Protests prove Gaza is ‘boiling’
Palestinians want to put conflict with Israel back on international agenda
JERUSALEM— The “Friday of Tires” protest ended with another nine Palestinian protesters killed along the Gaza border fence, despite a smokescreen of burning rubber and a second round of international criticism over Israel’s use of lethal force.
Now, young Gazans are talking about staging a “Flower Friday,” a “Coffin Friday,” and even a “Shoes Friday,” at which demonstrators would fling footwear at Israeli soldiers to signify their disdain.
Far from being discouraged by a smaller turnout on Friday than the week before, Palestinians seem energized and enthusiastic about sustaining a generally nonviolent form of protest that has succeeded in putting their long-running conflict with Israel back on the international agenda.
“The Arab leaders, especially in the Gulf, thought they could neglect the Palestinian cause,” said Omar Shaban, director of PalThink for Strategic Studies, a Gaza think tank. “They thought it’s a stable conflict. But it reminds them, the U.S., Israel, the Europeans — all of them — that the problem is still there, guys. Things might seem to be stable, but no. It’s boiling.”
Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, has always advocated armed struggle. So for Gazans, even a tentative experiment with nonviolent protest is a significant step.
Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, likened attempts to cross Israel’s fence to American civil rights marchers’ attempts to cross the Ed- mund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, more than 50 years ago. He said he saw the demonstrations as an opportunity for a strategic shift by Palestinians.
“This is not a battle that protesters are coming to with guns,” he said. “They’re coming to it with their bodies and they’re confronting very real policies of violent repression. The protesters paid with their lives to get people to question whether these policies are justifiable,” he said.
“Frankly, I think this is Israel’s Achilles heel,” he added, “and it’s very important in this moment for the international community to be supportive of the protesters. They’ve always said, ‘Abandon militancy, abandon violence.’ If the international community allows the vi- olent repression of these protests without any real condemnation or intervention to stop the killing, it’s going to send a message that the world doesn’t want any Palestinian resistance — not violent, not nonviolent, not anything in between.”
Israel, endeavouring to explain its use of lethal force, released photos and video of a few Palestinians trying to penetrate the fortified border fence and said others had thrown firebombs at its soldiers in the latest round of protest.
On Saturday, Israel’s Kan Radio reported that at least eight attempts were made to plant explosives along the fence during this past week’s demonstrations.
But while many protesters threw stones or rolled burning tires toward the border fence, far more protested peacefully — chanting and singing. Some approached the fence, venturing into a buffer zone that Israel had declared hundreds of feet into the Gaza side.
“What the Israelis are defending is not lives. They’re defending a fence,” Munayyer said. “That’s not the standard when it comes to the use of lethal force — to just snipe at people from hundreds of feet away.”
After the second Friday of protests, the Palestinians appeared unified. Though Hamas effectively managed the demonstrations in many ways, those participating came from the range of Gaza political factions and for the most part displayed only one banner — the Palestinian national flag.