Gaza: Israeli military killed 18 unarmed Palestinians at the Gaza border, who had gathered there to observe ‘land day’ in memory of 6 martyrs who were killed in barbaric firing of Israel. The Palestinians have planned a 6-week peaceful protest. The protest will end on May 15.
Forty-two years ago, Israeli police shot and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel as they were protesting the Israeli government’s expropriation of thousands of donums of Palestinian land. Since then, March 30 has been known as Land Day. It has become a major commemorative date in the Palestinian political calendar and an important event in the Palestinian collective narrative – one that emphasises Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonisation.
This year, the commemoration of Land Day remains as important as ever because this year Benjamin Netanyahu’s Zionist government is planning to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the country on a grand level, which came into existence on May 14, 1948; and on the same day the US will shift its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
30 to 40 thousand residents of Gaza had gathered on the border to protest these atrocities and injustices. Besides they wanted to give a clear message to Israel and the world that Palestinian refugees have not withdrawn from their right to return to their motherland from where they had been forced out 70 years ago. Hence they named it Great March of Return. The Zionist government declared Palestinians peaceful protest as terrorism. While a Jewish scholar Ilana Hammerman said young Palestinians are not carrying out acts of terror- they are leading a desperate struggle against an army that is a thousand times stronger than they. The outspoken scholar and human rights activist has recently written an article entitled ‘Israel is the terrorist’. Despite barbarism of Israeli military, Palestinians are not discouraged.
Unfortunately, only a few countries have raised voice against Israeli terrorism, the loudest among them being that of Turkey.