Gaza and the ‘Great March of Return’
Wikimedia Commons/gloucester2gaza
By Ron Forthofer | Boulder Weekly | August 2, 2018
The illegal Israel blockade of Gaza begun in 2007 and the three major Israeli attacks on Gaza since then have created a living hell for Palestinians there. In 2006, before the siege was implemented, Dov Weisglass, senior advisor to then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the goal for Gaza was “to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”
Despite Israeli claims, Gaza is an occupied territory and, in actuality, Palestinians and their leadership have little control over their lives. For example, Israel, abetted by Egypt, controls all of Gaza’s borders and determines what and who may or may not enter the area. Israel’s control has turned Gaza into what many call the “largest open-air prison in the world” while others call it a concentration camp.
Making matters worse, the two major Palestinian groups, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, have been at odds for years and their in-fighting adds to the incredible hardships Gazans face.
In 2012, the UN issued a report saying that Gaza would be unlivable by 2020. In 2017, the group Save the Children said it considered Gaza to be unlivable then. Among the many things it cited are:
- Gaza struggling with just two to four hours of electricity per day.
- 741 schools struggling to function without electricity.
- Breakdown of health and emergency services putting children’s lives at risk.
- Water-borne diseases increasing because of power shortages.
- Environmental disaster due to untreated sewage.
- Children unable to sleep, study or play.
With the above background, let’s now consider the Palestinian ‘Great March of Return’. This march is a grassroots-led and mainly peaceful effort despite the media’s attempt to portray it as a cynical and violent Hamas ploy.
The media coverage, besides being biased, is also incomplete in that it seldom considers the reasons that led Gazans to participate in this resistance action and to return week after week. Generally, as shown above, Palestinians in Gaza face dire living conditions. In addition, many have lost confidence in the Palestinian leadership that has been unable to bring about relief. Thus the grassroots are organizing and acting. In particular, Palestinians are:
1) protesting the illegal Israeli siege that will likely bring about the ethnic cleansing of Gaza;
2) standing up for their internationally recognized right of return to their former homes or for compensation for their losses; and
3) protesting the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem.
The Israeli reaction to this mainly peaceful march was to have well-protected snipers firing from long range into crowds and even at people away from the protest. The media desperately tried to justify this reaction.
Only one side was shooting and killing/wounding large numbers of people. Some Palestinians, against the stated desire of the grassroots organizers, have thrown rocks or flown burning kites over the fence setting some fields on fire.
To date, the Israeli snipers have killed 136 Palestinians including women, children, press, doctors and nurses and wounded over 14,000 whereas one Israeli soldier was slightly wounded when hit by a rock.
Unfortunately, perhaps these killings could have been or were foreseen. For example, in 2004, Arnon Soffer, a Haifa University demographer and advisor to Ariel Sharon, said: “when 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. … The pressure at the border will be awful. … So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day….If we don’t kill, we will cease to exist.”
This abominable Israeli behavior towards Palestinians will continue as long as the US provides political cover at the UN, vetoing resolutions that would impose any penalties on Israel for its crimes. The most effective current approach for changing Israeli behavior is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.
Israel falsely claims that BDS is anti-Semitic and that BDS is also challenging its legitimacy. Unfortunately, similar to this false claim, the anti-Semitic charge has been so abused, like the boy who cried wolf, that there is an increased risk many will ignore the claim even in cases when the charge is actually warranted.
Regarding Israel’s legitimacy, it is Israel’s own brutal and illegal policies that are delegitimizing it. Support BDS to change this intolerable situation.
– Ron Forthofer, Ph.D. is a retired professor of biostatistics and an activist with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Boulder, CO.
No comments yet.
Featured Video
Yemen joins the war – Red Sea could be blocked next – Saudi regime at risk
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
A superpower and “the world’s sickest warrior state”
By Paul J. Balles | March 8, 2010
Living through five or six major wars has hardened me to what I thought were the extremes of inhuman cruelty and brutality.
Two things made those extremes almost bearable: the brutality always revealed – at least according to the media coverage – the viciousness of the enemy. It was therefore quite understandable when our “brave men and women” pulverized the enemy.
Films of Japanese torturing captive Americans somehow justified holding Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II; and only a small percentage of Americans found the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki unreasonably vengeful at best, at worst, depraved.
The media giants in America portrayed the North Koreans as barbaric beasts with their captives, quite unlike their southern counterpoints – our allies during the Korean War. No one ever felt the need to explain how the South Koreans were a civilized breed while the North Koreans were absolute savages, at least according to the official line.
In Vietnam, our warriors justifiably (or so the media made us believe) dropped napalm on the North Vietnamese who had the gall to hide in villages and tunnels to ravage our invaders. At least it was accepted practice until some rogue photojournalist filmed a young girl screaming down a Vietnamese road in flames. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Russian tanker approaches Cuba despite US oil blockade
- Marandi: Yemen joins the war – Red Sea could be blocked next – Saudi regime at risk
- Pro-Palestinian French member of European Parliament denied entry to Canada
- Pakistan to Host US-Iran Talks
- How Indonesia’s tilt toward the US left it stranded in the Strait of Hormuz
- US has no choice but to retreat from Iranian borders: Top commander
- Iran Retaliation Strikes Chemical Plant Near Dimona
- AWACS’ Destruction is a Major Loss for US Military – Ex-DoW Analyst
- Israel’s Iran Strategy Uses US Military & Gulf States as Its Pawns
- Iran: Trump wanted regime change, now just begging for Hormuz to open
- If Americans Knew
- Israeli police block Catholic cardinal from entering Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday
- Israel is assassinating journalists again, more than any other nation, anywhere, ever – Not a ceasefire Day 170
- Over 300 US service members wounded, majority have brain injuries – Not a ceasefire Day 169
- Researchers at Human Rights Watch Resign Over Blocked Report on Palestinian Refugee Return
- Jewish Groups Are Backing a War Americans Don’t Want
- Eric Fingerhut Thinks He’s the President of the Jews
- Top Jewish Philanthropists, Rabbis Urge Israeli President to Take Action Against ‘Jewish Extremists’
- Don’t Be Fooled. Zionist Leaders Have Always Wanted to Control Southern Lebanon
- Israel’s widespread use of torture is a core element of its genocide against the Palestinian people
- In Israel’s War on Iran, Many Middle East US Bases Rendered “All But Uninhabitable”
- No Tricks Zone
- German Science Blog Accuses PIK Climate Institute Of Hallucinating Climate Tipping Points
- Devastating Assessment Of Comirnaty Vaccine By Former Senior Pfizer Europe Toxicologist
- New Study: CO2 Is ‘Effectively Negligible’ As An Explanatory Climate Change Factor Since 2000
- Former Pfizer Toxicologist Dr. Helmut Sterz Tells Bundestag Hearing Pfizer Vaccine Should Have Never Been Approved
- Energy Expert: Germany’s Nuclear Phaseout Was A “500 Billion Euro Mistake”
- New Research: South Australia’s Mid-Holocene Sea Surface Temperatures Were 4°C Warmer Than Today
- Storing Green Energy To Last Germany 10 Days Would Require A 60-Million Tonne Battery
- New Studies: UK Sea Levels Were 4 Meters Higher Than Today During The Mid-Holocene
- Destructive Green New Deal: German Energy And Metal Group Warns Of Drastic Crisis
- New Study Documents A 20-Year Pause In Arctic Sea Ice Decline – Driven By Internal Variability
Aletho News 
Leave a comment