Say what you will about the organizers of the seemingly relentless Friday rallies by the Gaza Strip border fence (although with sharply dwindling numbers, down from 30,000 to 3,000 in four weeks) – they do have a sense of humor, which is a rare commodity, indeed, among fanatics.
المواطنون في غزة يجمعون الاحذية التالفة لرميها على جنود الاحتلال في مسيرة العودة خلال الجمعة القادمة pic.twitter.com/IikC3S8KQp
— تامر السلطان #Gaza (@tameralsoltan)
A Sunday afternoon tweet and a Facebook post by one Tamer El Sultan, a graduate of Cairo’s illustrious Al-Azhar university who lives in Gaza City, reads: “The citizens of Gaza collect their damaged shoes to throw at the Israeli soldiers during next Friday march of return.”
The march of return, to remind you, is the organized attempt by Gaza Arabs to overwhelm Israeli defenses using their sheer numbers, and retake Israel from its Zionists.
Throwing shoes at an enemy is an old Arab tradition, as former president GW Bush learned on a visit to Iraq. On December 14, 2008, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at Bush during a press conference. Bush ducked both shoe volleys, the second shoe hit the US flag, and Al-Zaidi was subsequently grabbed, kicked, and hurried out of the room by guards.
According to the BBC, effigies of many United States Presidents with shoes on them are a common sight all over the Middle East, but it was not until this event that shoe throwing had received such notoriety. Since then, there have been many other shoeing incidents on an international scale.