March of Return (Israel)

The March of Return (مسيرة العودة) is an annual protest march in Israel organized by the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Displaced (ADRID), also known as the Committee of the Uprooted, : "As mentioned, the tradition of internally displaced Palestinians visiting the villages annually has existed for several decades. It was, however, only in 1998 when ADRID established it as a nation-wide event that has been organized annually on Israel’s Independence Day… For most families, the March of Return did not replace family visits altogether but became an additional and more politicized event… One reason for the growth of the March of Return is that for the tens of thousands of participants, the day is a national holiday in Israel, and they are thus free of other obligations. The performative importance of organizing the March on Israeli Independence Day, however, transcends the visibility gained by the amount of people. The organizers recognize that the significance of appropriating the day is that it is ‘stating mainly: your day of independence is our day of catastrophe, Nakba’. Furthermore, marking Independence Day as a day of mourning is criminalized in Israel with the so-called Nakba Law that enable reducing state funding and support from institutions that are ‘rejecting the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state’ or ‘commemorating Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning’… By defining how the Independence Day can and should be commemorated, the state attempts to regulate the ways it can be represented and who is included in the national body. With the March Palestinians thus challenge the narratives of official independence celebrations and assert that the state is founded on dispossession and that Israeli landscape is built on Palestinian ruins. Thus, the March of Return challenges those ways through which the state aims to present itself and can thus work as a ‘performative contradiction’... that can – over time – facilitate a political change and challenge the exclusions that are constitutive for the state… The performative power of the March of Return is that it, albeit temporarily, makes visible the Palestinian past, and brings to the fore the continuing existence of Palestinians on the land. By assembling for the March, Palestinians are exercising the performative right to appear… Similarly for Palestinians, while it might not be accurate to speak about healing from a trauma as it is still ongoing, the annual event of March of Return does provide a means to bear witness to the consequences of Nakba by appearing in the places Palestinians were erased from and claim the right to return to those places by enacting the future in which also healing and justice could be possible." which represents the "Present absentees", i.e. the Palestinian citizens of Israel who are internally displaced. The march takes place annually on or around Nakba Day or Land Day, with a different destination each year – each year one of the c. 400 depopulated Palestinian villages in Israel is chosen.

Description and history
The march traces its origins to the early 1980s when hundreds of Palestinian Israelis marched to commemorate their expulsion from Kafr Bir'im, gradually institutionalizing the practice of private family visits to destroyed villages. The march intersects with the tradition of Land Day commemoration, following the 1976 land confiscations, which diversified in the 1980s to include organized visits to depopulated villages.

The Committee of the Uprooted first organized a Land Day rally in the depopulated village of Al-Ghabisiyya in 1995. In 1998, they named their annual event a "March of Return", beginning a tradition of a mass march to different depopulated villages each year on Nakba Day. The event's secular character, with mixed-gender participation, dabka dancing, and secular music, contrasts with the Palestinian Israeli Islamist factions' more reserved attitude. The marches have been unified, peaceful festivals, contrasting with Nakba Day events in the West Bank that have been marked by confrontations and violence against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

The Committee of the Uprooted orchestrates the marches in conjunction with Israeli authorities, aiming to avoid provocation and maintain positive relations with Israeli Jewish communities. Efforts include discipline in protest expressions, careful route planning to avoid conflicts with Jewish localities, and refraining from marching to certain villages. Jewish participation, including speakers and organizational involvement, has been consistently maintained, though it remains a largely Palestinian-led initiative.

Destinations and attendance
The list below summarizes the destinations of the marches, and where known, the attendance:
 * 2024: Hawsha and Khirbat Al-Kasayir, 15,000 attendees
 * 2023: Lajjun
 * 2022: Mi'ar
 * 2021: Al-Dumun (mostly online due to Covid)
 * 2019: Khubbayza
 * 2018: Atlit
 * 2017: Al-Kabri, initially 25,000 attendees anticipated and blocked by Israeli government. Route changed and proceeded.
 * 2016: Wadi Subala (Tiyaha bedouin)
 * 2015: Hadatha
 * 2014: Lubya, 20,000 attendees, the largest Nakba demonstration in Israel ever at that time
 * 2013: Khubbayza, 7,000 attendees
 * 2012: Kuwaykat and Amka
 * 2011 Al-Ruways and Al-Dumun
 * 2010 Miska
 * 2009 Al-Kafrayn
 * 2008: Saffuriya
 * 2007: Lajjun
 * 2006 Umm az-Zinat
 * 2005 Hawsha and Khirbat Al-Kasayir
 * 2004 Indur
 * 2003 Umm az-Zinat
 * 2002 Al-Birwa
 * 2001 Ma'alul
 * 2000 Al-Dumun
 * 1999: Saffuriya
 * 1998: Al-Ghabisiyya