Israel has made several attempts to discredit Palestinian resistance in the context of the Great Return March. From orders to shoot at demonstrators, the bragging of having over 100 snipers at the border, as well as the killing and maiming of Palestinians asserting their right to return to historic Palestine, Israel has framed the protest as a violent disturbance.

However, it is not just the dissemination of the protests as a violent disturbance which distorts the demand to return to historic Palestine. By eliminating the context that led to the creation of colonial Israel on stolen and ethnically cleansed land, Israel has added fodder to its security narrative. It has rejected calls for independent investigations into the killings of Palestinians by IDF snipers. Given the level of collaboration between Israel and the international community in terms of promoting security demands, Israel knows it can dismiss criticism due to the discrepancy between collusion and condemnations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres affirmed Israel’s certainty through his statement which stressed: “This tragedy underlines the urgency of revitalising the peace process aiming at creating the conditions for a return to meaningful negotiations for a peaceful solution that will allow Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side peacefully and in security.”

Between Israel and the international community, there is a silent agreement to dissociate the Great Return March from its roots. The tragedy, in Guterres’s words, does not call for additional diplomatic negotiations in which the outcome is a consolidation of colonialism. Palestinians are clamouring for their right to return to historic Palestine – a clear and unequivocal statement which Guterres conveniently fails to acknowledge and which illustrates Palestine’s isolation within the international community. Read more.