere opinion. When sovereignty is breached in the south, wars break out; once it's breached in the north and east, denial is the response. From the border town al-Qaa, Darine al-Hilweh, Future TV.