March 30 marks Land Day, a day in which Palestinians inside and outside Palestine commemorate and celebrate the Palestinian connection to the land and continuous struggle against colonialism. 2013 is the 37th Land Day, coming on the anniversary of the mass upsurge in occupied Palestine 1948 in 1976, in response to yet another Israeli attempt to confiscate over 20,000 dunums of Palestinian land in the Galilee. Thousands of Palestinians of ’48 rose up in a general strike and mass protests, the largest upsurge of Palestinians in the ’48 areas since the Nakba.
Six Palestinians – Kheir Mohammad Salim Yasin, Khadija Qasem Shawahneh, Raja Hussein Abu Rayya, Khader Eid Mahmoud Khalaila, Muhsin Hasan Said Taha, and Ra’fat Ali Az-Zheiri – were shot dead by the occupation army as they protested.
In 1976, organizers of Land Day said, “This day is a new landmark of the Palestinian struggle for liberation. With this declaration our masses proclaimed and ascertained their Palestinian identity….March 30, ‘The Day of the Land’,
has become a Palestinian Feast that we will celebrate every year.”
Palestinians in occupied Palestine ’48, in the West Bank and Gaza and everywhere in exile continue to mark Land Day annually with protests, gatherings, and renewed commitment to liberation of the land and people of Palestine.
On this Land Day, we look forward to coming together in Vancouver on May 3-5 for critical conversations and organizing about Palestinian representation and the future of our Palestinian national movement. Click here to register today for the Conference of the Palestinian Shatat in North America, and click here to donate to help support the conference’s efforts.
Part of our Historical Documents collection focus on Land Day and the struggle of Palestinians in occupied Palestine ’48. For example, see the following resources:
The following posters are some of the countless images produced by Palestinian organizations to mark Land Day. For a complete collection, see the Palestine Poster Project.
