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<h2><b>Talal Shihadeh – Palestinian Land Day</b></h2><font size=2>By
<a href="http://palestinethinktank.com/author/guest-post/">Guest Post</a>
• Mar 30th, 2010 at 9:13 <br>
<a href="http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/03/30/talal-shihadeh-palestinian-land-day/" eudora="autourl">
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/03/30/talal-shihadeh-palestinian-land-day/<br>
<br>
</a></font><font size=3>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]. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
In east Jerusalem, 34% of the land was directly confiscated, 52% was
considered a <i>green zone</i>, 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.
<ul>
<li>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.
<li>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.
<li>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.
<li>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.
<li>If you are a Palestinian living in West Bank, Gaza or abroad, you are
not allowed to work in or visit Jerusalem.
<li>If you are a Palestinian in East Jerusalem, you can go to the hell…
this is the Jewish Promised Land.
</ul><br>
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.<br><br>
* A <i>dunum</i> (or ‘dunam’) of land equals 1000sq. meters.<br><br>
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