Source: Medical Aid For Palestinians

Over the last week tens of thousands of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza have been demonstrating towards the fence that has kept them segregated and imprisoned for decades. These peaceful protests are part of the #Great Return March which is a six-week protest along the Gaza/Israel border from Land Day, 30 March to Nakba Day, 15 May. The demonstrators are on a quest for justice, freedom and equality and the end to Israel’s illegal siege of the Gaze Strip.
The London based charity Medical Aid For Palestinians has stated that:
‘’The #March For Return is about making good on the basic right of Palestinians, and all people, to live freely in their homelands. The only way forward is to recognize that there is a root cause: 70 years of Nakba.’’*
How has the Israeli state responded to these unarmed protests by tens of thousands of civilians?
Has it respected their right to peacefully protest as required under international law?
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Friday 30 March and Friday 6 April responded to tens of thousands of unarmed demonstrators by massacring 29 Palestinians and wounding over 1,600 more.
It used a pernicious lie to justify these acts of mass murder by stating that many of the demonstrators were armed members of Hamas who shot at Israeli soldiers.
Human Rights Watch which has investigators in Gaza has commented:

“Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations. The result was foreseeable deaths and injuries of demonstrators on the other side of a border who posed no imminent threat to life.”

Footage from demonstrators show the shooting of unarmed civilians running away from Israeli army gunfire.
The recent massacres of Palestinian civilians begs the question why does Israel refuse to comply with international law and numerous U.N. resolutions and end its illegal treatment of the people living in the Gaza Strip. For an answer to this question I looked to the work of Jewish academics Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe.
Two of the leading academics upon the Israel-Palestine situation have come together to produce a book,'Gaza in Crisis:Reflections on Israel's War Against The Palestinians'. The book is divided into essays written by Professor Noam Chomsky, a long time critic of American foreign policy, and the renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappe.
Ilan Pappe traces the history of American imperialisms involvement in Palestine. He points out that since 1969 America's peace plans have been a formula designed to accommodate the Israeli point of view. Since the creation of Israel in 1948 America has given over $100 billion to Israel in grants and loans. Pappe notes that,'There is no precedent for such bilateral relations and one does not have to overstate the implications of such a policy for the Palestinians and for the chances of peace in the Middle East'.
Pappe devotes an essay to the denial of the Nakba (the mass expulsion of Palestinians by Israel in 1948) in Israeli society. In Israel's education system all reference to the Nakba has been removed. More disturbing is the way growing sections of Israeli society, including a large number of university professors and media pundits, are willing to justify the Nakba and suggest it as a prescription for the future. Pappe points out, that the full story of the ethnic cleansing, murder and rape that happened in 1948 needs to told so that younger sections of Israeli society can try and prevent a repeat of this in the future. He concludes this essay by noting that all of the so called peace plans put forward by the international community are based upon Nakba denial.
Both Chomsky and Pappe devote much of their analysis to examining the reasons for Israel's massive military attack upon Gaza in 2009 and examine the human cost of this war crime. Operation Cast Lead left over 1,500 Palestinians dead and destroyed the infrastructure of the strip while leaving tens of thousands homeless. Israel's illegal siege of Gaza was instituted as collective punishment upon the Palestinians for having the temerity to vote Hamas into power in 2006. The Israeli government hoped its huge military assault would topple Hamas by destroying public support for it.
Chomsky explains how there is near universal agreement on a peace deal to settle the Israel-Palestine conflict: a two-state settlement along the internationally recognised borders of pre-June 1967. However, both historians note how the Israeli siege of Gaza, which is under blockade by land, sea and air is part of its grand scheme for dealing with the Palestinian 'problem'. Cutting off Gaza from the West Bank together with the huge expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank the Israeli government hopes to prevent the creation of any viable Palestinian state. Israel's plan is to steal all of the valuable land and resources on the West Bank and leave the Palestinians condemned to live in small isolated cantons under the control of the IDF. This strategy is designed to kill off any two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine crisis.

As Chomsky points out Gaza is the world's largest open-air prison. Meanwhile, Israel has announced plans to massively expand its illegal settlements on the West Bank stealing yet more Palestinian land.

Source:International Middle East Media Center

The only hopes for peace lie with the coming together of the ordinary people of Israel and Palestine in common struggle against social and economic oppression and the attempts by politicians of both sides to divide them into a perpetual conflict. This book by Chomsky and Pappe provides a valuable and highly readable analysis of the recent history of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The #Great Return March is on ongoing mass mobilization of the Palestinian people for freedom, justice and equality. Please support this historic movement by demanding an end to IDF violence against civilians exercising their right to peaceful protest and for an international investigation into the recent massacres.

*Nabka is the Palestinian term for the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinains that was carried out by Israeli forces during the Arab-Israeli War during 1947-49.

UK citizens can email their MP calling upon them to demand an international investigation into the massacres at:

https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/818-demand-accountability-for-violence-against-gaza-protesters

Please consider making a donation to Medical For Palestinians that provides life saving medicines and medical equipment to the hospitals of Gaza:
https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donate

Sources:
Footage from various sources show the shooting of unarmed civilians running away from Israeli army gunfire.
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/30/israel-gaza-march-killed-protest/

https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/killed-for-protesting-6-things-to-know-about-the-great-return-march/

https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive

Book Review - Gaza In Crisis:Reflections On Israel's War Against The Palestinians, by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe, Penguin Books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=49&v=N3LKLPj0NY8