By Anees Bargouthi
JERUSALEM
Thousands of Palestinians on Wednesday marked "Land Day", which commemorates six Palestinian protesters killed by Israeli troops 40 years ago while demonstrating against the seizure of their land in Israel’s northern Galilee region.
A number of general strikes and marches were organized in Arab towns and villages in Israel and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Mohamed Barakeh, chairman of the Supreme Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, told Anadolu Agency that thousands of Arab citizens of Israel had taken part in two large demonstrations in the village of Arabeh in Galilee and the village of Um al-Hayran in southern Israel.
Several prominent Arab-Israeli figures took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at a Land Day monument in Galilee’s city of Sakhnin.
"We stand here today at the memorial of our six martyrs who were killed defending their land," Barakeh said.
"Khadija Shawahneh, Khader Khalaila, Khair Yassin, Mohsen Taha, Raafat al-Zuhiri and Raja Abu Raya, we will not forget you," he said at the ceremony.
He added: "Our community will persevere in the face of ongoing racism and incitement [by Israel] against Arab citizens and their leaders."
Ayman Odeh, head of the Arab Joint List in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), who took part in the march in Um al-Hayran, described Land Day as "crucial" to the country’s Arab community.
"On this day 40 years ago, Palestinians hit the streets to protest the [Israeli] policy of land confiscation and discrimination against Arab citizens," he said.
"In 1976, demonstrators protested against the confiscation of 20,000 dunums of land, while today Israel has plans to confiscate 800,000 dunums in the Negev Desert," he said. (One dunum equals roughly 1,000 square meters.)
On March 30, 1976, thousands of Palestinians in the Galilee region demonstrated against the seizure of huge tracts of land by the Israeli authorities, prompting Israeli troops to enter the region in force.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians marked Land Day by holding demonstrations in different cities.
Activist Essam Baker told Anadolu Agency that demonstrations had been suppressed by Israeli troops, who used rubber bullets, heavy ammunition and teargas to disperse protesters.
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), for his part, used the occasion of Land Day to decry Israel’s ongoing policy of land seizure.
"Israel’s racist policies are designed to consolidate the idea of a ‘Jewish state’ rather than support a two-state solution," Erekat said in a statement.
He went on to assert that Israel’s current right-wing government considered all of historic Palestine to be part of Israel.
Erekat called on the international community to take action against what he described as Israel’s "racist colonization polices", including those practiced against Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Fresh outrage
While Palestinians marked Land Day, Israel’s official planning committee on Wednesday approved plans to build new Jewish-only housing units in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli Radio reported that Israel’s Jerusalem planning committee had approved construction of 18 new housing units in East Jerusalem’s Jabl al-Mukaber area.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), last year alone, the Israeli authorities approved construction of more than 12,600 Jewish-only housing units in East Jerusalem.
Over the same period, the agency noted, Israel had demolished more than 152 Palestinian homes and structures, while issuing demolition orders for hundreds of others.
According to the PCBS, Israel has seized 85 percent of historical Palestine -- representing some 27,000 square kilometers of land -- since the Jewish state was established in 1948.
International law considers the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be "occupied territories" captured by Israel in 1967, deeming all construction of Jewish settlements on the land to be illegal.
Nevertheless, until today, Israel has continued to appropriate Palestinian land in the West Bank, on which it has continued to build Jewish-only settlements in breach of international law.
The Palestinian Authority, for its part, continues to call for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem -- currently occupied by Israel -- as its capital.
