[News] Talal Shihadeh – Palestinian Land Day

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Talal Shihadeh – Palestinian Land Day

By 
<http://palestinethinktank.com/author/guest-post/>Guest 
Post • Mar 30th, 2010 at 9:13
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/03/30/talal-shihadeh-palestinian-land-day/

On 30th March each year, the Palestinian people 
commemorate the anniversary of Land Day, the day 
in March 1976 on which the Zionist occupation 
government confiscated thousands of dunums* of 
Palestinian land in the Galilee, leading to the 
displacement of the Palestinian people living 
inside the 1948 occupied territories (so-called 
Israel).  A general strike and peaceful 
demonstrations ensued in various villages as the 
Palestinian people began to defend their 
confiscated land.  Six Palestinians were killed, 
100 were wounded [and hundreds of others arrested].

The strategic plan of all Zionist governments has 
been to confiscate the land, isolate the 
Palestinian people into limited zones and 
complicate their situation in an effort to force them to emigrate.

In east Jerusalem, 34% of the land was directly 
confiscated, 52% was considered a green zone, an 
area in which it was forbidden for Palestinians 
to build, even as they were forced to pay high 
annual taxes to the Zionist municipality for 
their unused land.  If they failed to pay the 
required taxes, the municipality sold it.  The 
buyers, of course, were always Zionist settlement organizations.
    * If you are a Palestinian in East Jerusalem, 
you must pay a fee of over $25,000.00 to the 
Zionist municipality to obtain permission to 
build your home.  If this fee isn’t paid, or if 
you build without permission, bulldozers stand ready to demolish your home.
    * If you are a Palestinian in East Jerusalem, 
you do not have the right to repair or redesign 
your house.  If you do, it would have been 
cheaper to buy a house in the West Bank than to pay the violation fees.
    * If you are a Palestinian in East Jerusalem, 
close your shop; you will not be able to pay the 
required taxes to the municipality to keep it 
open.  Twenty-five percent of the shops in East Jerusalem are now closed.
    * If you are a Palestinian in East Jerusalem, 
and married to someone from the West Bank, your 
spouse will not be allowed to live with you in 
East Jerusalem; if you want to live with your 
husband or wife, you must move to the West Bank.
    * If you are a Palestinian living in West 
Bank, Gaza or abroad, you are not allowed to work in or visit Jerusalem.
    * If you are a Palestinian in East Jerusalem, 
you can go to the hell
 this is the Jewish Promised Land.

Thirty-four years have passed since the first 
Land Day event, and the confiscation of 
Palestinian land continues, and an independent 
state for the Palestinian people remains a dream.

* A dunum (or ‘dunam’) of land equals 1000sq. meters.




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