2018–2019 Gaza border protests facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 2018–2019 Gaza border protests |
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| Part of Gaza–Israel conflict | |||
UN OCHA map of the protests, 31 May 2018
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| Date | 30 March 2018 – 27 December 2019 (1 year, 8 months, 3 weeks and 6 days) |
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| Location |
Gaza Strip, near the Israeli border
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| Goals |
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| Concessions given |
None | ||
| Parties to the civil conflict | |||
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| Casualties | |||
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The 2018–2019 Gaza border protests, by the organiser called the Great March of Return (Arabic: مسیرة العودة الكبرى, romanized: Masīra al-ʿawda al-kubrā), were a series of demonstrations held each Friday in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza-Israel border from 30 March 2018 and onwards. The demonstrators demanded that the Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to lands they were displaced from in what is now Israel. They also protested against Israel's Gaza blockade and United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
The first demonstrations were organized by independent activists, but the initiative was soon endorsed by Hamas, the de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip, as well as other major factions in Gaza. The activists who planned the Great March of Return intended it to last only from 30 March 2018 (Land Day) to 15 May (Nakba Day) but the demonstrations continued for almost 18 months until Hamas on 27 December 2019 announced that they would be postponed.
Thirty thousand Palestinians participated in the first demonstration on 30 March. Larger protests took place on the following Fridays, 6 April, 13 April, 20 April, 27 April, 4 May, and 11 May — each of which involved at least 10,000 demonstrators — while smaller numbers attended activities during the week.
Most of the demonstrators demonstrated peacefully far from the border fence. Peter Cammack, a fellow with the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued that the march indicated a new trend in Palestinian society and Hamas, with a shift away from violence towards non-violent forms of protest. Nevertheless, groups consisting mainly of young men approached the fence and committed acts of violence directed towards the Israeli side. Israeli officials said the demonstrations were used by Hamas as cover for launching attacks against Israel.
At least 110 Palestinians were killed between 30 March to 15 May 2018, a number of whom were members of various Palestinian militant organizations: an independent United Nations commission set the number of known militants killed at 29 out of the 183. Other sources claim a higher figure, of at least 40. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and live ammunition. According to Robert Mardini, head of Middle East for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), more than 13,000 Palestinians were wounded as of 19 June 2018, the majority severely, with some 1,400 struck by three to five bullets. No Israelis were physically harmed from 30 March to 12 May, until one Israeli soldier was reported as slightly wounded on 14 May, the day the protests peaked. The same day, 59 or 60 Palestinians were shot dead at twelve clash points along the border fence, Hamas claimed 50 of them as its militants, and Islamic Jihad claimed 3 of the 62 killed as members of its military wing. Some 35,000 Palestinians protested that day, with thousands approaching the fence.
Israel's use of deadly force was condemned on 13 June 2018 in a United Nations General Assembly resolution. Condemnations also came from human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, and Amnesty International, and by United Nations officials. Kuwait proposed two United Nations Security Council statements, both blocked by the United States, which called for investigations into Israel's killing of Palestinian protesters. The Israeli government has praised Israeli troops for protecting the border fence. Media coverage of the demonstrations, and what has been termed the "PR battle", has been the object of analysis and controversy. In late February 2019, a United Nations Human Rights Council's independent commission found that of the 489 cases of Palestinian deaths or injuries analyzed only two were possibly justified as responses to danger by Israeli security forces, deeming the rest illegal, and concluded with a recommendation calling on Israel to examine whether war crimes or crimes against humanity had been committed, and if so, to bring those responsible to trial.
Contents
Background
In 2005, Israel withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip and allowed the Palestinian authority to take control. Despite the withdrawal, Israel still maintains direct external control over everyday life in Gaza, such as the territory's air and maritime space, most of its land crossings, electricity and water supply and other utilities. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Palestinians in Gaza still remain protected persons under the articles of the Geneva Conventions.
Following the Battle of Gaza in 2007, Hamas took full control over the strip and expelled its rival and current ruler of the West Bank, Fatah. The takeover by Hamas led Israel and Egypt to impose a land, air and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip. The blockade has had disastrous effects on Gaza's population.
After the 2014 Gaza war, the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsened. Hamas struggled to manage civil life in Gaza, and the new leadership under Yahya Sinwar hoped to get the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza's civil issues, through the 2017 Fatah–Hamas Agreement, but the agreement failed. According to Israeli journalist Amos Harel, Hamas, which failed to lift the blockade for years, sought to use the demonstrations as a means to get out its strategical crisis, as it found armed conflict with Israel to be ineffective.
The principal demand of the protests was the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to present-day Israel. A majority of Gaza's population consists of refugees from the 1948 Palestine War and their descendants. Israel rejected any right of return, fearing that Jews would become a minority in Israel if too many Palestinians returned.
Gaza's "no-go zone" and border barrier
In late 2005, after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, the Israeli military imposed a "no-go zone" on the interior side of the Israel-Gaza border in response to rocket fire from Gaza falling on Israeli towns. This zone restricts Palestinians from entering "about 17 percent of Gaza's territory, including a third of its agricultural lands", according to HRW. According to the Israel Defense Force (IDF), this is done "to prevent the concealment of improvised explosives and to disrupt and prevent the use of the area for destructive purposes."
The border fence between Gaza and Israel (the separation barrier) is composed of a crude barbed-wire barrier, a brief gap, and then a 10 feet (3.0 m) high "smart fence" with sensors to detect infiltrators. A crowd surging towards the fence could cross the fence in some 30 seconds, according to one of the contractors who built it.
Idea, organization, and strategy
In 2011, Ahmed Abu Ratima (or Rteima), whose family originate from Ramle, conceived the idea of Palestinians going peacefully to the border fence to demand their right of return to the homes from which they had been displaced.
In early 2018, Gazan journalist Muthana al-Najjar, whose family originate from Salama, pitched a tent near the border, where he stayed for over a month, while others began planting olive tree seedlings in the area. He and others tried to keep the protest independent from Hamas and other political groups, but were overruled when Hamas took over the protest by mass mobilization of Gazans to join the March. Recruitment included calls on television, local media, social media and by word of mouth. Hamas reportedly planned to keep the peace by having plain clothed security personnel move among the protestors to ensure no violence would occur.
The March gained support from Gazan intellectuals like Atef Abu Saif and graduates of Gazan universities, who were said to have drawn inspiration from the examples of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.
By March 2018, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the faction of Muhammad Dahlan (who was expelled from Fatah in 2011) had endorsed the protests.
The organizers of the event, including the local government authority, Hamas and various Palestinian factions, encouraged thousands of Palestinians to converge on the Israeli border for the 42nd anniversary,. While multiple factions endorsed the protests, they all participated under the shared symbol of the Palestinian national flag.
Reactions
States
The escalation of violence in Gaza concerned the entire Arab world. Jordan and Egypt condemned Israel's use of force, considering recent developments as harmful to brokering peace. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged heated remarks over the border clashes; Erdoğan labeled the Israeli response an "inhumane attack" amid growing international criticism of the Israeli military. Erdoğan accused Israel of committing a "genocide", calling Israel a "terrorist state". In response to anti-Israeli comments and actions by Erdoğan, the Knesset discussed the possibility of recognizing the Armenian genocide.
Australia and United States voiced support for Israel's right to defend itself. Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, and Vatican have criticized the actions of Israel or both sides of the conflict.
On 15 May, British Prime Minister Theresa May said, speaking alongside Turkish President Erdoğan, that "There is an urgent need to establish the facts of what happened yesterday through an independent and transparent investigation, including why such a volume of live fire was used and what role Hamas played in events." U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said that "Anyone who truly cares about children in Gaza should insist that Hamas immediately stop using children as cannon fodder in its conflict with Israel."
Supranational organisations
Arab League: The Arab League condemned the continuous discrimination and violence against peaceful Palestinian protesters, upon Saudi Arabia's request, the Organization held a summit on 17 May in its headquarters in Cairo on a Ministerial level to discuss a proper response to the continuing human rights violations done by Israel.
EU: On 4 April, the European Union expressed deep alarm over "the use of live ammunition by Israeli Security Forces as a means of crowd control," and called on Israel to investigate every death and prosecute the perpetrators where appropriate.
International Criminal Court: On 8 April, Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, issued a public warning to Israelis and Palestinians that, "violence against civilians – in a situation such as the one prevailing in Gaza – could constitute crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "the Court"), as could the use of civilian presence for the purpose of shielding military activities."
UN: UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, observed that the situation "underlines the urgency of revitalizing the peace process aiming at creating the conditions for a return to meaningful negotiations." Speaking to the UN Security Council in a meeting on the situation in the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace, said that Gaza was about to "explode" and called for "actions to prevent another war." Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned use of "excessive force" by Israeli and said that security forces had to be "held to account."
- Elizabeth Throssell, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the use of deadly force was largely unjustified, since such force may only be used as a last resort when there is an imminent threat of death or serious injury. "An attempt to approach or cross the green-line fence by itself certainly does not amount to a threat to life or serious injury that would justify the use of live ammunition," the office said. The United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories echoed the argument and stated: "The killing of demonstrators in violation of these rules, and within the context of occupation, may amount to willful killing, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as a war crime."
NGOs
Amnesty International: On 27 April, the organization called for worldwide arms embargo on Israel for its "disproportionate response" to the protests.
The Israeli law center Shurat HaDin filed a complaint in the International Criminal Court against Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal, Saleh al-Arouri, and Zahar Jabarin for the use of children as human shields in the conflict along the border based on a clause in the Rome Statute that prohibits recruitment of children under the age of 15 to a militant organization. According to Shurat Hadin Director Nitzana Darshan-Leitner "The death of a 15-year-old boy near the Gaza border last week was a direct result of the war crimes committed by Hamas leaders against their own people".
Images for kids
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Protest in San Sebastián, Spain, 15 May 2018 showing an Israel flag crossed out.
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Burnt field near Kibbutz Be'eri
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Protest in Tehran, Iran, 18 May 2018
See also
In Spanish: Protestas fronterizas de Gaza de 2018-2019 para niños
