USPCN salutes #GreatReturnMarch, calls for State Department to stop Israel’s attacks

USPCN salutes #GreatReturnMarch, calls for State Department to stop Israel’s attacks

Tomorrow, March 30, is Land Day, when we commemorate the six Palestinian martyrs who were killed by Israeli soldiers in 1976 while protesting Israel’s plans to expropriate 60,000 dunam (each dunam is 1,000 square meters) of Palestinian land in the Galilee (the northern region of 1948 Palestine). It is also the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the #GreatReturnMarch. Palestinians in Gaza have sacrificed their lives attempting to break the blockade, with people of all ages, professions, genders, and political affiliations participating in the year-long marches and protests.

In acknowledgement that Israel is currently bombing Gaza already, and in anticipation of massive protests there and across Palestine tomorrow, USPCN calls on all its members and supporters to immediately call the U.S. State Department at 202-647-6575 (Press 8), and demand that it stops Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people.

The demands of the protests include an end to the siege on Gaza, and the inalienable Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Israel has murdered 273 of these protestors, including 51 children. These martyrs were not collateral damage, but deliberate targets of zionist sniper attacks. Over 30,000 have been injured or permanently disfigured.

In addition to children, medical staff and journalists have also been deliberately shot. Paramedic Razan al-Najjar was killed, along with two journalists, Yaser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein; and 670 medical personnel injured. Israeli reserve brigadier-general Zvika Fogel said in an interview: “It is not the whim of one or the other sniper who identifies the small body of a child now and decides he’ll shoot. Someone marks the target for him very well and tells him exactly why one has to shoot and what the threat is from that individual.” (Electronic Intifada, April 22, 2018)

Yet each loss of Palestinian life is a loss for Israel. Its assault on civilians and peaceful protestors has elicited international condemnation from all across the world, even in the U.S., where the zionist state is finally being seen as the criminal, apartheid regime that it is.

And even though Trump has called for U.S. recognition of Israel’s control of the Golan Heights,  Israel’s expansionist aims in Syria and Lebanon have been thwarted by the people and resistance in those countries. And as the Israeli government becomes more fractured and divided, prompting its call for early elections and its formation of the fascist “New Right” party, the Palestinian resistance becomes more unified, steadfast, and determined to achieve liberation.

Despite the loss of life in Gaza, the continuation of the marches and protests demonstrates great victory amidst great struggle. USPCN salutes our people and their #GreatReturnMarch, and recognizes that its goals and objectives coincide with our own: self-determination and equality for the Palestinian people; the Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees, and their descendants, to their original homes and lands in historical Palestine; and ending zionist occupation and colonization of all Palestinian and Arab lands.

U.S. Palestinian Community Network – March 29, 2019