Fifty years ago, the Palestinian people rose up to stop the U.S.-funded Zionist occupation regime from stealing even more of their land. The “Israeli” government announced plans to seize nearly eight square miles in Galilee.
Palestinian unions declared a general strike on March 30, 1976. Zionist Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin responded by having his cops kill six Palestinians and wounded at least a hundred.
This wasn’t on the West Bank or Gaza but within the “1948 borders” of the Zionist state, which the corporate media claims is a “democracy.” Since that time, Palestinians and their supporters have commemorated Land Day throughout the world.
Thousands protested in Paris while nearly a thousand demonstrated in Angers, in western France. Protests were also held in Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden. Nearly half a million people gathered in London to fight fascism, including many supporters of Palestinian liberation.
In New York City on March 29, hundreds of people gathered on the steps of the reference library on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue with Palestinian flags held aloft. The action was called by the Palestinian Youth Movement and supported by many other organizations.
Banners were held reading “Gaza Remains Gaza Resists” and “Gaza Calls NYC Answers.” Another banner read “Lebanon and Palestine: Hand in Hand until Victory.” One of the most popular chants was “Viva, Viva Palestina!”
Speakers, including Naye Idris from PYM, Bill Dee from PAL-Awda, Musa from the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Palestinian writer and activist Sireen Sawalha, denounced the ongoing genocide in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran.
Idris described the history of Land Day and the centrality of the land eloquently to the very existence of the Palestinian people.
Bill Dee from PAL-Awda denounced the sales of stolen Palestinian land by real estate outfits that are often held in synagogues. He denounced capitalist politicians, especially New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who are trying to ban these protests, claiming they’re anti-Jewish, even though many of the protesters are Jewish.
They’re silent about the sales being limited to Jewish purchasers, a violation of U.S. housing discrimination laws. PAL-Awda is also holding protests against U.S. war contractor Mini-Circuits, whose Brooklyn factory makes weapons to kill Arab and Iranian children.
‘This land is ours’
Sawalha was born in Jenin on the West Bank, where her family had fled during the 1948 Zionist genocide known as the Nakba. She described how, in 1967, when “Israel” seized the West Bank and Gaza, her mother had waded across the Jordan by night, carrying three children so as not to be forced into exile from the land of Palestine.
The NYC for Palestine Cycling Club held a ride from Upper Manhattan to join the march. A strong contingent from the New York Irish for Palestine honored the 110th anniversary of the Easter Rising against British colonialism.
People took over Fifth Avenue and marched to Madison Square Park. People on the sidewalks were friendly. They’re sick of Trump and more wars for oil profits.
In a statement, PYM said, “The Palestinian struggle is, above all, a struggle to liberate land, and in so doing, to liberate the people who the land knows to be its own. This Land Day, as the Zionist entity attacks and desecrates land from Palestine and Lebanon to Yemen and Iran, the Palestinian people and the people of the region affirm the sanctity of our land, and the inherent right of our people to defend our land against Zionist and imperialist aggression.
“May the walls that have kept us apart soon be torn down. May the trains that once ran from Haifa to Saida, and from Beirut to Baghdad, run again. From Beirut to Jerusalem, from Tehran to San’aa, we are this land, and this land is ours.”
A PAL-Awda statement read, “Today is the 50th anniversary of Land Day, Yawm al-Ard, marking the 1976 uprising against Israeli land theft. As state and city officials in New York shamelessly attempt to shield the ongoing theft of Palestinian land facilitated through real estate and settler events in our neighborhoods, we recommit to honoring the steadfast struggle of the Palestinian people and fighting for Awda, the right of all Palestinian people to return to their lands.”
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