Exploited idealism and deliberate deception.

Editorial introduction: In the first of two articles, David Longworth looks back over a year of the ‘March of Return’ at the Gaza border.

According to Enas Fares Ghannam,¹ it all started in 2011. A Facebook post expressed the dream of a 33-year-old man in Gaza named Ahmed Abu Ratima. Gazing at a tree on the other side of the barbed fence that separates the Strip from Israel, Abu Ratima had thought, “Why can’t I go and sit under that tree just for a while, like a free bird?” The post asked (rather impractically) what could happen if 200,000 Palestinians headed peacefully to cross the border.

As the Arab Spring swept the region, Abu Ratima and his friends issued a statement entitled ‘The Palestinian Refugees Revolution’, calling all Palestinian refugees to gather peacefully at the nearest point by the Israeli border to call for their ‘rights’. At the time, they were considered crazy. But in 2018, Abu Ratima and his friends found encouragement.

In early 2018, Gazan journalist Muthana al-Najjar, whose family originally hailed from Salama (near Jaffa), pitched a tent near the border. He stayed for over a month, while others began planting olive tree seedlings in the area. But these idealised aspirations were soon taken over by the Hamas authorities.

Public preparations for a mass protest started to appear in February. On the 6^th, Hamas official Isma'il Radwan said that the activity would begin on 30 March and would reach its peak on 15 May, ‘Nakhba Day’.² He stressed that this activity "should take place without clashes [with Israel] in order to protect the young people...The plan of action focused on organizing a march of hundreds of thousands towards the border in order to pressure the occupation."³

Idealism Exploited

On 22 February 2018, the ominous image on the right was posted on Facebook:⁴

The UN symbol and the ‘194’ refer to UN Resolution 194 (of December 1948), which resolved that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date” (my emphasis), the so-called ‘Right of Return’. When the resolution was passed it was envisaging those who had just become refugees, not the millions of later generations.

The key evokes memories of those who left having locked their homes and retained their keys: another powerful symbol of ‘Right to Return’. However, notice that the key is held in a red clenched fist, a not-so-subtle suggestion of aggression.

Note also that the area between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean is entirely covered by the colours of the Palestinian flag. This image therefore denies not only the territories agreed under the Oslo Accords, but also UN Resolution 181, of 29 November 1947, which agreed the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.

By 28 February 2018 the Great Return March Facebook page featured a much clearer emphasis on violence, as the left-hand picture illustrates (the text reads, ‘We will strike the Guard Fence’, i.e. the international border security fence).⁵ 

Incitement from the Beginning

At the March’s official start on Friday 30 March, an inflammatory Islamic sermon was preached and broadcast on Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV:

We are very near our blessed land, which is being trampled by those descendants of apes and pigs. We are here to embrace the blessed land with our hearts and our eyes, which is being trampled by those accursed descendants of apes and pigs, the remnants of the brutal, savage, and barbaric colonialism, which continues to drain our resources…⁶

So much for the idealist peaceful origins! By 6 April, three Palestinians penetrated the border and planted two improvised explosive devices.⁷

Worse rhetoric was to follow. Two weeks later, at the March venue, Gaza scholar Khaled Hany Morshid, said:

Khaled Morshid, speaking at the March venue. Video initially released on social media, 14 April 2018. Image from MEMRI, used with permission.…when the Jews of the Qurayza tribe violated their treaty with the Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet Muhammad exterminated them…The best way to describe the record of the Prophet's treatment of the Jews is one of violence and force…This is what all the Muslims should know. The relation between us and them is one of eternal enmity. The Jews will never stop this enmity unless the sword of Jihad for the sake of Allah is brandished, and they are made an example of, as was done by the Prophet Muhammad…I call upon every Muslim: Do not stand idly by and let those Jews spread corruption upon the land. Carry out glorious deeds against them!⁸

Social media posts called Palestinians to clash with Israelis after breaching the fence and entering their communities. 'Emad 'Aql, of Gaza, tweeted, "Sderot is only 700 meters east of [the Palestinian town of] Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. The headquarters of the Israeli army is there, and houses about 800 pigs. It can be reached in two minutes on motorcycles or in five-eight minutes at a brisk run…Murder, slaughter, burn and never show them any mercy."⁹

The left-hand image was posted with the following text: "Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, east of Rafah, is only 300 meters from the border. It has turkey pens, a football field and a pool, it houses only 15 families. Pounce on them with knives."¹⁰

Deliberate Deception

By May, things were literally hotting up. Thousands of tyres were burned to create smokescreens for those attacking the fence, while mirrors were used to blind IDF soldiers. Meanwhile, Western media were decrying the injuries caused to ‘peaceful protestors’ by Israel’s defensive actions.

On 13 May, the day before the originally-planned climax of the March, Mahmoud Al-Zahhar a co-founder and senior member of Hamas, was interviewed on al-Jazeera TV, Qatar. Questioned about Hamas adopting Fatah’s ‘peaceful resistance’ policy, he replied,

This is a clear terminological deception…This is not peaceful resistance…when we talk about 'peaceful resistance’, we are deceiving the public. This is a peaceful resistance bolstered by a military force and by security agencies, and enjoying tremendous popular support…This deception does not fool the Palestinian public.¹¹

On 16 May, Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, was interviewed for the same channel, saying,

I must emphasize a great strategic goal accomplished on May 14. Our people in Gaza recorded, for the whole world to see, their testimony over the transfer of the United States embassy to Jerusalem and the declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of the occupation entity. On behalf of the Arab Palestinian people and all the Arab and Islamic peoples, our people in Gaza have rejected that decision and that move, by this great activity and by recording its testimony for the sake of history, and by signing this testimony with the blood of the martyrs – our people sacrificed sixty martyrs on May 14, as well as three thousand wounded…Many of them took off their military uniforms and put their weapons aside…¹²

Here we can clearly see the shameless use of ‘martyrdom’ as a motivating factor when inciting aggression against Israel. Sinwar openly admits to satisfaction in the gruesome outcome. Moreover, he also admits that many protestors weren’t ordinary civilians!

The involvement of militants was confirmed in more detail in a broadcast on Baladna TV, Gaza, on the same day, by a member of the Palestinian National Council:

50 of the martyrs were from Hamas, and the other 12 were regular people…What did Hamas gain? 50 martyrs...I am giving you an official figure. 50 of the martyrs in the recent battle were from Hamas. Before that, at least 50% of the martyrs were from Hamas.¹³

Other Tactics

In addition to the above, in the last year tactics have included hand grenades, stones and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) being hurled across the border. Snipers have been in action. Hundreds of rockets and mortars have been deployed.

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, by mid-October almost 3,300 acres of forest and 4,000 acres of farmland had been destroyed by incendiaries carried by kites and balloons from Gaza.¹⁴ In the forest nature reserves, thousands of animals perished and conservation work was set back by decades. Earlier, as the wheat harvest was imminent, the loss of crops by farmers was estimated at £1.4 million. On one kibbutz alone, some 320 acres of irrigation equipment was also destroyed. In addition, honey farms, avocado and jojoba orchards were devastated.¹⁵

Sometimes explosives were carried similarly, such as those attached to gaily-decorated helium balloons which landed close to a kindergarten in late December.

Another tactic has been deception by false news reports and the posting of staged video clips on social media. Of one such incident on 4 May, IDF video footage shows a group of Palestinians rushing away a seemingly-injured man on a stretcher; then, after smoke and bushes provide some screening, the man clearly rolls off the stretcher, gets up and walks away!¹⁶ Also in May, the death by tear gas of 8-month-old baby Layla Ghandour was widely reported. By 26 June it emerged that the father is a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade who admitted that his daughter died from a prior condition and that he had been paid $8,000 by Hamas to lie.

Sadly, the damage of these ‘news’ items is done by their high initial impact, with later revisions mattering little.

Conclusions

Whatever the original intentions of the March of Return, it has clearly turned into an ugly, deceitful battle, on the ground and in the media. Next week we will ask where things are now, in 2019, and put the Palestinian ‘cause’ in greater context.

Meanwhile, watchfulness, discernment and prayer remain essential weapons for Christians in the battle for truth.

Part 1 of 2. 

References

1 Ghannam, EF. Despite Israel’s threats of violence, Gaza protesters have peaceful dream. Mondweiss, 29 March 2018.

2 ‘Nakba’ means ‘catastrophe’, originally used by Arabs to refer to the 1920 partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. Informally used by groups of Palestinian Arabs to refer to their displacement during the establishment of Israel by 14 May 1948. Later adopted by the PLO, Nakba Day was inaugurated by Yasser Arafat in 1998.

3 Palinfo.com, 6 February 2018. Obtained from MEMRI.

4 Picture obtained from the official GRM Facebook page by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. Originally posted as the GRM Facebook page profile picture on 22 February 2018 (the profile picture has since been modified slightly, but the original image can also be seen in other photos on social media, such as this one).

5 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue preparing a mass march to the Israeli border ('the great return march'), planned for Land Day, March 30, 2018. Meir Amit, 8 March 2018. Picture obtained from the official GRM Facebook page, February 28, 2018.

6 Gaza Friday Sermon: Our Blessed Land Is Being Trampled by the Accursed Descendants of Apes and Pigs - Scenes from Gaza "Return March". Sermon transcript, MEMRI, Clip no. 6500, 30 March 2018.

7 Gross, JA. IDF: Palestinians who breached fence planted explosives. Times of Israel, 8 April 2018.

8 Gaza Scholar Khaled Hany Morshid Calls to Brandish the Sword of Jihad, Fight the Jews - Scenes from Gaza "Return March". MEMRI, Clip no. 6537, 14 April 2018.

9 Twitter.com/imad_aql, May 13, 2018, reported via MEMRI.

10 Picture obtained from Facebook, 14 May 2018. Translation by MEMRI.

11 Senior Hamas Official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar on Gaza Protests: This Is Not Peaceful Resistance, It Is Supported by Our Weapons. MEMRI, Clip No. 6573, 13 May 2018.

12 Hamas Leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar: Our People Took Off Their Military Uniforms and Joined the Marches… MEMRI, Clip No. 6576, 16 May 2018.

13 Hamas Political Bureau Member Salah Al-Bardawil: 50 of the Martyrs Killed in Gaza were from Hamas, 12 Regular People. MEMRI transcript, Clip No. 6575, 16 May 2018.

14 Thousands of acres of forest land have been destroyed in 6 months of Gaza arson balloons. JTA, 10 October 2018.

15 Zikri, AB. We Flew a Drone Over the Fires Raging Around Gaza. This Is What We Saw. Haaretz, 26 June 2018.

16 Zitun, Y. WATCH: Hamas fakes injuries, uses children in Gaza border protests. Ynet News, 5 May 2018.