“Marches of Return” encircle the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) while the Palestinians inside the OPT rally from within… Restating commitment to the Right of Return of all Palestinians, all Palestinians, and Marking the 1948 Nakba in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced; they rally together on the 15th of May.
In an attempt to affirm the Right of Return of the Palestinians to their homeland, possessions and villages from which they were coercively driven out, to affirm the Right of Return as a sacred, historical, legitimate, legal, humane and political right, to affirm that the Right of Return is a permanent, unconditional, non-negotiable and irrevocable right… free people will march towards the borders, while others will hold events in various countries around the world in solidarity with their Palestinian brethrens.
In Lebanon, the Return to Palestine March will set out towards the Palestinian/Lebanese borders on Sunday May 15, 2011, on the day commemorating the 1948 Nakba. The March will include various Palestinian and Lebanese civil and popular organizations and associations, professional associations, federations, NGOs, political parties and groups, in addition to independent activists from different regions and refugee camps around Lebanon.
The March will include thousands of returnees as well their supporters, who will rally to the borders of the land from which they were forcibly uprooted in 1948 by Zionist terrorism and violence.
Several other Marches are also being organized towards the Palestinian borders in other surrounding Arab countries (Egypt, Syria, Jordan). Demonstrations targeting “Israeli” embassies are also planned in a number of Western cities to protest the occupation of Palestine and the Zionist apartheid regime.
According to sources, Palestinian students and rights activists in Gaza have initiated a campaign for Palestinian refugees aiming to harness the winds of change in the Middle East and mobilize the diaspora into action.
On May 15, the group said, more than 1 million people will participate in a global sit-in at “Israeli” embassies worldwide.
Thousands of Egyptians are said to be preparing to march to the Gaza Strip to challenge the illegal Israeli siege on the coastal enclave. They intend to attempt to cross into the coastal region via the Rafah Border Terminal, between Gaza and Egypt.
The Egyptian activists plan to protest the illegal “Israeli” siege on Gaza, and to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation, and struggling to achieve liberation and independence.
Also, Egyptians are calling for million-man gatherings to be held in cities countrywide on 13 May where participants will then head to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where prominent political figures are scheduled to speak about the Palestinian cause.
Jordan and Syria also plan to join the rallies to the borders. Thousands of Jordanians Thursday prepared to take part in a rally to be held in the Jordan Valley, near the “Israel”-controlled border with the West Bank, on Friday to express backing for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, organizers said.
In response to the call of the Palestinian people for a popular uprising on May 15th, activists and organizations will demonstrate outside the “Israeli” embassy in London on the same day, to demand that the “Israeli” ambassador is expelled from the UK, in light of “Israel’s” continued disregard for international law.
Also in Ireland, Act for Palestine movement and other activists will demonstrate outside the “Israeli” Embassy in Dublin on the same day to protest “Israel’s” continued disregard for international law and to remember Al Nakba (The Catastrophe).
Before the demonstration, the movement plans to hold a ‘Moving Gallery’, where people will walk to the “Israeli” Embassy carrying large photographs from Al Nakba and Palestinian flags.
Meanwhile, on the land of Palestine, and for the first time in five years, Fatah and Hamas will form a joint committee to prepare commemoration events for Nakba Memorial Day.
Thousands of Palestinians have marched in West Bank towns ahead of the “Nakba Day” which marks the 63rd anniversary of evicting Palestinians from their homes by Israelis.
Marchers in Beit Lahm (Bethlehem) held Palestinian flags and a giant key symbolic of their optimism to return home.
Meanwhile, in Gaza City, hundreds of children took part in a march while holding placards with the names of the villages and towns forcefully taken over by Israeli occuppiers in 1948.
The Zionist Entity on its part is in a state of alert. “Israeli” media sources reported on Wednesday that the “Israeli” Army are set to increase West Bank deployment.
“Israeli” Security chiefs have been closely monitoring the situation in advance, and as of Wednesday the “Israeli” troop deployment throughout many areas in the West Bank and close to the Gaza strip increased significantly. This comes in context of suppressing the events that are to take place in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
And so, amid “Israeli” fear of an Right to Return Revolution, other Arab and European countries will hold rallies in commemoration of the Nakba, reiterating that the Right of Return remains as long as the Palestinian olive trees live and as long as the free people of the world remain to breathe, on hope to breathe the air of the Holy Land, smell and touch its soils, and place the first “forever-return” footsteps on the land of Palestine.
Source: English.Moqawama.org