Palestine cause will live on
Despite its upper hand, the Zionist state of Israel has not won, and the Palestinian people have not been defeated
situation and sorrow at the loss of many Palestinian lives at the hands of Israeli troops. The draft called for an independent and transparent investigation into such crimes, indicating the illegality of moving any foreign embassy to occupied Jerusalem and calling on all countries, including the US, to comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions.
The crime seems to be deliberate and planned. The Israeli occupation forces have warned that it is willing to commit a massacre to stop the marches and crush the will and resistance of the Gazans. Although Israel keeps its forces on permanent alert to deal with the marchers, it will not dare now to move the battle from the border to the heart of Gaza in an open war. During the weeks of the marches, the Palestinian resistance refrained from any firing at Israel and no Israeli soldier or citizen was hurt or sustained even a scratch.
In this context, Israel entered into a direct conflict with Iran in Syria, and neither seems ready to back off. The tensions erupted as the right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to involve the US more in the Syrian quagmire, as tension persists with the presence of Hezbollah in Lebanon with its vast arsenal of weapons.
The importance of the ‘Marches of Return’ and the achievements made are quite significant. They restored the Palestinian issue on the agenda of the international community, stressing the unity of the people, their cohesion and willingness to sacrifice. They drew the world attention to the insistence of the Palestinian people to hold on to their full legitimate rights, albeit at a high price; especially the issues of occupied Jerusalem and their right of return, which will not be removed from the Palestinian collective memory by any political decision.
It is true that the Palestinian Nakba (1948 Palestinian exodus) persists, but the Zionist state has not won, and the Palestinians have not been defeated, and their blood that has been shed is expected to be translated into achievements, the most urgent of which now is to bring an end to the siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip. Indeed, the continuing ‘Marches of Return’ emphasise that the issue of Palestine is relatively in good shape, moving on by the power of the people, and its cause has not and will not die. Such is the case. So will the 70th anniversary of Palestinian Nakba turn into a ‘political Nakba for Israel’?