Gaza: The #GreatMarchofReturn — What went wrong?

It all started with a Facebook post by Ahmed Abu Artema, 32, a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, arguably the largest open-air prison in the world:

“What if 200,000 demonstrators came out in a peaceful march and broke into the barbed wire east of Gaza?”

“What can a heavily armed occupation do to those peaceful human waves?”

The answer by the brutal Nazi-like forces of Israel was to kill as the world witnessed since the march started over a month ago and culminated today with at least 56 Palestinian killed just today and thousand injured on the 70th anniversary of Nakba or Catastrophe Day — the day hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were kicked out of their homeland.

The day also coincided with the opening of the new American embassy in Jerusalem, a city that Palestinians also consider as the capital of their homeland. The reckless act by the Trump administration of moving the embassy to Jerusalem and thus giving official recognition to it as the capital of Israel — only added fuel to the fire and intensified the frustration of the Palestinian people that overflowed in the #GreatMarchofReturn protest today.

If anyone expected any different response than the routine barbaric killing and maiming by the Israeli forces, then it must have been an illusion as it has been proved.

Even though rocks thrown by hand or slingshots never put the lives of the Zionist forces perched with machine guns in watchtowers in danger, they killed all the same.

Could all this unnecessary bloodshed be avoided?

Obviously, if the #GreatMarchofReturn never took place, it would not have happened. But the Palestinians have every right to march and protest against their oppressors, as we all know. So, I am not saying this should not have taken place.

I think Gaza Palestinians should have instead tied a demand with the #GreatMarchofReturn protest — that not until they are allowed back into their rightful homeland — they would walk peacefully every day up to the razor fence and touch it. No stone throwing, no burning of tires, just go and touch the fence in the most orderly way possible.

If the Zionists responded with the same wanton brutality, then that would have caused the world public opinion in favor of the Palestinians in a much bigger way than it is now. It is hard to imagine the casualties would have been higher under that scenario.

The fact Palestinians were throwing rocks and tried to break into the fences, gave their oppressors an excuse to shoot at them. At the end of the day, #GreatMarchofReturn was a desperate act by a desperate and imprisoned people.