On 30 March 1976, there were demonstrations throughout Palestine against Israel’s systematic confiscation of Palestinian land. These peaceful demonstrations were accompanied by a general strike. Israel responded with extreme violence – Israeli troops killed four people and the police two more. Since then, 30 March has been commemorated by Palestinians and their supporters as Land Day.
On 30 March 2018, 30,000 Palestinians demonstrated at the Israel-Gaza border demanding the right of return for Palestinian refugees and an end to the economic blockade of Gaza. Israeli snipers responded by shooting at the peaceful demonstrations with rubber bullets, tear gas, and live ammunition. They killed at least 17 people – almost half of them children. The Israeli Defence Force proudly tweeted: “nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured. We know where every bullet landed”.
In subsequent weeks protestors mobilised every Friday. The protests were originally intended to last until Nakba day, 15 May, but continued until December 2019. The protests were largely led by civil society and young activists known as the “Oslo generation”, independent of the Hamas government. Estimations of the numbers killed vary, but the UN body OCHA reported that between May 2018 and May 2019 Israeli forces killed 195 Palestinians and injured 30,000.
Writing in Haaretz, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy said: “The shooting on the Gaza border shows once again that the killing of Palestinians is accepted in Israel more lightly than the killing of mosquitoes”. Amnesty International called for a worldwide arms embargo on Israel. And yet none of the protestors’ demands have been met. Palestinian refugees are still prevented from returning to their homeland. The blockade of Gaza has now been going on for 35 years while for the last 2 years, it has been accompanied by a genocide.
When supporters of Israel ask why Palestinians do not demonstrate peacefully, the massacre of the Great March of Return shows what happens when they do. In the same way that civilians paramedics, journalists and children are deemed legitimate targets in today’s genocide – so too were they following their peaceful protest in 2018. In its way, Israel’s actions in 2018 paved the way for October 7th 2024. Denied a way of fighting for justice peacefully, Palestinians Hamas chose the only way left open to them.
