Ahmad Kabariti reports from the first day of the Great March of Return in Gaza where 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces. Despite the Israeli violence, there are scenes of nonviolent protest and persistence, and even a wedding. Groom Alaa Shahin tells Kabariti, “A few hundred meters away from those soldiers eyes, I emphasize my right and the whole Palestinian peoples’ right to return home after 70 years of displacement, we will not wait another 70!”
The astonishing dishonesty in the Times continues in today’s paper coverage of the Great March of Return in Gaza. The article headlined “Confrontations at Gaza Fence Leave 15 Dead,” waits until the 21st paragraph to add that another 1000 Palestinians were injured, but insinuates right away that the Gazans are to blame for starting the violence.
There was growing proof on social media over night that the Israeli shootings of Palestinian protesters at the Gaza border yesterday were arbitrary and criminal. Videos of Palestinians shot walking, running and praying were posted on Twitter, but the US State Department and PBS News Hour blamed Palestinians for the violence, and the most progressive MSNBC host, Chris Hayes, had nothing to say.
Riham Darwish takes the opportunity of Land Day to explain why land is so important to the Palestinian people: “The 30th of March is the annual reminder of identity for generations of Palestinians, ones who still hold very dear the names of the hometowns they never visited, and may never visit.”
The Israeli government said it would meet Gaza protesters from the “Great March of Return” with live fire across the border fence and it has followed through today, killing at least 12 Palestinians, according to early reports. The number keeps climbing. The first to be killed was a Palestinian farmer, said to be working his fields.
On March 30th, the village of Al Walaja welcomed Palestinians from from surrounding areas to mark Land Day by planting olive trees. The village has lost most of its lands since 1948, in successive waves of Israeli confiscations and land grabs. Ali Khalil Al-Araj, a resident from Al Walaja, 50, said, “I am here because this is our land. We will stay here and we will defend it. My family just with the settlement and the road, we lost 50 dunums. But we will stay and die here.”
In preparation of the nonviolent Great Return March in Gaza the Israeli military deployed more than 100 snipers, with permission to fire, on the Gaza border. “We have deployed more than 100 sharpshooters who were called up from all of the military’s units, primarily from the special forces … If lives are in jeopardy, there is permission to open fire,” Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot told Yedioth Ahronoth.
Adam Bulmash sees modern day Pharaohs all around him. In ICE deportations, contaminated water in Flint, Michigan, the coming border wall with Mexico and even the White House. But it’s not all bleak, there are sign of Moses huddling people for their liberation from the DREAMers to Standing Rock.
Studying abroad in Israel? Campaigners for Palestinian human rights launch a boycott of study abroad programs that send college students to Israeli institutions: “To enroll in a study abroad program at an Israeli institution means ignoring if not perpetuating the ongoing violation of the academic–and, indeed, human–freedoms of Palestinians.”
The New York Times today continues its biased coverage of Israel/Palestine, with a shocking, one-sided report on how Israeli has opened fire on the mass nonviolent Palestinian protest inside the Gaza border.