Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are planning a six-week-long tent city protest near the Israeli border, starting on March 30, demanding that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to their homes in Israel, organizers said on Wednesday.
Palestinian protesters along the Gaza border are frequently confronted by Israeli soldiers with tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.
Palestinians in the #GazaStrip are planning a long-term protest in an area that could pose a problem for the Israeli army, demanding for the free ability of Palestinian refugees to return to #Israel @Reuters https://t.co/SrIOEVriJb
— ASU Rule of Law (@ASU_IRLS) March 7, 2018
Ahmed Abu Ayesh, a spokesman for a coordinating committee, said plans were for hundreds or thousands of people, including entire families, to live in tents erected “at the nearest, safe point from the border”. The United Nations, Abu Ayesh said, would be notified of the rally.
A statement issued by the organizing committee urged Palestinians in Gaza to take part in this “national project that endorses peaceful resistance as a new way to win our rights, foremost the right of return” of refugees to what is now Israel.
The protest is set to begin on March 30, the annual “Land Day” commemorating the six Arab citizens of Israel who were killed by Israeli forces during demonstrations in 1976 over land confiscations.
Gazans to Stage 46-Day Tent City Protest Over Right of Return https://t.co/q6kcgmfteA #Gaza #Palestine
— Denny Cormier (@santafeez) March 8, 2018
It will end, the organizers said, on May 15, the day Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe”, marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by the creation of Israel in 1948.
The latest issue of the Journal of #Palestine Studies, Winter 2018, includes a report on the #Palestinian Oral History Archive. POHA was launched to collect & digitize the recollections of #Palestinian refugees https://t.co/Xkn30tNH17 pic.twitter.com/2d4SVK9Ter
— Palestine Studies (@PalStudies) March 8, 2018
In the town of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian journalist got a jump-start on the protest, erecting two tents about 450 meters from the border fence, to promote the planned demonstration.
(Aljazeera, PC, Social Media)
