Occupied Jerusalem – In the wake of the Israeli razing of land in the Negev and the escalation of the policy of demolishing Palestinian homes and structures in general, as well as plans to confiscate land and expand settlements in historic Palestine, the 48 Palestinians mark the 47th anniversary of Land Day, which falls on March 30 of each year.

Land Day was a milestone in the relationship between the Israeli governments and the 48 Palestinians, as the decision of the Israeli government headed by Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres in 1976 ignited the battle for land and housing after moving an Israeli plan to confiscate 21,<> dunams (a dunum equals one thousand square meters) of land in the Galilee Plains of Al-Batuf, Al-Mil and Al-Shaghour in the Galilee, owned by farmers from the towns of Sakhnin, Araba, Deir Hanna and Arab Al-Sawaed.

The events of Land Day turned into an existential battle, as the 48 Palestinians in the demonstrations against settlements and land confiscation paid the blood tax with the martyrdom of 6 of them in the Galilee, Triangle and Tulkarm, and hundreds were wounded by the Israeli army's bullets, while thousands of them were arrested to suppress their protests and strikes.

The 48 Palestinians have faced a policy of confiscating land since the Nakba, through Land Day, until the recent attack in the Negev in the south (Al-Jazeera)

From the Nakba to Land Day

The circumstances that triggered Land Day reflected the policies of successive Israeli governments since the Nakba until today towards the Palestinians at home, who now number 2.037 million.

Palestinians of the interior (or Palestinians of the 48) belong to 3 religions: Muslims 82%, Christians 9.2%, Druze 8.5%, and make up 21.1% of the total population of 9.656 million in Israel, according to its updated official statistics.

From the Nakba until the events of the first Land Day, Israel confiscated about one million dunams from the 48 Palestinians in the Galilee, the Triangle, the Negev, and mixed coastal cities (where Palestinians and Jews live), for military purposes and under the pretext of harassment or infrastructure projects.

Discrimination and racism

The Israeli establishment has entrenched national discrimination and favored Jews at the expense of Palestinians who remained in their lands and homes after the Nakba in all aspects of life, whether through legislation such as the "Return and Nationality" Law, preventing Palestinian family reunification, and withdrawing their citizenship and permanent residency.

As part of the conflict of demography and geography, the Israeli Knesset passed the Law on Admission Committees for Housing in Jewish Towns, and the Nation-State Law, which enshrines apartheid and supremacy for Jews, and recognizes that Israel is "the national home and state of the Jewish people only."

Israeli legislation and policies have led to a decline in the status of the Arabic language, a ban on raising the Palestinian flag, criminalizing political action and prosecuting nationalist and Islamic currents at home.

Since the fifties of the last century, the Israeli Knesset has enacted more than 70 laws to consolidate Judaization, settlement and racial discrimination in the Palestinian interior, including 12 laws devoted to the confiscation of Arab lands, settlement and expansion of Jewish communities, and the construction of hundreds of them for Jews without building a single Arab town since the Nakba.

The project of modernizing the Hejaz Railway at the expense of Arab lands in the Triangle area in the Palestinian interior (Al-Jazeera)

Besieged towns

The policies of land dispossession and confiscation have perpetuated housing distress among Palestinians in the interior, whose towns have been turned into communities besieged by Jewish settlements that have expanded at the expense of Arab towns suffering from land scarcity and reducing the influence, areas and boundaries of construction, according to the Arab Center for Alternative Planning.

Arab housing reserves have shrunk by about 50 percent, knowing that they own only about 3 percent of the land inside the Green Line, while 97 percent of the land belongs to Jews and is controlled by the state and the so-called Jewish National Fund.

Due to racist building laws, Arab towns lack structural plans and expansion of building areas, noting that 42% of Arab towns rely on structural plans approved in the seventies of the last century and updated in the eighties, which does not meet the needs of Arabs in expansion and construction in light of the natural population increase.


Housing crisis

Arab towns are experiencing a severe housing crisis, with 70,70 Arab housing units at risk of demolition under the pretext of building without a permit, and <>% of Arab families do not have land to build on.

The Israeli Planning and Building Committees have refrained from preparing new master plans or expanding building areas outside the plans they have approved since the eighties, according to Ahmed Milhem, head of the Popular Committee for the Defense of Land and Housing.

The Chemnitz legislation came as an additional tool to control planning and demarcation, expedite demolition of homes built without permits, expedite penalties and double fines for building violations, ranging from $50,100 to $<>,<>.

Perhaps the most prominent battle over land and housing is raging in the Negev (south), especially after the enactment of the Prawer Law, which aims to confiscate 800,35 dunums of Palestinian Bedouin land in the Negev, demolish 150 villages not recognized by Israeli governments, and displace their population of about <>,<>, according to the Higher Steering Committee for the Arabs of the Negev.

Protest for residents of villages deprived of recognition of the Negev and threatened with demolition and deportation (Al Jazeera)

According to a report by the Legal Center for the Protection of the Rights of the Arab Minority in Israel (Adalah), the areas of discrimination, racism and inequality between Arabs and Jews in Israel are concentrated in various areas of public life, a distinction that has been enshrined in dozens of legislations passed by the Knesset since the Nakba.

Defining Israel itself as a Jewish state turns discrimination and racism against the 48 Palestinians into a reality and a common culture in everyday life.

Half of them are at risk of poverty

The 48 Palestinians have been facing a crisis of "citizenship rights" since the enactment of the "Law of Return" in 1952, which clearly stipulates that only Jews are allowed to be brought to historic Palestine in exchange for preventing Palestinian reunification, restriction of residency and revocation of Israeli citizenship from the 48 Palestinians, under the pretext of "disloyalty" or "breach of trust."

The policies of successive Israeli governments have produced two economic systems, one for Arabs and one for Jews, in a way that perpetuates blatant discrimination against Arabs in all aspects of life and services, so that 50% of Arab families live below the poverty line, while Arab towns are at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.

Arab citizens face discrimination in employment, employment and income, with unemployment at 30%, Palestinian women's labor market participation rate at 30%, and a lack of economic and commercial development in Arab towns.