Palestinian refugees continue ‘March of Return’ mobilisation

The International Coordination Committee for the Great March of Return reiterated on Wednesday that arrangements for the march scheduled to take place on Land Day is continuing by leaps and bounds, Quds Press has reported.

A statement from the Committee explained that it has agreed with many NGOs, youth and women’s movements in the Gaza Strip to take part in what it describes as a “national activity which adopts peaceful resistance as a new approach to retake Palestinian rights, at the top of which is the refugees’ right of return.”

The Committee stressed the peaceful and legal nature of the proposed march. It is intended to impose a new reality leading to practical outcomes related to the legitimate right of return based upon UN Resolution 194.

According to Zaher Birawi, a coordinator of the project based in London, “The popular movement is one of the main tools of popular resistance at this stage. This is a practical Palestinian response to the blind support of the international powers to the Israeli occupation and their failure to regain any Palestinian rights.”

March of Return: Refugees will return to their homes

Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt are expected to take part in this year’s marches in occupied Palestine and solidarity marches elsewhere to be held on 30 March.

It was on that date in 1976 that a general strike and protests were organised across the land of Palestine occupied since 1948 in response to Israeli government proposals to confiscate thousands of acres of land for “security” reasons. In the ensuing clashes with the occupation security forces, six unarmed Palestinians were killed and one hundred more were wounded. Land Day has been commemorated annually ever since.