Russian riot police fired tear gas and hit protesters with batons in Bashkortostan on Wednesday after a rights activist was sentenced to four years in a penal colony.

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The post Four people arrested after protests turn into riots in downtown Portland first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Saturday’s clashes were not the first of their kind. Above, antifa counter-protesters fought with far-right Patriot Prayer supporters during a march in Portland on June 3. – Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

What began in downtown Portland Saturday as a permitted march by the far-right group Patriot Prayer was quickly declared a riot and halted by police after altercations with anti-fascist counter-protesters escalated, with reports of projectiles causing several injuries.

Four people were taken to area hospitals by ambulance, one with a serious but not life-threatening injury and the other three with non-serious injuries. Additionally, a patrol vehicle escorted one police officer who experienced non-serious injuries to a hospital, according to a statement by the Portland police department.

Police arrested four individuals, though all were in connection to events prior to Saturday’s events.

Supporters of Patriot Prayer, led by its incendiary leader Joey Gibson, who is also running for a U.S. Senate seat in Washington state, began to assemble in parks along Third Avenue in downtown Portland early Saturday afternoon.

Far-left antifa protesters congregated in similar or greater numbers nearby.

The two groups lobbed insults at each other across a heavy law enforcement presence, clad in riot gear, there to keep the two sides apart and screen for weapons.

Portland Police @PortlandPolice

Officers have made probable cause arrests in today’s demonstration around Terry Schrunk Plaza and Chapman Square. Ofcs are also seizing weapons.

Around 6 p.m. local time, Patriot Prayer initiated its permitted march, working its way along Third Avenue. But projectiles quickly began flying. Police then cancelled the permit, used bullhorns to declare the situation a riot and deployed flash bangs and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.

Scott Bourque@sdbourque1

Portland police have officially declared a riot and are ordering people to leave immediately.

“We seized numerous weapons early on, and interceded and separated people when necessary. However, once projectiles, such as fireworks, eggs, rocks, bottles and construction equipment were thrown and people were injured, we ordered people to disperse,” Deputy Police Chief Bob Day said in a statement.

Portland police disputed rumors that they had used tear gas.

They also said the four arrests made were not in relation to Saturday’s protests, and all were connected to investigations that began in early June and, in one case, late May.

In its statement, the police department also said it is aware other “criminal behavior” was recorded that may include disorderly conduct, assault, theft, among other crimes. They encouraged tips and said there may be more arrests “at a later time.”

The Federal Protective Service, among the law enforcement present Saturday, shut down the Terry Schrunk Federal Plaza as local police declared a riot.

Portland Police @PortlandPolice

Police are now declaring this event a riot. People must leave the area immediately.

Before Saturday, Eugene Antifa, a far-left group, posted on Facebook its intention to stymie groups like Patriot Prayer. “It is very important that antifascists keep up the pressure so that we can stop them once and for all,” it wrote.

During the protests, one of the far-right protesters later arrested by police, Tusitala “Tiny” Toese told KGW that his commitment to his Patriot Prayer “family” was unflappable. “If I have to die next to my family, to my brothers and sister (sic), that’s standing up for freedom in America, I will have to,” he said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote last year that Patriot Prayer had “trolled the Northwest with a series of rallies designed to provoke violence.” The group was behind a rally in San Francisco last year that was cancelled before it took place, after many had anticipated violent clashes.

Saturday’s protests follow previous confrontations between Patriot Prayer and anti-fascist groups in Oregon’s largest city.

Earlier last month, a “goodbye party for a prominent conservative activist transformed into a clash between the left and the right,” according to the Portland Tribune.

Last year saw thousands skirmish in fights between Patriot Prayer and counter-protesters at a rally following a stabbing on public transportation after a man reportedly harassed a woman wearing a hijab, as NPR’s Maquita Peters reported.

Separate “Families Belong Together” protests — decrying the Trump administration’s now rescinded policy of separating families at the border — erupted in cities around the country Saturday. Another part of downtown Portland played host to one such rally Saturday.

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2018/07/01/625095869/police-declare-a-riot-after-far-right-and-antifa-groups-clash-in-portland

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The post Palestinians protests America’s Israeli embassy move first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

More than 35,000 protesters amassed at a dozen locations along the security fence, with many engaging in skirmishes that pushed the death toll Monday to the highest in Gaza since a 2014 cross-border standoff between the militant group Hamas and the Jewish state, according to the Associated Press.

Gaza health officials told the news agency that 52 people so far have been killed in Monday’s violence, and at least 1,200 have been wounded.

May 14, 2018: Palestinian medics and protesters evacuate a wounded man during a protest at the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel, east of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip.  (AP)

The relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv, a key campaign promise of President Trump, has infuriated the Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as a future capital.

“An IDF patrol foiled a bomb-laying attack by a cell of three armed terrorists near Rafah, close to the border,” the Israeli military said Monday. “This is a particularly violent protest point. The troops responded with fire at the terrorists. The terrorists were killed.”

Israel also said its aircraft targeted a Hamas post in Jabaliya after troops in the area came under fire. None of the Israeli soldiers were hurt. Later in the day, Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) said a fighter jet struck five Hamas military training facilities in northern Gaza.

“Rioters are hurling pipe bombs and firebombs at IDF troops, burning tires, throwing stones and burning objects, with the intention of setting fires in Israel and hurting IDF troops,” a member of the Israeli army was quoted by The Times of Israel as saying.

Footage posted online by the IDF purportedly showed Palestinians pressed up against the border fence throwing over objects that were on fire.

The demonstrations Monday — dubbed the “Great March of Return” by Palestinian media — are reported to be part of a campaign led by Hamas to break the decade-old border blockade of the territory imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007. Since weekly border marches began in late March, dozens of Palestinian protesters have been killed and more than 2,300 wounded in clashes.

Israel’s security service, Shin Bet, claimed Monday that Hamas is encouraging Palestinian civilians to flood the border, with their own gunmen waiting in the wings to break through if a fence is breached.

Shin Bet said it received that information during interrogations of members who already have been captured after crossing the security fence in recent weeks, The Times of Israel reported.

May 14, 2018: Palestinian protesters burn tires during a protest on the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel.  (AP)

“There is a prohibition for Hamas operatives to approach the border, from a fear that they will be killed or captured by IDF troops, unless the security fence falls and then they must enter, armed, into Israel under the cover of the masses and carry out terror attacks,” the agency said. “From the information we have, it appears Hamas is encouraging and sending protesters to the border fence in order to carry out violent acts and damage security infrastructure.”

Shin Bet also claimed that Iran is providing funding to Hamas for these border flare-ups, but did not elaborate.

A senior figure in the group, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., said Monday that the border protests will continue until Palestinians have won back their rights.

“We will continue on this path until the rights of the Palestinian people are achieved,” Ismail Radwan said, according to the Associated Press.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army had set up additional “layers” of security in and around communities near the border to defend Israeli civilians in case of a mass breach. He said there already had been several “significant attempts” to break through the fence.

“Even if the fence is breached, we will be able to protect Israeli civilians from attempts to massacre or kidnap or kill them,” he said.

In the West Bank, several thousand people gathered in the center of Ramallah, while hundreds marched to the Qalandiya crossing on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where protesters threw stones at Israeli troops.

The U.S. said it chose today’s date for the embassy opening to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment.

May 14, 2018: Palestinians clash with Israeli troops following a protest against the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.  (AP)

But it also marks the anniversary of what Palestinians call their “nakba,” or catastrophe, a reference to the uprooting of hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s independence.

Most of the casualties Monday were in the southern Gaza towns of Khan Younis and Rafah. Israeli forces were firing volleys of tear gas to disperse the crowds, and the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard. Sirens were constantly wailing as the wounded were evacuated on stretchers to nearby ambulances. Groups of young activists repeatedly approached the fence, but were quickly scattered by gunfire and tear gas.

In one of the border areas east of Gaza City, Mohammed Hamami, a 40-year-old civil servant, joined a crowd of hundreds of protesters, along with his mother and five children.

“Today we are here to send a message to Israel and its allies that we will never give up on our land,” he told the Associated Press.

Clouds of black smoke from burning tires was also seen rising into the air. Earlier Monday, Israeli drones dropping incendiary material had pre-emptively set ablaze some of the tires collected in advance by activists.

Protesters have used the thick smoke as cover against Israeli snipers perched on high sand berms on the other side of the border. The army accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to plan or carry out attacks.

Leaflets dropped over Gaza by army jets warned that those approaching the border “jeopardize” their lives. The warning said the army is “prepared to face all scenarios and will act against every attempt to damage the security fence or harm IDF soldiers or Israeli civilians.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/05/14/israel-says-three-armed-terrorists-among-52-reported-dead-in-gaza-border-clashes.html

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