Today, the Palestinians in all areas of their presence in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip commemorate the forty-seventh anniversary of the Palestinian Land Day, an occasion that has become history for the land and the defense of it since 1976, when six Palestinians were martyred, about fifty were wounded, and more than 300 others were arrested, during a confrontation with The occupation forces caught fire in defense of the land and its Arab identity.
Land Day came after the donation of the Palestinian masses in the occupied territories in the year forty-eight, announcing a cry of protest against the policies of confiscation, uprooting and Judaization pursued by Israel. "Palestinian Land Day".
The spark that ignited the situation was the occupation authorities’ confiscation of about 21,000 dunums of lands of a number of Palestinian villages in the Galilee, within the scope of the Judaization plan to allocate them to establish more settlements and empty the Galilee of its Arab citizens, which led to the declaration of the Palestinians inside, Especially those directly affected by the general strike on this day, corresponding to the thirtieth of March.
The Israeli response to break the strike was military and bloody. The occupying forces, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, invaded Palestinian Arab villages and towns and started shooting indiscriminately. Six martyrs were killed, four of whom were killed by army bullets, two by police bullets, and dozens were wounded.
On this occasion, marches will be launched today in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and inside the Green Line, to commemorate this day, interspersed with activities that affirm the Palestinians’ adherence to their land and their willingness to defend it at all costs.
The various Palestinian national forces have issued calls stressing the necessity of wide participation in the activities of Land Day, and considering today, Thursday and tomorrow, Friday, as days of popular anger in the face of the occupation and settlers.
The current facts and developments in the Palestinian territories confirm that the battle for the land did not end on March 30, 1976, but rather continues to this day. And barbarism under misleading slogans and false justifications.
And the battle of Earth Day has become linked to all the land of Palestine from the river to the sea, and from north to south, and it has come to mean millions of refugees and displaced persons inside and outside Palestine, as well as tens of thousands of martyrs and prisoners who chose the path of resistance in defense of Palestine, the homeland, the land, the human being, sanctities and rights. The ongoing developments in the occupied Palestinian territories have also proven that that land has had one name for more than four thousand years, which is Palestine, and that all Zionist attempts to obliterate, falsify, and silence Palestinian history are doomed to failure.
The anniversary of Land Day this year comes in light of unprecedented settlement expansion in the Palestinian land, especially those that were occupied in 1967, as the number of settlers increased, outposts multiplied, and existing settlements expanded, compared to previous years.
The occupation’s measures against the Palestinian land and its people crossed all red lines, and its crimes varied between seizure, control, seizure, demolition, razing, uprooting trees and other daily practices that confirm the occupation government’s endeavor to drag the region away from peace and coexistence, disregarding all agreements, understandings, laws and international norms. .
The area of ​​the Palestinian territories controlled by the occupation authorities and subject to many occupation measures is 2,380 square kilometers, which is equivalent to forty-two percent of the total lands of the West Bank.
The year 2022 witnessed a significant increase in the pace of construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, as the occupation authorities approved about 83 plans to build more than 22,000 settlement units throughout the West Bank, including Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics stated, in a press statement issued on the occasion of Land Day, that the number of Israeli settlement sites and military bases in the West Bank reached 483 sites until the end of the year 2021, distributed by 151 settlements, 25 inhabited outposts that were considered as neighborhoods belonging to existing settlements, 163 outposts, and 144 outposts. A site that includes industrial, tourist and service areas, and camps for the occupation army.
According to the Statistics Authority’s statement, the occupation authorities and settlers, under the protection of the occupation army, carried out 8,724 attacks against Palestinian citizens and their property during the year 2022, with 1,515 attacks on religious property and places, 362 attacks on lands and natural resources, and 6 thousand 847 attacks on individuals.
The statement indicated that the occupation authorities carried out a total of 378 demolitions during the year 2022, affecting 953 facilities in the West Bank, most of which were concentrated in the Jerusalem governorate… explaining that the number of Palestinian and Arab martyrs inside and outside Palestine reached about one hundred thousand martyrs, since the Nakba in 1948. To date, the number of martyrs since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada until the end of last year has reached about 11,450 martyrs.
The commemoration of Palestinian Land Day this year also comes in light of a dangerous escalation against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the far-right government assumed power in Israel at the beginning of this year, imposing a new plan for more forced displacement of Palestinians, and accelerating the pace of building illegal settlements and stealing More land in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The anniversary of Land Day this year also coincides with an unprecedented escalation of settler militia attacks against the Palestinian people, protected by the occupation forces, and the repeated storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially in the holy month of Ramadan, in a provocation of the feelings of Palestinians and Muslims, which threatens to seriously explode the situation in the region.
Palestinian sources have warned of the seriousness of the Israeli government’s decision to form the so-called National Guard, which are militias affiliated directly to the Minister of National Security in the occupation government, Itamar Ben Gvir, which heralds dire consequences and an unprecedented escalation against the Palestinian people, and said that this step is an open legalization of killing and committing more crimes. One of the massacres and acts of bullying against the Palestinian citizens and their property, adding that the occupation plans to give legitimacy and legal cover to the armed settler gangs and unleash their hand to carry out their crimes against the Palestinians and seize their lands and homes and steal their property, without accountability or legal prosecution.
