play videoplay video

Video duration: 04 minutes 25 seconds 04:25

Gaza -

In light of the fierce Israeli war on the Gaza Strip that is about to enter its seventh month, the Palestinian “Land Day” commemorates March 30 every year, which Gazans celebrate this year with their blood and their insistence on clinging to their lands and property and rejecting displacement plans.

Preacher and history professor Nader Abu Sharkh told Al Jazeera Net, "We celebrate Land Day, while we are living a real catastrophe in Gaza, and the occupation not only confiscated the land as it did in 1967, but also penetrated into our blood."

He asserts, "This anniversary comes to us with a different flavour, as Gaza is being subjected to annihilation, but it is steadfast and tells the world, which does nothing against the crimes of the occupation, that we are rooted in the land, we are staying and will not leave, and we will not give up an iota of our soil."

In turn, Umm Mustafa Nisman, who is displaced from the Al-Nasr neighborhood in Gaza City and lives in a tent in the city of Rafah, says, “The situation is difficult, but we are clinging to our land and our homeland, and no matter what happens, we will not emigrate.”

We will not compromise

For his part, Raafat Abu Wadi, who is displaced from the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City and lives in a tent in the city of Rafah, told Al Jazeera Net, "We are not going out, and we will not emigrate, and we will remain here against Israel."

In a nearby tent, Rami Abu Wadi’s mother resides. She has settled here after being repeatedly displaced from her home in the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City. She tells Al Jazeera Net, “We want to return to our homes. We do not want to immigrate and leave our country to the Jews. We will die here and not give up our lands.”

On March 30 of each year, Palestinians at home and in the diaspora commemorate Land Day, the events of which date back to 1976, when the Palestinians inside the occupied territories confronted the occupation government’s confiscation of thousands of dunums of their lands in the Galilee region. The confrontation led to the death of 6 of them, and dozens of others were wounded and detained.

Source: Al Jazeera