ISRAELI CONFLICT
Palestinians need rights, not increased ‘resilience’
The opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem is the most visible of egregious moves against Palestinians
Viewed from Palestine, it’s hard to disagree that this has been one of the region’s most inflammatory weeks in recent memory. In just a few days, several extremely sensitive events coincided to devastating effect: the culmination of weekly protests in the Gaza Strip, the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba (from Arabic, "immense catastrophe") and the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Throw in for good measure Israel and Iran’s recent clash over the occupied Golan Heights and it seems that, more than ever, the region is something of a tinderbox. As 800 guests arrived in Jerusalem to bear witness to the US embassy’s relocation – 33 of them representatives from foreign embassies – protesters in the Gaza Strip were being shot and killed. In what’s been dubbed the Great March of Return, Palestinians in Gaza (the vast majority of whom are refugees) have massed at the edge of the territory to demand their right of return, a righ...
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