AFor a wall: Scenes from a Palestinian tragedy

Introduction Israeli leaders and the media have always emphasized that Palestinians left their homes in the 1948 Nakba voluntarily, leaving everything behind to become refugees of their own free will. Billions of people are scattered in neighboring countries and elsewhere, denied the right to return to their homes in their ancestral land seized by foreigners, mostly European Jews, and deprived of the most basic human needs in their host countries.

Zionist military groups such as Irgun, Lehi, Haganah, and Palmah killed Palestinians who tried to return to their villages and cities under the pretext of fighting infiltrators. Even those who entered to collect some of their belongings for use in refugee camps or to meet with relatives were killed. Israeli historian Benny Morris mentions in his book "Israel's Border Wars 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War" that 90% or more of these infiltrators were killed for economic and social reasons. The vast majority of these "infiltrators" killed between 1949-1956, estimated to number between 2,700 and 5,000, were unarmed.

Palestinian attempts to pressure the international community to compel Israel to allow them to return to their homes have failed. All UN resolutions on the matter have remained on paper due to US support for Israel, while decades have passed unchanged. In 2012, Palestine refugees in neighboring countries, along with activists from all over the world, began the Great Return to Jerusalem march, which was met with Israeli bullets, resulting in many casualties. Due to the Arab Spring, this march lost its momentum, but the issue persisted. In March 2018, a new attempt was born - the "Great March of Return", which was supposed to start in all neighboring countries including the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. However, only in the Gaza Strip did the march maintain its momentum. People from all walks of life and political backgrounds decided not to die of hunger or lack of medicine, and not to "explode" against Hamas as planned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel. Instead, they decided to die with dignity or return to their legal homes in the Israeli-occupied territories.

Scene 1: "We (women) are stronger than any man" While providing aid to participants in the Great March of Return, Palestinian medical volunteer Razan al-Najjar was shot dead by an Israeli sniper on June 1, 2018. Razan, wearing her blood-stained white coat, was a symbol of humanitarian resistance. This was the first time her coat was stained with her own blood. She had previously been injured twice in demonstrations. Her father lost his shop in an Israeli raid during the 2014 war that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and destroyed many buildings. Why did the Israeli sniper decide to kill Razan?

Scene 2: "My name is Yasser and I have never traveled in my life." While covering the second day of the Great March of Return, Yasser Murtaja was shot dead by an Israeli bullet even though he was wearing a blue press vest with the word "journalism" written on it. Yasser, described by one report as "a man with a contagious smile [who dedicated his life to telling the stories of Gazans]," had always hoped to leave Gaza, which has been under a 13-year Israeli siege, a dream that never materialized. Yasser loved children, cats, his work, and was a husband and father of one child. Yasser loved life, his cameras and, most importantly, his homeland.

The third scene: Return to Hirbiya 44-year-old Palestinian Amal Mustafa Al-Taramsi was killed with a live bullet in her head by Israeli occupation forces during the Great March of Return protests, becoming the first Palestinian martyr in 2019. According to local sources, Amal was 250 meters away from the border when an Israeli sniper fired the bullet that ended her life. She had always dreamed of returning to her village in the land of her ancestors, Hirbiya.

Scene four: Haitham Abu Sibla, 23, was hit in the face by a gas canister fired by Israeli soldiers during the Great March of Return. The grenade penetrated his cheek, stuck there, and smoke started coming out of his mouth in a scene that resembled a horror movie. Haitham spent three days on a ventilator. Dr. Hussam al-Majeed, who operated on him, said: "This is the first time we are dealing with such a case, it took 45 minutes to remove the bomb." Fortunately, despite suffering fractures to his jaw and face, destruction of his teeth and nose, he survived.

Conclusion Every Friday, thousands of Palestinians gather near the Israeli wall aimed at separating the Gaza Strip from the rest of Palestine and organize peaceful protests. As Human Rights Watch (HRW) has noted, the Israeli military has targeted the protesters, killing about 250 people, injuring about 26,000, and leaving about 100 missing limbs. In all of these cases, the protesters posed no imminent danger to the lives of Israeli soldiers. Of these, 461 medical workers were targeted, 42 were injured, and 3 were killed.

The tragedy continues
Source: Middle East Monitor