Some residents of the Gaza Strip (the numbers have been dwindling down) are preparing to take part in the Friday march on the border fence for the third consecutive week. Last week’s rallies were accompanied by piles of tires which were set on fire, ostensibly to obscure the identity of the participants. This week which they seem less troubled by being exposed, as the theme this Friday, as befits the rally before next week’s Israel 70th Independence Day is… wait for it… “The lifting of the flag of Palestine and the burning of the flag of Israel,” according to Ma’an.
Amer Shreith, member of the International Coordinating Committee for the Return and Breaking the Siege, told Ma’an that the “National Authority” has completed preparations for the Friday marches along the border, which will literally feature lifting the Palestinian flag close to the border fence and burning the Israeli flag in front of the Israeli soldiers on the other side.
(Note to self: buy stock in Marom FGP, a leading manufacturer of Israeli flags, they’re going to have a banner day.)
Shreith added that hundreds of Palestinian flags had been prepared for the event, and several Israeli flags had already been practice-burned.
He pointed out that a 75-foot mast was erected in the rally camp east of Jabaliya, were a giant Palestinian flag would be raised.
(See also Esther 7:9, “And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits [75 ft.] high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, stands in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.”)
Shreith expected the participation of tens of thousands of Gazans in the third Friday of the rallies, predicting they would start arriving in the morning until after the end of the afternoon prayers, when the flag burning for the benefit of the media would start in earnest.
After two Fridays of demonstrations, many in the Arab world are now supporting Israel against Hamas, mostly because those rallies are seen as being initiated and supported by Iran, and in the Gulf states, as well as in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Iran is feared as a zealous, destabilizing, expansionist force in the Middle East.
One important commentator in Kuwait has written that Iran is behind the demonstrations, that the demonstrations are not helping the Arab world, and that the IDF should “kill all the demonstrators.”
Even some un-named officials in Ramallah have condemned Hamas, which, they said, “throws babies into the fence and trades in the blood of children.” Arab social networks also show an eroding support for the demonstrations and for Hamas.
And so, even as the IDF is preparing for the third Friday in a row at the Gaza Strip border fence, the prevailing assessment is that the number of Arabs marching today will be significantly lower than last week’s, which was lower than the week before.