Many Palestinians see the coordinated marches as offering a potent demonstration of the effectiveness of unarmed protests, raising hopes that popular action could bring change in the Arab-Israeli conflict, as it is bringing change elsewhere in the upheavals sweeping the Middle East.
The mobilization of the Palestinian diaspora has clearly boosted a sense of unity. But it has also pushed the conflict with Israel back to its intractable core, highlighting calls for the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes — a demand Israel views as an existential threat.
“For the first time ever, the Palestinians have switched from commemorating their displacement with statements, festivals and speeches, to actual attempts to return to their homes,” said a call to protest issued by the Preparatory Committee for the Marches of Return to Palestine. “The May 15 marches were not an isolated incident, but a declaration of the foundation of a new stage of struggle.”
In the demonstrations planned for this weekend, marchers have been urged to carry Palestinian flags, signs with the names of their former communities in what is now Israel, and keys symbolizing the homes from which they fled or were expelled in the war that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.
The marches are timed to commemorate the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1967 Middle East war, in which Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.
Under pressure from the Lebanese government, which declared the border area with Israel a closed military zone, organizers in Lebanon said Friday that they were canceling plans to march to the frontier and would hold strikes in Palestinian refugee camps instead. But protests in other areas were expected to go ahead as planned.
Although organizers are calling for peaceful marches, copying the tactics of demonstrators in other Arab countries, last month’s protests ended in rock-throwing clashes with Israeli troops and a breach of the border fence in the Golan Heights. The Israeli army is planning to beef up its presence along the borders and at expected flash points in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sunday, equipping troops with non-lethal riot control gear such as tear gas and rubber bullets — a reaction to last month’s confrontations, in which soldiers resorted to live ammunition.
Accusing Iran, Syria and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah of orchestrating the protests, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he had instructed Israeli forces “to act with restraint but determination to protect our borders.”
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