The grand march: Palestinians crash Israel's border
Lebanon-Israel, Analysis, 7/20/2006

Many Palestinians and Arabs have celebrated the reactions of Hizbullah to Israel's aggressiveness, when Arab leaders seem to be able to do little but talk, the Arab public perceives.

With Palestinians living in Syria celebrating now the Hizbullah reaction of courage, and Syria having many Palestinian refugees, as does Lebanon and Jordan, there is an idea that is worth exploring.

If the Palestinians want to support Hizbullah, they can do so by supporting themselves. As refugees who have been suffering for a long time, away from the villages they grew in and families and relatives still in Palestine, why not walk back to Palestine, the homes and villages you were forced out off.

How about the Syrian people, the Jordanians, the Lebanese, and their governments, helping these Palestinian refugees, tomorrow, volunteering all the needed buses and cars, to bus the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the Lebanese borders, Syrian borders with Palestine, and Jordan's border, and let the Palestinians start to march on foot across the border.

There would be maybe about a million civilian Palestinian refugees walking on their feet back to their villages and families. As for their belongings, arrangements can be made to secure them. Jews should certainly sympathize with such desire. And what is the worst that can happen? Israelis start shooting at a million innocent civilian Palestinians simply walking back to their homes and villages?

How badly do these Palestinians want to go back home? How badly do they want to help themselves? How badly do they want to help Hizbullah and the Lebanese? Taking these civilian buses, and crashing these border fences, with hammers or cars or buses or whatever, not one at a time, but in mass, and from all directions, seems like an interesting idea.

There is a technical problem of land mines, but consider this as a possible solution: Once you crash the border, get into a straight line and keep walking. You will either loose a few of you to land mines, who will clear the way, or you will all of you make it safely to your families, once and for all. That is how tanks do it when they go thru an area that has land mine fields. Israel is killing and injuring and destroying your families on a daily basis. As you march, you can also trade who will be in the front row, switching every couple of hundred feet. With hundreds of thousands of you walking together, your chance of being blown up would seem very small. The Palestinians had always had their guerilla groups willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause. They can lead if others would not. The Americans kicked the Brittish out, and other occupied and oppressed people rose up, only when their desire was strong enough to put their lives on the line.

So what would happen if Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan individually, declare tomorrow to be "Palestine Day, the great march" asking busses and car owners to volunteer for transporting these Palestinians.

Although Israel sees no problem in attacking civilians and civilian power plants and infrastructure, an idea that the Palestinians and their supporters inside Israel may already have decided to emulate, what if the mass of Palestinians inside Israel and the Palestinian occupied areas as well decide in mass to also march to meet and greet at the border these coming Palestinian families. Palestinians civilians marching from both sides of the border. About 4.5 million civilians marching.

Is Israel going to shoot at all these civilians as well? That would be a site to see. Would Israel actually be able to shoot and stop that many determined civilians? How may soldiers and policemen does it take to do so?

Palestinians and their Arab supporters may want to consider this option. How much worse can their lives be? They have been living what they call a miserable existence, and with little dignity. And this seems like a chance to act and contribute to your own struggle. You would simply be going back to your homes and towns from which you have been forced out. And it looks like success is yours, if you have this kind of courage. And the world most certainly will admire and be in awe of such a sight of courage, and you will have their support behind you. Who would not support this peaceful effort? One tank crushing a civilian man who stands in front of it should be enough for you to win this battle. How about the hundreds of thousands of you doing so?

By,
Jamil Kazoun

Previous Stories:
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