Period 5\6 - The March of Great Return

The Palestinian Great March of Return is far from outdated. A conflict cannot be outdated if nothing has ever been done about it. The Palestinians just want their homes back after being kicked out 70 years ago, or at least most of them do. Who would not want to go back home? It would take a large uprising such as the march to even get the Israeli consideration of them going back home. The protest does not seem to be going anywhere though. “The sheer scale of the casualties on the first day of the protest a week ago is striking, with as many as 16 killed and 1,415 injured, of whom 758 were hit by live fire according to Gaza health officials” (Independent). These statistics of killings and injuries were all recorded in just one day. That is a major amount of injuries for a protest. The Palestinians, unless they are planning to become armed themselves sometime soon, should consider dropping the protest for the time being. They are just sitting ducks on the other side of the fence it seems; Israeli troops taking out innocent people. It can be seen that “In other footage, Palestinians are killed or wounded as they pray, walk empty-handed towards the border fence, or simply hold up a Palestinian flag. All who get within 300 yards are labelled “instigators” by the Israeli army, whose soldiers have orders to shoot them” (Independent). These people are peacefully protesting, on their side of the fence, not causing any harm to anyone, and they are being shot at and/or killed for standing up for what they believe is right. As far as the information given, the Palestinians are not armed, so I doubt they will all of a sudden all have arms. I do not believe it will get too much worse on Nakba. The Palestinians are more likely to just be more antsy, but not necessarily more violent. It is very sad when an Israeli organization has to create a group for soldiers to not shoot at the unarmed Palestians; “The free-fire policy is continuing as before and, as a result, the Israeli human rights organisation, B’Tselem, has launched a campaign called “Sorry Commander I Cannot Shoot”, which encourages soldiers to refuse to shoot unarmed civilians on the grounds that this is illegal” (Independent). This is very sad for the country of Israel that they need this program. Mentioned in the New York Times article is that countries throughout the world thought that the dispute would be solved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (NY Times) but the United Nations was about to take a step in before the United States told them it was unnecessary, in not so many words (NY Times).

My question is: Why would the US block the UN from intervening in the conflict before more innocent lives are lost? Is there a motive?

The fight between the Palestinians and the Israelis is one that I believe will go on for a long time. Think about it, these two groups of people are so deeply rooted into their religion they are fighting over a piece of land smaller than New Jersey because both believe it is a sacred place for their respective religion. The Israelis are doing the same thing the US did to the Native Americans to the Palestinians. They are saying this is our country now here is a small portion of land to live on since we just kicked you out. As for the Great March of Return, the Palestinians should have a right to protest and not worry about being sniped for being unarmed, walking away from the security fence. The Israeli Military claimed “Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed,”(Independent) but it was deleted, possibly because there was video footage showing otherwise. Peace Now says the lethality is, “an intolerable result of a trigger-happy policy.”(NYTimes) That makes sense because the Israeli Military has a green light to shoot and “instagator” who is within 300 yards of the fence. If no one is purposely sabotaging the fence or trying to get over it, how can they be classified as an instigator? The Israelis also claim that they are protecting themselves against the Hamas but there is also video footage showing this to be false. It is pretty clear on why Israel doesn't want the Palestinians to form a union, it is because if they form a union there is a higher chance for them to rebel and retake the country. I cannot see this fight ending anytime soon unless there is significant intervention from other countries and the likelihood of that happening anymore than what the US is doing right now is low because what is there to gain from a country smaller than New Jersey?

Question: Do you think that other countries will step in on this conflict, why?
(2) If a country does step in (excluding the US) what is there to gain?

The war in 1948, “Uprooted 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, creating a refugee” (Vox.com). However, this is a war that is still not resolved. I believe that this is not an outdated battle because it is still affecting the Palestinians today. According to nytimes.com, “Unemployment is more than 40 percent for the general population and nearly 60 percent for Palestinian youths.” In other words, the Palestine are still restricted to jobs which decreases their standard of living. This battle is not necessarily outdated because it has prolonged for seventy years. If anything seventy years of isolation has made the conflict more severe. Israel and Egypt are restricting the flow of goods and people which means they are not substantial food, water or health facilities. It's no wonder that the Palestinians are making protesting from frustration. If the sheer number of casualties from the first day of protests isn’t enough to fight for then the respect of their ancestors is just another motive. It also doesn't help that Trump exasperated the conflict by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. War can not truly subside until all of these problems are compromised.

In 1948, the state of Israel was created, and chaos ensued. Palestinian people were thrown out of their homes and villages and forced to evacuate to a different country. As the Vox article states “Israeli forces defeated the Palestinian militias and Arab armies in a vicious conflict that turned 700,000 Palestinian civilians into refugees.” 700,000 people were thrown out of their homes and forced to evacuate their country because it had been taken over and the Israelis wanted the majority, and this evacuation was called the Nakba. Now, as the 70 year anniversary has approached from when these people were thrown out, they’re fighting to take it back. Mainly peacefully on the Palestinians side, these people are demanding to be given back their family villages and houses for justice to their ancestors, but Israel is refusing. This fight is quite old, but it still has purpose. They shouldn’t just give up. While I don’t think this is the right way to go about it, I don’t think that they should stop fighting for what they believe is right. This is obviously very important to them, and the Israelis obviously aren’t giving up without a fight, but they should not just give up because the fight is old. I think that the fight will definitely be most heated on the actual anniversary of the Nakba. That is when people will feel the most emotional about not being able to grow up in their families homes in former Palestine and be the angriest about their families just being thrown out because of their nationality. These people know everything that their ancestors had to go through when being thrown out of the country they grew up in, and that will only make them feel more connected to their ancestors and want to fight back as hard as they possibly can when the actual anniversary of that event happens.

The conflict between the Israel and Palestine has been occurring for centuries and is outdated. These two groups have been fighting over a piece of land for way too long when there are solutions at hand. In my opinion, each group should receive an equal portion of land and should cease the violence between them. I realize that this “Great March of Return” is based off of religious views and I am not in anyway disrespecting their religion, I simply am saying that there comes a point in which a compromise must be made. How many lives will have to be taken in order for said compromise to be made? Already there have been 16 killed and 1,415 injured (Independent). I will say that Israel is partly to blame for this ongoing conflict. They are shooting innocent Palestinians who near the fence “as they pray, walk empty-handed towards the border fence, or simply hold up a Palestinian flag” (Independent). Although the Israelis have the right to defend their nation, the Palestinians are physically attacking them. A reason that this conflict may still be continuing today may be the fact that President Trump has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel when it is a very religious holy city for many and multiple religions. However, no matter what has been done, a solution for this conflict is well overdue and needs to be settle immediately before more lives are lost and more citizens are injured.

The fight between Israelis and Palestinians has been going on for a long time. Recently, the Palestinians have been attempting to re-enter Israel, their original homeland. They are simply re-entering the land that belonged to their ancestors without any military or even any force at all. Israel is strongly opposed to this idea so they are acting against the Palestinians. Israelis on the border have been using violence to keep the Palestinians out. The New York Times states "Israel’s response appears to have been excessive, as human rights groups have asserted" which could pose a problem for the Israelis in the future. The Israelis have killed 16 people and injured around 1500 during the beginning of the protest. The Israeli military has been given the clear to shoot at anybody that is within 300 yards of the fence at the border no matter what they are doing. As more and more people are seeing what the Israelis are doing, the more likely people will eventually intervene to help the Palestinians. The Israelis claim to be defending themselves from the military group The Hamas who are located in Palestine. Video evidence is out that makes this claim false. It appears that Israel is doing all they can to keep the Palestinians out of their country, even if it means using force and causing thousands of casualties.

Will peace ever be made between Israel and Palestine?

In reading the articles, I found this quote particularly interesting; Patrick Cockburn wrote for Independent, “Thousands of protesters returned to the border this Friday, burning great heaps of tyres to produce a black smokescreen which they hoped would hide them from Israeli snipers”. This to me shows just how unevenly matched these two sides are. Here the Palestinians are using whatever resources they have as a form of protection. Just think about the length that they are going to in order to continue these protests. They are utilizing the thick, black, toxic smoke of burning tires as a form of protection against Israeli snipers. That is a true dedication and resourcefulness. These Palestinians are on the front lines, protesting for their cause while the Israelis are sniping from safer, more convenient grounds. They are not risking much or putting themselves in harms way and they also have the advantage of already owning the land being disputed over. There was also an interesting point made by The Editorial Board of The New York Times in stating, “Israel has a right to defend itself and maintain civil order, but it also has an obligation to respect peaceful protests and not use live ammunition on unarmed demonstrators.” The idea that is is Israel's “obligation” to show respect to Palestinians protesting is a point that is not stressed enough considering the fact that there have been many deaths on the Palestinian side of the conflict. The Palestinians began this with peaceful protest and, although they do have “a right to defend itself and maintain civil order” it should not be done so in this manner. Palestinians are fighting for land that was owned by their people only 70 years ago. One of the discussion questions posed asked, “Is this battle becoming outdated?” and to that I must say that, no it is not. The Palestinians still have a fire behind their cause and are quite obviously willing to stretch whatever means they have to reach their goal, while the Israelis have many high advantages over them. This conflict is likely to stay at a stalemate for some time but it is passion verses pertinacity and inevitably one will subside to the other.