The “Great March of Return” was originally planned to be a six-week non-violent protest campaign by Palestinian Arabs at the Gaza border fence with Israel to express their desire to return to the lands they claimed their ancestors had lost or been driven from. Originally conceived in 2011 by Gaza journalist and activist Ahmed Abu Artema, the idea did not gain popular support until 2018. After a viral Facebook post by Artema, wondering “what would happen if 200,000 peaceful protesters broke through the barbed wire and raised the Palestinian flag and pitched tents a few kilometers into our own occupied territory,” community activists began planning what they referred to as the “Great March of Return.”
One soldier described the experience of guarding the fence: Have you ever seen 4,000 people running towards you full of hate and yelling “Allah Akhbar”? What started out as a minor annoyance increasingly became a major hazard as protestors began to send hundreds of kites and balloons with incendiary devices across the border.
After the protests stopped, Palestinians continued to start fires. As of mid-October 2018, more than 1,000 fires were ignited by these easy-to-construct devices. More than 8,000 acres of forest and agricultural land have burned, causing millions of dollars in damage. In addition, fires have destroyed 25 percent of all nature reserves near the border, killing plants and animals. Many of these areas will take years if not decades to restore to their original condition. The Israeli government has pledged reparations for farmers who have lost crops,