[News] For Palestinians, Land Day comes amid war, death and land theft

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/land-day-palestinians-anniversary-war-death-land-theft>
For Palestinians, Land Day comes amid war, death and land theft
By MEE staff
March 30, 2024
------------------------------

Palestinians <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine> this year
mark the 48th anniversary of Land Day amid a brutal Israeli
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> war on Gaza, near daily
raids in the occupied West Bank, and an increase in land confiscation and
settlement building.

On 30 March 1976, six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces as
thousands of Palestinian in Israel's northern Galilee region rose up in
protest against the Israeli expropriation and occupation of Palestinian
lands.

The event became known as Land Day and a symbol of national struggle that
unites Palestinians around the world.

On Saturday afternoon, under the banner of "stop the war on
Gaza", thousands of Palestinians marched through the Palestinian town of
Deir Hanna, one of the towns in Israel where the most violent crackdown on
protesters took place that day in 1976*.*

Land Day is also seen as significant because it is deemed to mark the first
time that Palestinian citizens of Israel organised collectively against
Israeli policies.

Palestinian citizens of Israel make up around 17.5 percent of the country's
population and are descended from Palestinians who were not expelled by
Zionist militias during the creation of Israel in 1948.

Palestinian protesters on Saturday also marched through the city of
Sakhnin, in northern Israel, where three of the six Palestinians were
buried almost five decades ago, Arab48
<https://www.arab48.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%A9/2024/03/30/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82-%D9%81%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A3%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B0%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8048-%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B1%D8%B6-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D8%AE%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86>
reported.

They then visited the family homes of Raja Abu Raya, Khader Khalayleh and
Khadija Shawahneh, and laid wreaths on a monument honouring all six victims.

The other three Palestinians killed that day were Kheir Yassin, Mohsin Taha
and Raafat Zuhairi.

"The most important thing that the martyrs gave on Land Day in 1976 was the
belief in our right to our land," Ahmed, Khalayleh's brother, said in a
speech at the cemetery.

>From Sakhnin, the protesters marched to the cemetery in the neighbouring
city of Arraba to pay tributes to Yassin.

Palestinians also paid homage to Zuhairi and Taha in their respective
hometowns of Taybeh and Kfar Qana.

A relative of the martyr Khadija Shawahna, Wafa, said in her speech: "Land
Day is a turning point in the history of our people. It is the departure
from the machine of oppression, emergency laws, and military rule without
fear, and today, after all these years, we are still suffering from
emergency laws and military rule."

Since that day in 1976, Palestinians have engaged in widespread activities
to commemorate Land Day and demand an end to the regime of racial
discrimination - in particular, land and housing policies that have turned
their towns into closed ghettos.

Demonstrations in cities around the world were also organised on Saturday,
including in London, New York, Madrid, Rabat and Beirut.
Raids and land theft

As Palestinians prepared to commemorate this day, Israeli forces carried
out several overnight raids across the West Bank, killing a 13-year-old
boy, Nabil Abu Abed, in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin.

In Jericho, Israeli forces stormed the city in the morning, raiding several
homes and interrogating residents. They also tightened military measures at
the checkpoints set up at its entrances for the third consecutive day,
denying movement of Palestinian vehicles into and out of the city.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/land-day-potent-symbol-palestinian-struggle>

Land Day: A potent symbol of the Palestinian struggle


Meanwhile, in a report released on Saturday, the Colonisation and Wall
Resistance Commission (CWRC) said Israel has seized 27,000 dunums (27 sqkm)
of Palestinian land in the West Bank since the start of the war on Gaza.

The CWRC, a governmental commission affiliated with the Palestine
Liberation Organization, said that 1,895 settlement units have also since
been approved by Israel, displacing 25 Bedouin communities from the
Palestinian territory.

The report added that some 840 checkpoints and gates have been set up in
the West Bank.

Israeli military has carried out 9,700 attacks against Palestinian
residents and their properties, and have destroyed and uprooted 9600 trees,
mostly olive trees, the report said.
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