Land Day

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Land Day poster
Land Day poster

Land Day (Arabic: يوم الأرض‎, Yom al-Ard; Hebrew: יום האדמה‎, Yom Ha'adama), March 30, commemorates the killing of six Arab citizens of Israel on that date in 1976 by the state security forces during protests over Israeli expropriations of Arab land.[1]

A general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee, the Triangle region and the Negev in response to the government's announcement of a plan that would confiscate thousands of dunums of land in Arab areas.[1] The government sent in the Israeli army and police with tanks and heavy artillery.[1] In the ensuing confrontations, six Arab citizens were killed and hundreds of others were jailed and wounded.[2][1]

Since then, Land Day has become an annual day of commemoration and demonstrations, held not only by Arab citizens of Israel, but by Palestinians all over the world.[3]

Contents

[edit] Historical background

The Arabs of Palestine were a largely agrarian people, 75% of whom made their living off the land before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. After the Palestinian exodus and the large-scale upheavals effected by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, referred to by Palestinians as al-Nakba, land continued to play an important role in the lives of the 156,000 Palestinians who had remained inside what became the state of Israel. Laurie King-Irani submits that for this community in rupture, land functions, "as the source of communal identity, purpose and honor."[4]

[edit] Absentee Property Law

Israel's Absentees' Property Law of March 1950 transferred the right of owners of the land to a government-appointed Custodian of Absentee Property. The law was used to confiscate lands belonging to the over 750,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom fled their hometowns in 1948. It was also used to confiscate the lands of Arab citizens of Israel who "are present inside the state, yet classified in law as 'absent'." Today, there are an estimated 200,000 "present-absentees" or internally displaced Palestinians from among the estimated 1.2 million Arab citizens of Israel, representing over 16% of the Palestinian Arab population in Israel.[5] More than a 1000 square kilometres of land were expropriated from Arab citizens of Israel alone between 1948 and 2003.[3]

[edit] Catalyzing events

See also: The Koenig Memorandum

On February 29, 1976, the Ministry of Finance passed a decree calling for the confiscation of 21 km² (5,000 acres) of land between the Arab villages of Sakhnin and Arraba.[3] Nayef Hawatmeh, leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), explains that, "These vast tracts of land were to be turned over to the construction of eight Jewish industrial villages, in implementation of the so-called Galilee Development Plan of 1975. In hailing this plan, the Ministry of Agriculture openly declared that its primary purpose was to alter the demographic nature of Galilee in order to create a Jewish majority in the area."[3]

According to Orly Halpern of the The Jerusalem Post, the lands were initially confiscated for "security purposes," but were actually used to build new Jewish settlements and a military training camp.[1]

The government decision to confiscate the land was accompanied by the declaration of a curfew to be imposed on the villages of Sakhnin, Arraba, Deir Hanna, Tur'an, Tamra, and Kabul, effective from 5 p.m. on March 29, 1976.[1]

[edit] The Land Day Protest of 1976

Local Arab leaders from the Rakah party, such as Tawfiq Ziad, responded by calling for a day of general strikes and protests against the confiscation of lands to be held on March 30.[3] A general strike and marches took place throughout the Arab towns, from the Galilee to the Negev.[1]

During the protests, four unarmed demonstrators were shot by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and two more by police.[1][2] At least 100 Arabs were wounded and many others jailed.[6] The New York Times writes that the killings were carried out by police during "riots in the Galilee region to protest over Israeli expropriation of Arab land."[7]

Yosef Goell, writing in The Jerusalem Post, says that, "What actually set off the rioting that led to the deaths was a wild attack by hundreds of inflamed young Arabs on an unsuspecting IDF convoy driving on the road by the villages of Sakhnin, Arrabe and Deir Hanna. There was no prior provocation on the part of that IDF convoy, unless one insists on seeing a provocation in the very presence of an Israeli army unit in the heart of Israeli Galilee."[8] In annual commemorations of the day by Arab citizens, Israeli security forces are on alert but do not interfere in the protests.[1]

[edit] Commemoration & significance

Land Day poster (1984) by Abdel Rahman Al Muzain
Land Day poster (1984) by Abdel Rahman Al Muzain

For Palestinians, Land Day has since become a day of commemoration and tribute to those who have fallen in the struggle to hold onto their land and identity. The Press Center of the Palestinian National Authority has characterized it "...as a remarkable day in the history of the Palestinian people's struggle, as the Palestinians in such a particular day embrace the land of their ancestors, their identity and their existence."[9]

It often serves as a day for the expression of political discontent for Arab citizens of Israel, particularly surrounding issues of equal land and citizenship rights.[1] The day is also commemorated annually by Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and further afield in refugee camps and among the Palestinian diaspora worldwide.[3]

Calls to launch non-violent resistance protests to ongoing land confiscations regularly occur on Land Day. For example, the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights issues a press release for Land Day 2006, calling for "boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel" and an end to "racial discrimination, occupation, and colonization."[10]

In recent years, Arab citizens of Israel have focused on expressing solidarity with their West Bank and Gazan brothers and sisters. In 2002, for example, Land Day demonstrations by Arab citizens of Israel also spoke out against the "Israeli siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters."[11]

In 2001 during the Second Intifada, a general strike and "Day of Rage" was called for by Palestinians on the anniversary of Land Day. Five Palestinians were killed in Nablus during stone-throwing protests where 10,000 had taken to the streets, and one Palestinian was killed in a half-hour exchange of gunfire at Ramallah, where 1,000 had marched on an Israeli checkpoint; many others were wounded by rubber bullets.[12][13]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Orly Halpern (March 30, 2006). Israel's Arabs to Mark Land Day. The Jerusalem Post, English Online Edition. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
  2. ^ a b Remembering Land Day. BBC News (March 30, 2001). Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nayef Hawatmeh (7-13 April 2005, Issue No. 737). Remembering Land Day. Al-Ahram Weekly Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
  4. ^ Laurie King-Irani (Fall 2006, Issue no. 216). Land, Identity and the Limits of Resistance in the Galilee. Middle East Report Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
  5. ^ Uri Davis. A Democratic State for all of its Citizens and Refugees. MidEast Journal 2001, Original Abridged version in Ha'aretz, June 25, 2001.
  6. ^ Remembering Land Day. BBC News (March 30, 2001). Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
  7. ^ After the War: Arab Strike Held Only in Occupied Areas. New York Times (1991-03-31). Retrieved on 2006-02-01.
  8. ^ Yosef Goell. "Land Day? No: Call it 'Lie Day'", The Jerusalem Post, March 26, 2001. 
  9. ^ On the eve of Land Day, Israel Continues Aggression. International Press Center, Palestine (2006-05-09). Retrieved on [[2007-05-28]].
  10. ^ Press Release: Palestine Land Day 2006. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (2006-03-30). Retrieved on 2006-03-30.
  11. ^ Agence France Press (2002-03-30). Israeli Arabs Protest Against Arafat Siege on "Land Day". Common Dreams News Center. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
  12. ^ "At least 3 dead in Middle East clashes", CNN, March 30, 2001. Retrieved on 2007-05-28. 
  13. ^ Jeffrey Heller. "Six Palestinians Killed in Clashes", The Washington Post, 2001-03-31, pp. A.14. 

[edit] External links