These days a year ago, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip launched the biggest, and almost the longest, popular protest that has erupted since the Israeli occupation of their lands in 1967 or even since the occupation of historical Palestine in 1948.
The protests, known as the Great March of Return, saw Palestinian people of different ages and various political views come together and chant slogans calling not only to lift the 12-year-long blockade of the Gaza Strip, but also to allow Palestinian refugees to return to villages and districts from where they were driven in the 1948 war.
More than 270 peaceful protesters were killed in cold blood by Israeli forces deployed at the security fence, the buffer zone, in the eastern Gaza Strip. Thousands of people were also injured via bone-breaking bullets the Israeli army purposely fired against unarmed, innocent civilians.
Given the great sacrifices of the Gazans during the 52-week-long marches, many voices have risen and adopted an anti-protest approach, saying that the price Palestinians paid in a year of protesting was much bigger than what Israel received in return. They also call for halting the weekly protests and substitute other methods to force Israel to recognize Palestinian rights.
Here, I would say that the peaceful activities of the Great March of Return have become one of the most effective cards the Palestinians have in their struggle against the Israeli occupation after it was verified that the armed struggle alone doesn't work. Resistance factions in the Gaza Strip depend on the armed resistance strategy to force Israel to ease the crippling humanitarian situation caused by the 12-year-long resistance, which was dealt with by excessive force during three wars Israel launched against the blockaded Gaza Strip in which thousands of Palestinians were victimized, tens of thousands were injured and a large part of the city was devastated. This shows that the price civilians pay is unaffordable and much harder than the popular protests.
Another factor making weekly protests important is that the Great March of Return redefined the nature of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians by attributing the origin of the problem to the 1948 war. In the aftermath of the infamous Oslo Accords – signed in 1993 – the terms and discussions of the peace process between the two sides focused on a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders that the helpless Palestinian side was pressured to accept. Thus, the weekly scene of Palestinian refugees calling for their right to return to 1948 historical Palestine showcases the crisis of the Palestinian refugees and reaffirms their genuine right of return.
The Great March of Return also cleansed the image of the Palestinian resistance in the world that the pro-Israel media empire tarnished in recent decades. The Palestinian struggle was usually depicted by the pro-Israel media as "acts of terror," which was totally refuted by footage that came out of Gaza in the last year. During the 52-week-long protests, live broadcasts showed Israel massacring hundreds of innocent Palestinians for no reason; they were simply protesting peacefully and chanting for freedom and dignity and Israeli snipers began deliberately shooting children, women, paramedics and journalists, making the Palestinian narrative credible and unveiling the real face of the terrorist state of Israel.
It is true that Palestinians see themselves paying a heavy price a year after the beginning of the Great March of Return, but still, this struggle is less costly than adopting armed resistance alone. Popular resistance is the only effective way for Palestinians to make themselves heard amid the presence of non-supportive Arab regimes and the preoccupation of allied peoples in their own causes.
* Ph.D. student at Yıldırım Beyazıt University's Department of International Relations