The Palestinian people mark today the 46th anniversary of the Land Day. On that day the Israeli police shot and killed six Palestinian citizens for protesting the Israeli government’s confiscation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian land.
Forty-six years ago today Israeli police shot and killed six Palestinians as they were protesting the Israeli government’s expropriation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian land in the Galilee Negev and Triangle areas. Since then March 30 has been known as Land Day.
It has become a major commemorative date in the Palestinian political calendar and an important event in the Palestinian collective narrative – one that emphasizes Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonization and steadfastness.
The 1976 protests were a result of mass collective action across historic Palestine which saw Palestinian communities resisting not only the theft of land but also overall settler colonial policies of erasure.
Although there were also protests in the Negev and Wadi Ara most of the action took place in six villages in the Galilee that had been placed under curfew: Sakhnin Arraba Deir Hanna Tur’an Tamra and Kabul.
The demonstrations were met with aggression and violence; in addition to the six demonstrators killed hundreds were injured.
Annually on this very special day Palestinians take to the streets to speak up for their inalienable rights most notably their right of return to their homeland—Palestine—from which they were expelled at gunpoint by Zionist gangs.
This year the anniversary comes as Israel escalates demolition and displacement policy against 150000 Palestinians in the Negev.
On the Land Day Palestinians demand once and for all that the international community pick the right side of history.
