March of Return (Israel)

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Not to be confused with 2018–2019 Gaza border protests.
The 2015 March of Return in Hadatha

The March of Return (Arabic: مسيرة العودة, romanized: Masīrat al-ʻAwdah) is an annual protest march in Israel organized by the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Displaced (ADRID), also known as the Committee of the Uprooted,[1] which represents the "Present absentees", i.e. the Palestinian citizens of Israel who are internally displaced. The march takes place annually on or around Nakba Day or Land Day, with a different destination each year – each year one of the c.400 depopulated Palestinian villages in Israel is chosen.[2][3]

Description and History[edit]

The march traces its origins to the early 1980s when hundreds of Palestinian Israelis marched to commemorate their expulsion from Kafr Bir'im, gradually institutionalizing the practice of private family visits to destroyed villages.[3] The march intersects with the tradition of Land Day commemoration, following the 1976 land confiscations, which diversified in the 1980s to include organized visits to depopulated villages.[3]

The Committee of the Uprooted first organized a Land Day rally in the depopulated village of Al-Ghabisiyya in 1995. In 1998, they named their annual event a "March of Return", beginning a tradition of a mass march to different depopulated villages each year on Nakba Day. The event's secular character, with mixed-gender participation, dabka dancing, and secular music, contrasts with the Palestinian Israeli Islamist factions' more reserved attitude. The marches have been unified, peaceful festivals, contrasting with Nakba Day events in the West Bank that have been marked by confrontations and violence against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.[3]

The Committee of the Uprooted orchestrates the marches in conjunction with Israeli authorities, aiming to avoid provocation and maintain positive relations with Israeli Jewish communities. Efforts include discipline in protest expressions, careful route planning to avoid conflicts with Jewish localities, and refraining from marching to certain villages. Jewish participation, including speakers and organizational involvement, has been consistently maintained, though it remains a largely Palestinian-led initiative.[3]

Destinations and attendance[edit]

The list below summarizes the destinations of the marches, and where known, the attendance:[4]

See also[edit]

Biography[edit]

  • Järvi, Tiina (2021-10-02). "Demonstrating the desired future: performative dimensions of internally displaced Palestinians' return activities". Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography. 103 (4): 380–396. doi:10.1080/04353684.2021.1876524. ISSN 0435-3684.
  • Sorek, Tamir (2015). "The March of Return and the Religious-Secular Divide". Palestinian Commemoration in Israel: Calendars, Monuments, and Martyrs. Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures. Stanford University Press. pp. 72–80. ISBN 978-0-8047-9520-3. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  • Wermenbol, Grace (2021-05-27). "4 - Recreating and Reclaiming the Lost Homeland: The March of Return". A Tale of Two Narratives: The Holocaust, the Nakba, and the Israeli-Palestinian Battle of Memories. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108885430.007. ISBN 978-1-108-88543-0.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Järvi 2021: "As mentioned, the tradition of internally displaced Palestinians visiting the villages annually has existed for several decades. It was, however, only in 1998 when ADRID established it as a nation-wide event that has been organized annually on Israel’s Independence Day… For most families, the March of Return did not replace family visits altogether but became an additional and more politicized event… One reason for the growth of the March of Return is that for the tens of thousands of participants, the day is a national holiday in Israel, and they are thus free of other obligations. The performative importance of organizing the March on Israeli Independence Day, however, transcends the visibility gained by the amount of people. The organizers recognize that the significance of appropriating the day is that it is ‘stating mainly: your day of independence is our day of catastrophe, Nakba’. Furthermore, marking Independence Day as a day of mourning is criminalized in Israel with the so-called Nakba Law that enable reducing state funding and support from institutions that are ‘rejecting the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state’ or ‘commemorating Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning’… By defining how the Independence Day can and should be commemorated, the state attempts to regulate the ways it can be represented and who is included in the national body. With the March Palestinians thus challenge the narratives of official independence celebrations and assert that the state is founded on dispossession and that Israeli landscape is built on Palestinian ruins. Thus, the March of Return challenges those ways through which the state aims to present itself and can thus work as a ‘performative contradiction’... that can – over time – facilitate a political change and challenge the exclusions that are constitutive for the state… The performative power of the March of Return is that it, albeit temporarily, makes visible the Palestinian past, and brings to the fore the continuing existence of Palestinians on the land. By assembling for the March, Palestinians are exercising the performative right to appear… Similarly for Palestinians, while it might not be accurate to speak about healing from a trauma as it is still ongoing, the annual event of March of Return does provide a means to bear witness to the consequences of Nakba by appearing in the places Palestinians were erased from and claim the right to return to those places by enacting the future in which also healing and justice could be possible."
  2. ^ Wermenbol 2021, pp. 74–78: "The March of Return, held annually since 1998, is the largest commemoration dedicated to the Nakba with tens of thousands of Palestinians participating every year."
  3. ^ a b c d e Sorek 2015, pp. 72–80
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "مسيرات العودة.. شوق إلى الأرض وتشبث بالحق [The return marches... longing for the land and clinging to the truth]". الجزيرة نت (in Arabic). 2018-03-30. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  5. ^ Iraqi, Amjad (2023-05-17). "How the Nakba's second generation absorbed their parents' trauma". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
  6. ^ Reiff, Ben (2022-06-23). "The Israeli left has broken the Nakba taboo. Will the right of return be next?". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
  7. ^ "Palestinians in Israel mark 73 years since Nakba, affirming right of return". Middle East Eye. 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  8. ^ "Thousands of Israeli Arabs mark Palestinian 'catastrophe' of '48 in annual march". The Times of Israel. 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
  9. ^ Ashly, Jaclynn (2018-04-23). "'The only solution to the Nakba is return'". The New Arab. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  10. ^ Cook, Jonathan (2017-04-10). "Why is Israel afraid of the Nakba's March of Return?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  11. ^ Surkes, Sue; Kirsh, Elana; Fabian, Emanuel; Fabian, Emanuel (2017-05-02). "Israeli Arabs march to mark 'catastrophe' of Israel's independence". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  12. ^ Järvi 2021.
  13. ^ Roth-Rowland, Natasha (2015-04-24). "Thousands return to destroyed Palestinian villages in Israel". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  14. ^ "In Pictures: Palestinian 'march of return'". Al Jazeera. 2014-05-15. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  15. ^ Cook, Jonathan (2014-05-15). "Israelis slowly wake up to the Nakba". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  16. ^ Matar, Haggai (2013-04-17). "Thousands join Palestinian March of Return on Israeli Independence Day". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  17. ^ a b Wermenbol 2021, pp. 74–78.
  18. ^ "Adalah and the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) Submit Complaints and Demand Indictments". Adalah. 2008-09-25. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  19. ^ "10th Annual March of Return to al-Lajjun (2007)". Zochrot - 10th Annual March of Return to al-Lajjun (2007). Retrieved 2024-04-07.
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