Israeli security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to break up groups of Palestinian stone-throwers on Friday as annual Land Day rallies turned violent.

Palestinian activists have called for a "Global March to Jerusalem" to mark the day when Israeli Arabs protest against government policies that they say has stripped them of land.

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Arab news channel Al Jazeera reported in a live blog on its website that the Israeli army was "pushing protesters back towards Ramallah with the use of tear gas and water cannons".

It also reported that there are close to 1,000 protestors gathered in Ramallah.

Israeli forces were put on high alert at frontier crossings with Lebanon and Syria but there were no reports of any protesters nearing the border fences, unlike last year when several demonstrators were killed there in Land Day protests.

PhotoBlog: Violence on Land Day as Israeli forces and Palestinians clash

However, violence flared at checkpoints in the occupied West Bank to the north and south of Jerusalem. Witnesses also reported disturbances at gates leading into the Old City, with police looking to limit access to the revered al-Aqsa Mosque.

A Reuters reporter saw two men being carried away injured after scuffles at Jerusalem's Lions' Gate, while police said they had made several arrests at the nearby Damascus Gate.

Jerusalem is a focal point of conflict, as Palestinians want the city's eastern sector, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, as capital of a future state. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem as part of its capital and insists the city remain united.

"We are determined to march together toward Jerusalem, and hopefully we will break through and reach it," said a masked youth, calling himself Rimawi, as he faced off against soldiers in the West Bank city Ramallah, a short distance from Jerusalem.

Flag-waving crowds neared the Qalandiya crossing out of Ramallah, some of them hurling stones at the security forces, but were forced back when border police sprayed them with foul-smelling liquid from a water cannon.

Land Day commemorates the killing by security forces of six Arabs in 1976 during protests against government plans to confiscate land in northern Israel's Galilee region.

Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's total population. Many complain of discrimination. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently called for improved efforts to integrate Arab citizens into Israel's work force.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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Activists inside Syria are being forced to leave the country as violence intensifies in the ninth month of anti-government protests.

Rima Flihan is an activist who left behind two children and her career after she received death threats following her release from a Syrian police station.

Flihan said she was near al-Hassan mosque in the al-Midan neighborhood of Damascus when she and nine other young female activists were detained in mid-July for protesting without permits.

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“We laughed, we cried, and shared our fears and hopes together,” Flihan told NBC News in an email about her time in detention.
 
She said she remembered meeting one of the other detained women months earlier at a demonstration on Syria’s Independence Day, April 17. They were reunited when they were arrested and detained for four days in July.
 
Flihan said she met up with other activists on the day of her release and encouraged them to continue the fight. Part of her talk was recorded on this YouTube clip she shared with NBC News. She is the woman speaking with the white shirt and microphone.

The U.N.’s top human rights official said last week that her office estimates that more than 4,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March.

Flihan fled the country in September for Jordan after she said she was threatened by government security forces and left her children in the care of her family still there.
 
Even though Flihan is no longer in the country, she said she remains in touch with many of the activists she demonstrated with through social media daily, and encourages her friends she met at demonstrations inside the country to continue protesting.

Flihan said she hopes to return when she feels her life is no longer under threat.
 
“I dream to go on a trip with my activist friends to all of the troubled spots in Syria and light a candle and celebrate freedom, and build our country in a different way,” Flihan said in an email.
 
A familiar name to the theater community in Damascus, Flihan worked as a theater writer and wrote two Syrian dramas.

Two years ago, she created a popular Syrian television drama called “Qoloob Saghirah” or “Small Hearts” that uncovered what she called were injustices in the region to spark discussions and debate surrounding issues of organ trafficking, homelessness, and women’s rights.
 
It’s rare that we hear of the stories of Syrian female activists. Flihan, whose father was an army officer who was imprisoned for his political views against the civilian killings in the Syrian town of Hama in 1982, said she wanted to share her story with NBC News to highlight the women of the revolution.

You can follow Rima Abdelkader on Twitter at: twitter.com/rimakader

NBC News’ Correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin answered reader questions about Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s death and what it means for Libya and the region.

Mohyeldin covered the Middle East for several years as a correspondent for Al Jazeera. He reported extensively on the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia. He has spent time reporting from Libya and interviewed Gadhafi several years ago.

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Readers asked him questions about what Gadhafi’s death means for the Middle East? How his death will reverberate across the region and affect the other countries still revolting against authoritarian regimes, like in Syria, or trying to sort out what democracy means, like in Egypt.

Click below to replay the chat.

 

 

By NBC News’ Lubna Hussain 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – One week after the planned “Day of Rage” didn’t materialize on the streets of Saudi Arabia’s main cities, the police had to deal with a different kind of “demonstration” in the kingdom’s capital.

The youth of the kingdom, draped in green and white flags and clutching poster-sized portraits of their king, poured into the streets Friday in a show of solidarity and support for his rule.

Earlier in the day, the 86-year-old ruler of this deeply conservative oil-rich kingdom had announced a series of measures to boost welfare benefits, create more jobs, build new housing, improve healthcare and establish a new agency to tackle corruption – at a cost of $93 billion.  

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Many cynics dismissed these initiatives as a cosmetic glossing over of the real problems that exist within Saudi society. With unemployment estimated to be above 10 percent and a burgeoning youth population, the median age is 25, the country faces serious challenges.  

But as one senior Saudi official put it on Monday, the reform package “could buy us the time we need before any serious political reforms are implemented.”

Unlike elsewhere in the region, Saudi Arabia has the economic clout to be able carry out its promise of pouring billions of dollars into public projects, at least for the foreseeable future. With the price of oil at more than $100 per barrel, even a $93 billion series of initiatives is affordable for this oil-rich nation.

Soft power of the king
But what distinguishes the kingdom from other countries, asides from its impressive oil reserves, and what most so-called “Saudi experts” consistently underestimate and have failed to fathom, is the soft power of the king himself.

“I love my King Abdullah!” shouted 18-year-old Thamer Al Said, when asked why he was out on the streets with his friends. “All the people love him because he is a great man and he loves his people,” he continued, raising a picture of the king high above his head.

His sentiments were echoed by many on Riyadh’s streets Friday. Cars were spray-painted green and white and some owners had even gone as far as to have pictures of the king etched onto their rear windows. Stereos blared patriotic songs lauding the attributes of King Abdullah: “We love you, father of the nation. May Allah Bless you with a long life!”

Mohammed Al Harthy, a computer engineer who has been unemployed for two years had mixed feelings about the decrees. “I know that our government is trying its best to help the people, but life here is very expensive these days and it’s very hard when you don’t have a job after studying all these years. I want to work. I don’t want to have to accept charity from anyone.”

So did he think that regime change was the solution?

“I think everybody here loves the king and you know, we all believe in him. We have a lot of problems, like anywhere else, but we want to find our own solutions. What King Abdullah has done is a great step, but there are lots of things that need to change. We don’t want our king to change, but we want him to make the changes that we need.”

By Jim Maceda, NBC News correspondent

You have a lot of time to daydream when you’re stuck in a Tripoli hotel lobby with 130 other foreign journalists, all squeezed together, waiting for The Leader to pass through a revolving glass door. Eight hours after a red carpet was laid outside that door – and with still no sign of Colonel Moammar Gadhafi – I began to imagine that we had passed through to the very weird side of the Looking Glass, where things are never as they should be.

Here we were, shooting video of each other with our cell phone cameras – some even streaming the live pictures back to their network HQs. After midnight, the Leader did, finally, arrive, pumping his fists in the air – did he think we were supporters at one of his pep rallies? – as the press scrum tried to move with him. He darted into a curtained room surrounded by his bouncers – all male this time – where he took questions from French and Turkish TV reporters. An hour later – that’s nine hours since the news that The Leader was coming to the Rixos Hotel to make a statement – he left by a back door, unseen by any waiting journalists. We didn’t even merit a goodbye fist pump.

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All this time, less than 30 miles away, hundreds of anti-Gadhafi rebels were holed up in the center of a town called Zawiya. Despite several days of withering attacks by tanks, artillery and airstrikes, dozens of casualties and dwindling supplies, these Libyans were determined to fight to the last man for their freedom. This was the Libyan Alamo. But instead of covering THAT, we’d been corralled into a kind of captive, red-carpet press gaggle.

We’d been invited by the Libyan government to take our crews and "go wherever we want, shoot whatever we want." In doing so, said our Libyan handlers, we would quickly see through the lies of the "foreign media" (which means Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyya TV). We would soon understand that there is no pro-democracy movement or protest in Libya, no power struggle and no internal problems – just a series of "destabilizing incidents" carried out by al-Qaida operatives and organized by Israel.

What we came to understand, however, was that "wherever we wanted" to go meant only within the locked-down capital of Tripoli, well within a bubble of disinformation, and always with a government minder. So, on a Friday, after prayers, when we asked to be taken to Green Square or Algeria Square with a mosque where we might see "Day of Rage" protests, we were taken instead in a large bus along the coastal road, heading east and AWAY from any potential protests. "Why are you taking us out of town?" one of our Arabic speakers asked the chief minder. "Well, because we thought you’d like to go on a tour of the city when there’s no traffic!" he replied.

Organized bus trips – we call them Magical Mystery Tours - didn’t survive beyond the first week. And here’s why – word was out that pro-Gadhafi forces had retaken Zawiya. So we headed out, one Saturday, in a caravan of mini-vans and SUVs, passing checkpoint after checkpoint, until we got to the last checkpoint, about a mile outside Zawiya, where our minders said, "You’re on your own from here – don’t move quickly, or they’ll shoot you. But they know you’re coming’. We advanced slowly, wondering why pro-Gadhafi forces would shoot the people who had come to film the retaking of the town. What we soon found were several thousand people packed in Zawiyah’s central square, calling for the end of the Gadhafi regime, protected by soldiers sitting on tanks – who had just defected to the rebel side. What we ran into was the fall of Zawiya … to the opposition. Since that embarrassment (for the Gadhafi regime), each day since has begun with a proposed trip to Zawiya – based on some source that forces loyal to the regime had retaken it. We stand outside the revolving – or looking – glass door, next to the vehicles, and wait for our security clearance. It never comes.

Today was no different. With the sun already setting, we were all summoned to depart…for Zawiya. Some of us asked why go so late, and take the risk of negotiating heavily armed checkpoints in the dark. "Zawiyah has been liberated! Our people are victorious!" was the reply. Sure enough, on the Libyan State TV channel playing out continuously on a large flat screen in the lobby, people were dancing and chanting pro-Gadhafi slogans in a pleasant, green park. The scrawl across the images said this was a "March of Coherence" with the people of Libya, taking place in Zawiya. But our sources were saying that half of the city of 300,000 had been destroyed by airstrikes, and what was left was a war zone.

We’d never get to see the "March of Coherence" with our own eyes. Just as our long caravan was about to pull out of the hotel parking lot, the trip was canceled. Yes, Zawiya was free, but the minister of oil was heading to our hotel, to explain who actually blew up a pipeline and storage tank on the eastern front, earlier in the day. Zawiya would have to wait. So we collected our bags, cameras and flak jackets, passed through the revolving glass door and returned to our weird world where nothing is quite right. Late tonight we learned that Martyr’s Square, in the center of Zawiya, was back in rebel hands.

Jim Maceda is an NBC News correspondent, based in London, currently on assignment in Libya.

Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, which is situated in the oil-rich eastern region, is currently controlled by rebel forces trying to oust Moammar Gadhafi. NBC News’ correspondent Stephanie Gosk has been there for several days and reports on the latest developments in Gadhafi’s efforts to clamp down on the rebellion and take back control of some of the countries strategic oil assets.

What is the latest in Benghazi?
Gadhafi struck back at the eastern portion of this country today for the first time since the opposition took control of it just over a week ago. He first hit the town of Brega, which is a major oil-exporting terminal. 

At first Gadhafi’s forces, which are estimated to be around 50 vehicles with mounted machine guns, took the opposition forces by surprise. It seems they quickly took over the oil facility. But then rebel forces struck back and they have been in a back-and-forth battle today. It’s unclear who has real control of the town. We are being told that the rebels have the airstrip and that Gadhafi forces are at the university, and that the battle is still ongoing.

It’s close to the town of Ajdabiya, which is really the western front for the opposition, which now controls almost the entire eastern half of the country.

Today, Gadhafi fighter jets actually bombed areas there.  A munitions dump has now been hit several days in a row, with limited success. People in that town are concerned that if Gadhafi forces take over Brega, they will then move on to Ajdabiya, with their eye on the city of Benghazi.

For several days here they have been setting up a kind of interim national government – which people here say is the only legitimate government until Gadhafi steps down. 

Today there have been discussions among the government council here on whether or not to ask the U.N. for a no-fly zone. Or whether to ask for something more specific – perhaps targeted assaults from the air on Gadhafi forces.

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How much attention is focused on control of the oil fields?
It’s a huge concern. Earlier in the week, the rebel forces here in Benghazi claimed that they controlled 80 percent of the oil resources – most of which are in the eastern part of the country.

Now what we are seeing is Gadhafi striking back and trying to take control of those. He made a statement today to state TV where he said that all of the resources were safe and secure. However, the opposition says that they control the oil terminal in Tobruk, which is close to the Egyptian border and is one of the largest oil terminals. And they say that they have declared their independence from the state oil company and that they are now funneling the proceeds they get back to the opposition.

So there is now a real struggle back and forth over who controls the oil resources. We are getting two very different stories from each side.

How is it to be reporting there? It is a different situation from Tripoli where reporters’ movements are restricted by Gadhafi’s government minders, but how is it in terms of your safety and your access?   
It’s been very easy getting around here. The rebel forces are incredibly welcoming – they want to tell their story. It is the only real voice that we hear. We don’t hear any pro-Gadhafi voices in this town. That doesn’t mean they aren’t here. It’s just that they are not speaking out – probably because they are afraid to speak out.

As far as moving around, the checkpoints in this part of the country are all manned by rebel forces and they have been very welcoming to the press. Reporters have been moving down to Ajdabiya, and even Brega, to check out the fighting there for themselves. So there has been, at least in this round of attacks, first-hand reporting from people on the ground.

What is daily life like for people in Benghazi?  Is it safe to go out on the streets?  Are shops shuttered?
They are doing their best to get things back up and running. It is functioning pretty normally. There is traffic here during rush hour times, shops are open. It certainly isn’t completely back to normal. At the courthouse – which was really the epicenter of the protests – you have this new government forming itself. It’s also become the place where every late afternoon and evening people gather to show their support for Tripoli and the rebel forces there.

You also have a movement here to recruit young fighters. There are an estimated 5,000 new conscripts to the rebel army that are going to be armed and trained. Most of them have never fought in a military before or even touched a gun. So these are not experienced fighting forces and they are going up against Gadhafi’s well trained brigades and militias. 

How are the spirits of the opposition when Gadhafi says things like he will “fight to the death?” Are they getting discouraged or scared? 
People here feel very confident. I think that’s because the city fell as fast as it did and they seized control of it as quickly as they did. They now have what they call their first taste of freedom and they are not willing to give it up without a fight. And they don’t think they are going to have to.

One thing that seriously concerns them though is the possibility of the city being struck by fighter jets. They really have very little defense against that. There are some anti-aircraft guns in certain places around the city, but they aren’t being operated by people who really know what they are doing and will be unable to fight back against any kind of air attack.

They are concerned about that and that’s why they are discussing asking for a no-fly zone, which is seriously being  considered by the international community. It would be one surefire way to protect civilians on the ground here. 

But ultimately people here believe Gadhafi is going to go – it’s just a matter of time. 

What is their hesitation about asking for a no-fly zone?
People here are very uneasy about any kind of international intervention – specifically Western intervention, specifically United States intervention. And the idea that there could perhaps be U.S. forces on the ground is something most people here are vehemently opposed to. Many like the idea of a no-fly zone because it would protect them from air attacks, but they really don’t want to see boots on the ground.

They do talk about potential logistical support and perhaps even supply support for the military, including weapons and things.  

In Egypt there is a big concern that Islamist forces could seize power in former President Hosni Mubarak’s absence.  If Gadhafi were to eventually leave, are there concerns about Islamist forces stepping into the power vacuum there? 
You don’t get the sense that there is going to be an Islamist group that can take advantage of the current situation. You certainly don’t get that sense from the people who are control here in Benghazi.

This is a tribal country – it is made up of about a dozen tribes.  There certainly are Islamist influences in some, but it is not the dominant force in the politics here. It is much more regional and tribal than it is religious.

But the fact that there could be a power vacuum does seem like a possibility. Basically, during the last 40 years, Gadhafi has completely eliminated any form of civil society. No political parties, no municipal governments, no ability to really form any kind of independent party. So the people here really don’t know how to do that. So that’s going to be difficult. They are going to have to start from scratch. 

What about the problem of refugees? Are you seeing a lot of people trying to flee Benghazi? 
In Libya there is an enormous migrant worker population. They come in from all over – the largest population comes from Egypt, but there are also workers from the Philippines, Bangladesh, China. Getting those workers out of the country has been extremely difficult. Here in Benghazi there is still quite a large group that is struggling. There are only so many ferries a day that come in and can take people away. 

Then on the Tunisian border, you see a lot of Egyptian workers escaping through that border and then finding themselves on the other side of where they want to be and needing transportation. 

But a lot of the migrant workers are very poor. They don’t have much money and are literally just carrying blankets and pick-axes and shovels. They are manual laborers. And they don’t have much support. We saw them on our way into Libya from Egypt, stopped at the border. Some of them don’t have their passports because their companies are based in Tripoli and they have been sent out to the east to do work and the companies have held onto their passports. So they are stuck in a limbo between Libya and Egypt. 

Related link:

The two faces of Gadhafi's right-hand man

NBC News producer Yonatan Pomrenze has been reporting from Tripoli since the weekend. He was part of the group of foreign journalists allowed into the country by Moamar Gadhafi’s government ostensibly to show the government’s side of the story. In a phone interview from Tripoli, he reported on what is going on in the embattled capital.

What is the scene like in Tripoli? Is it like a war zone? Are the shops shuttered?
Since we arrived, most of the city actually looks more open. The first day when we drove around, we saw very few people on the streets and not even that many cars. Most people who we did see were lined up outside banks, trying to take out money. Or outside electronic stores, adding money to their cell phone cards.

But during the past two days, we’ve seen more cars out and more people out – but still very long lines at the banks.

In the parts of the city we’ve seen, it feels tense, but calm. You don’t see a war zone happening. 

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Can you see evidence of violence on the streets?
Not in the center of Tripoli. Driving around the center, you don’t see it. We did see a few areas where we saw freshly painted walls – which some people said might have been anti-Gadhafi graffiti that had been painted over. But driving around the city center, we were lead to believe it is still very well under Gadhafi control. You don’t see at a lot of evidence of violence. Even the protests that happened at the beginning of the unrest, they have had time to fix or paint over anything that may have happened back then. The center is well under Gadhafi’s control.

What is interesting is how close areas of the anti-Gadhafi movement are to Tripoli. For instance, Zawiyah, which is only 30 miles west of Tripoli, is held by opposition forces.  

    

How were you allowed into Tripoli?
When the government decided they wanted to allow journalists in, we were in Tunisia, near the Libyan border, and were told that our names were on the approved list for journalists. We rushed to Tunis to catch the plane out and were met by government officials when we arrived in Tripoli. We were given visas, they arranged cars for us, gave us government minders, and they took us out of the airport.

The first hotel we went to was bizarre – it was like a ghost town. It’s a huge towering hotel, with a cavernous lobby and when we walked in there was almost no one in there. Most foreign staff had left, trying to get back to their home countries. Only the Libyan staff remained and a lot of them are living in the hotel. Besides for that, there was almost no one in the hotel.

Eventually we moved to the main hotel where most of the journalists are staying.

What about the freedom of movement for reporters? Do you have a government minder with you all the time?
Basically, yes. But it’s very chaotic, they don’t really have a central plan for us. Every day we sort of congregate in the lobby of the hotel. They tell us what they plan on showing you that day – but obviously what they think is important is not always what we want to see.  So there is a back and forth. Then they have an organized convoy go out.  On the side, you can try to grab a minder and a vehicle to go off somewhere else.

But the problem is that we really need the minders to get around. There are checkpoints as soon as you try to go outside the city-center that are controlled by pro-Gadhafi forces – so it’s risky to go through the checkpoints without a government minder. On our drive to Zawiyah, we went through probably five or six checkpoints.  Since we had the government minders with us, it gave us more freedom and less risk, but then we  also have to take everything with a grain of salt because of what they will show you and what they won’t show you. 

But the minders have been saying, “We are here and want to show you everything.”  And the trip to Zawiyah was the most surreal thing. We were sure we were being brought there so they could show us that there are no problems in Zawiyah – that the government really was in control – but what we saw was the exact opposite. We saw how the anti-Gadhafi movement was in charge in this area. 

Before we reached the center of town, we stopped near a roadblock and all of a sudden our minders said, “OK, there are guys with guns up there, you go up there. We’ve spoken to them and told them you are press – so it’s OK.” We only realized as we got closer that it was the opposition.

As we started to walk toward them, we heard shots ring out. So a few of us, myself included, jumped for cover.  Then some of the local people said, “No, no, no – these are welcoming shots! We are trying to welcome you!”  I told them I prefer a handshake, but…

The protesters were very happy to see foreign press. Everyone rushed up and was eager to tell us they had video of the violence here, video of when Gadhafi forces attacked them there. Some 60-year-old man dressed in very traditional garb took out his cell phone and kept saying to me “Bluetooth, Bluetooth” because he wanted to transmit the video to my phone. We were actually able to use the video in our Nightly News spot Sunday night.  They very much wanted to get the word out about the violence against their protests and they wanted to try to facilitate it as much as they could.

Then we crossed the no-man’s land of the roadblock back to our minders and they took us off to a pro-Gadhafi protest. So it was very bizarre to have them facilitate that.

But they said it was because we want you to see the truth, we want you to see both sides.

One minder said to us, “Listen, I’m neutral. I speak English and someone asked me to help out. So I came to help out. I want you to see the truth and this is the truth and the pro-Gadhafi protest is the truth. So we want you to see everything.”

Have you seen or met any pro-Gadhafi supporters? Were they paid by the government?
The pro-Gadhafi protests that we have seen did seem much more organized. There were people singing songs and women and children. They clearly had a lot of energy because when we left, they also got into cars and followed us for a couple miles – honking, ten people packed into a car and sitting on top of the car. So they clearly had a lot of enthusiasm. I didn’t get an opportunity to ask them if they were paid or not.

But a colleague of mine was at another pro-Gadhafi protest and he was talking to one person who was saying all these amazing things about Gadhafi. Then at the end of the interview, the reporter asked him, “were you paid?” The person replied with a big smile, “Yes, I was paid to say this.”

What is the situation with people trying to leave Tripoli?  
When we landed at the airport, we could see how chaotic the place had been. On the ramps as you walk into the airport, there was garbage everywhere.

As we walked in, we passed one of the last U.K. chartered flights on its way out. Then once we came out of the airport, there was just a sea of people trying to get out. We later heard reports that there were up to 30,000 people trying to leave. It looked mostly like Asians and other North Africans – Libyans, Egyptians, mostly probably contract workers trying to get out. There were people waiting with a luggage cart, as if they are on line, but there were a thousand people in front of them, a thousand people to the their left and right and they had no place to go.

Our government minder, I guess he wanted to put some sort of positive spin on it, said “we are bringing them free water.”