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.
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.
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.
“What if 200,000 Palestinians headed peacefully to cross the border, while raising a poster that says they only want to go back to their land? What would happen?” It all started in 2011 with that Facebook post, the dream of a 33-year-old man in Gaza named Ahmed Abu Ratima. The Great March of Return will start on Land Day, March 30, and will continue for six weeks until May 15, which commemorates the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes to make way or the creation of Israel. Palestinian refugees living in Gaza will set up tents near the border and move gradually—and peacefully—closer.