Pro-Israel Advocacy Attempts to Distort the Narrative on the Great March of Return

This report outlines EuroPal Forum’s strong condemnation of efforts by pro-Israel advocacy groups, particularly the Friends of Israel Initiative, to distort the nature of the Great March of Return protests in Gaza. It highlights a seminar held in the UK Parliament in April 2019, where speakers such as Natasha Hausdorff and Col. Richard Kemp portrayed the protests as military operations orchestrated by Hamas, framing Israel’s deadly use of force as legitimate self-defence. The report counters these claims by citing the findings of an independent UN Commission of Inquiry, which concluded that the protests were overwhelmingly civilian in nature and that Israel’s actions may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity. According to the UN and WHO, Israeli forces killed over 277 people, including 52 children, and wounded tens of thousands, with a significant number requiring amputations. EuroPal Forum asserts that the dissemination of false narratives about the protests contributes to a wider crisis of Israeli impunity and seeks to justify the indiscriminate use of lethal force against Palestinians.