Occupied Jerusalem

- In the late night of March 29, 1976, the Israeli army stormed the towns of Sakhnin, Arraba and Deir Hanna in the Galilee (north), and its soldiers fired indiscriminately to intimidate the residents and prevent them from participating in the protests and the general strike that was called for the next day, March 30 , rejecting the Judaization and settlement on their lands and at the expense of their existence.

"March 30" has turned into a milestone in the history of the Palestinian people, who, in the eighth decade of the Nakba, continue to fight the battle of steadfastness and survival and confront settlement and Judaization in all of historic Palestine, in scenes that keep the tragedy of asylum and the dream of return firmly rooted in the memory and in the Palestinian collective struggle.

With the intensification of the land battle inside the Palestinian territories, which ignited the first spark for the events of Land Day in 1976, the 48 Palestinians recall their strike on that day, which turned into massive confrontations, rejecting Israeli plans to confiscate tens of thousands of dunams in preparation for building settlement projects on their lands under the pretext of "developing the Galilee."

On the 46th anniversary of Land Day, the same scenes are repeated in new chapters of displacement and uprooting of Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line (separating the occupied territories in the 1948 Nakba from the rest of Palestine occupied in 1967).

A previous Palestinian demonstration to commemorate Land Day (Al-Jazeera)

Eternal Earth Day

"Eternal Land Day", as the people of the country call it, is the first direct confrontation of the 1948 Palestinians with the Israeli army since the Nakba.

During its events, 6 Palestinians from the Galilee, the Triangle and Tulkarm were martyred, hundreds were wounded by Israeli bullets, and thousands were imprisoned during clashes that lasted 3 days.

The events of Land Day came after the decision of the Israeli government headed by Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres, to move the scheme of Judaization and settlement in the Galilee by confiscating 21,000 dunums of the lands of the Al-Batouf, Al-Mal and Al-Shaghour plains, which belong to farmers from Sakhnin, Arraba, Deir Hanna and Arab Al-Sawa’id.

In the wake of the Israeli decision, the Committee for the Defense of Lands in the Interior met with the heads of local Arab municipalities to discuss ways to confront the expropriation decision and the plans of Judaization and settlement in the Galilee.

In an initial measure, the conferees declared a general strike inside the Palestinian territories on March 30, 1976.

On the morning of the strike, the Israeli authorities imposed a curfew on the 48 Palestinians in the Galilee, the Triangle, the Negev and the coastal cities, and this was in anticipation of the protests and demonstrations announced by the Arab leaders and the Committee for the Defense of Lands, which was formed in 1975 under the chairmanship of Reverend Shehadeh, to confront the scheme of Judaization and settlement in the Galilee.


existential threat

The Israeli government's plan stipulated the expansion of agricultural settlements and pastoral settlements in the Galilee, in addition to the establishment of several Jewish settlements on lands owned by Palestinians inside, including the establishment of the town of "Carmiel", the largest settlement city in the Galilee.

On the other hand, the Israeli authorities imposed restrictions on the Palestinians of the Galilee, and imposed on them the laws of military rule in everything related to movement and communication with their lands and cultivation.

The land targeted for Judaization and settlement was part of the closed military zone called “Area 9”, where the entry of land owners to cultivate it was linked to a permit from the military governor to be renewed every 3 months.

The Palestinians of the interior considered the confiscation decisions an existential threat to them, which brought back to their mind the scenes of the Nakba and the chapters of displacement.

The Rabin government decided to bring in Israeli soldiers to quell the demonstrations and break the strike, especially in Deir Hanna, Araba and Sakhnin, the area that ignited the first spark of events and became known as the "Land Day Triangle".

Excerpts from the "Palestine in Focus" program on Earth Day (Al-Jazeera)

From Arraba.. the first martyrs

Preemptively, the Israeli army suppressed a night demonstration that started from the town of Deir Hanna, but it failed to control the protests and confrontations that continued until the dawn of March 30, 1976 in the neighboring town of Araba.

The Israeli forces surrounded Araba with tanks, and used tear gas and live bullets to suppress the early demonstrations. The son of the town, Khair Yassin, was martyred, and he was the first martyr on Land Day.

After the news of Yassin's martyrdom spread, Palestinian demonstrations erupted in all of the Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev.

As documented by the literature, these demonstrations broke the barrier of fear and established the first stage of response since the Nakba to Judaize and settle the land.

The demonstrations of anger quickly turned into confrontations with the Israeli army, and were unprecedented in the town of Sakhnin, in which 3 Palestinians were martyred: Khadija Shawahna, Raja Abu Raya and Khader Khalila.

In the town of Kafr Kanna, Nazareth district, a demonstration was organized that the Israeli army suppressed with live bullets, in which Mohsen Taha was martyred, who was shot in the head by one of the soldiers.

In the town of Al-Taybeh in the Triangle, on the borders of the occupied territories in 1967, and near Tulkarm in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers stormed the town and fired indiscriminately at the protesting crowds. Raafat Al-Zuhairi, son of Noor Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, was martyred.

Palestinians raise their flags over lands threatened with confiscation (Al-Jazeera)

milestone

The Battle of Land Day is the first confrontation between the Palestinians of 1948 and Israel since the Nakba, and it was a milestone in the struggle and survival on the land and the strengthening of belonging to the Palestinian people and their national and national identity.

It broke the barrier of isolation imposed by the Israeli authorities on the 48 Palestinians whom Israeli citizenship had imposed on them since the Nakba, and it restored cohesion and unity to the Palestinian people in all their places of existence.

After the Nakba, about 150,000 Palestinians who owned nearly two million dunams were able to remain on their lands, except for the Negev lands. Israel imposed military rule on them and confiscated about 1.5 million dunams of them for “military purposes.” In 1976, it sought to complete its settlement scheme by controlling the Galilee lands.

The Israeli authorities escalated the confiscation of 48 lands, leaving only 500,000 dunams of Palestinian ownership there, targeting them with Judaization and settlement schemes and enacting more than 60 laws in order to confiscate them.


The Negev renews Earth Day

In the south, more than 300,000 Palestinian Bedouins live in the Negev today, who own more than 1.1 million dunams, and it is the largest area owned by Palestinians in the 48 lands. .

The memorial of Land Day comes amid a fierce Israeli escalation in the Negev, by demolishing homes, destroying agricultural land and sabotaging its crops, to push its 150,000 residents into forced migration, and group them into 8 fixed towns whose area does not exceed 300,000 acres.

The Israeli government approved a plan to militarize the Negev by transferring the headquarters of the Ministry of Security and military factories to the confiscated lands there, and establishing 12 new settlements on the ruins of Arab lands, including a city for religious settlers that accommodates 120,000 Jews, in addition to commercial centers and work facilities.