My big fear is that these attacks on Gaza are like a live arms show. We saw after the 2014 massacre in Gaza that arms sales actually went up in Israel. This is why it is important to push for a complete arms embargo.
Dennis Bernstein: My understanding is that many Palestinians have vowed to continue to protest and resist. Do you think there will be more live fire attacks?
Diana Buttu: There will definitely be more protests and Israel will definitely continue to kill Palestinians, because it can. Because so far all we have seen is a green light. We have seen European states express how deeply concerned they are, but this concern doesn't do anything for Palestinians.
There are plans to protest from Land Day, March 30, through May 15, the day that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is commemorated. It is also the day that the US moves its embassy in violation of international law.
So we will see six weeks of protest taking place. And I certainly expect that the Israeli military machine is going to continue to take Palestinian lives, because no one is stopping them.
Dennis Bernstein: Have any reporters been calling you from MSNBC or NPR to get your perspective?
Diana Buttu: For the most part, I think that the killing of Palestinians has become so commonplace that it is no longer news. It seems that Trump's tweets are of more importance than 18 lives taken away so quickly, 18 families affected, and their friends and others.
The day before the march, a young artist wrote in the sand on the beaches in Gaza "# I will return" in Arabic. The next day he was one of those who lost their lives. The next day his friend wrote his name in the sand as a means of commemorating him. These are people with real lives, with dreams, with fears, with families. Instead we are reduced to numbers, not nearly as important as the 140 characters that your president tweets out.
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