Palestinian Land day
Palestinian Land day:
4-1-1- “The spark”
On the first of March 1976 the governor of the Northern District of the Occupation in occupied Palestine (1948), Yisrael King, prepared a very secret document named after him and included several racist suggestions on how to defeat what the occupation authorities called at the time the risk of the Arab population growth.
The content of the document included in several of its sections the terms “Arab demographic problem” or “increasing Arab population” and the danger it poses on the existence, the security and the future of the Zionist entity and its plans. The document also included the issue of the Arab economy, employment and education… etc.
- The subject ofdemographic balancein occupiedGalileebetween Arabs and Jewsconstitutea big part of”King’s document”
The fascist wrote, “natural reproduction among the Arab population is 5.9% per annum, while among the Jewish community it is 1.5%.”[i] King suggested based on his following statements the “resettlement of Jews in areas where Arabs constitute the majority, and, to reduce the existing Arab population communities by restricting and reducing what he called “the Arab population expansion”
- Regarding the economicissue and Arab workers, King suggested and demanded to separate Arab workers working in industrial plants and Jewish construction sites particularly in the North region.
The purpose is to create unemployment among the Arab community.
- King also suggested implementing measures aimed to reduce the academic education of Arabs and the elimination ofArab intellectuals,
Through their displacement out of their homeland and imposing unemployment on who is left of them in the homeland.”[ii]
- The subject of Arabland represented the essence of “King’s document” and the policy ofthe occupation authorities.
In the aftermath of this document and a few days later, the occupation authorities announced the confiscation of thousands of acres of Arab land in occupied Palestine. The impact and pace of events escalated, to reach a peak on the thirtieth of March 1976,
as “the Palestinian Arab population announced a comprehensive general strike which prevailed throughout all the territories of Occupied Palestine in protest against the Judaization and confiscation policy”[iii]. The strike was announced on that day of struggle confirming the determination of the Arab masses to hard struggle for national rights, particularly the right of Arabs to stay in their territories and homeland.
- The occupation authoritiesresortedtothe harshestandmost violentrepressionand terrortactics toprevent thestrikeand to abort it.
The occupation authorities showed off its strength by sending massive military forces into Arab towns and villages, in particular in the occupied Nazareth area. However, no procedures and practices of the occupation stopped the Arab uprising. The outcome of the comprehensive strike was a reflection of the size of the clash between the tyrants, the tyrannized and the right holders,
- The Israeli occupation forcescommitted a bloodymassacre on that day causing the death of sixArab citizens,
On their home ground, while they were defending their dignity, they got baptized by their own blood on this historic day. This day reflected the unity of the Palestinian Arab masses and their determination to resist and discourage confiscation and the racial discrimination policy.
4-1-2- The project of Judaizing the Galilee
“In the wake of this historic day, the Committee for the Defense of Arab territories issued a statement to warn the Arab masses that the confiscation of Arab land policy is the most prominent feature of the policy of racial discrimination. As there was no more than half a million acres of land left for Arabs in occupied Palestine at the time, after all what was confiscated by the occupation authorities in various and under false pretexts.”[iv]
- The results of the project:
- Undermining ArabAgriculture: As a result of the confiscation proceduresand theblockade,anumber ofsubdivisions ofArabagriculture has been undermined because of thecontraction ofArabland areaand the decrease incultivatedland areafor agricultural from 49 acres during the British Mandateto aboutthreeacres.”
- Arab villagesturned intosleepingbarracksfor Arab workerswho have lefttheir villagesduring the day,to workin Jewish agricultureand industrieswhich were implantedon their usurped lands.
- In addition toall this,theprojectof Judaizingthe occupied Galilee entailedthe Judaizationof the future ofthe Arab population, who make up the majority inthis region, whichhas an area of5 millionacres, stretching fromthe borders of Lebanonto theJezreel Valley. This worriedthe Zionist leadersconstantly.
- The objectives of the project:
Regarding the project of Judaizing the Galilee, the occupation authorities mentioned the following: “The issue of the Galilee is the small number of Jewish residents compared to the number of non-Jewish residents – the Arabs – who make up 70% of the total population. In 1973, the number of Arabs in the Galilee was 147 thousand compared to 62 thousand Jews and, in the suburbs of Galilee, the number of Arabs was 40 thousand living in the suburbs of Haifa, Akka, Tamra and Shafa amro”[v]
The project emphasized the demographic character of the area and the primary task for the occupation authorities being to transform the Galilee into a region with a majority of Jewish population.
The “black book on land day” mentioned the following:
“Changing the current demographic situation between the Arab and Jewish populations through the project that had the following objectives:
- Convertthe mountainousGalileeregion to a regionwith a Jewishmajority.
- Ensure anew distribution–correct for theJewish populationin the Galilee.
- Strengthenthe economy of the Jewish populationwho will jointhemin the future.”[vi]
- The implementation of thisproject requires more lands to be seized,
The project talked about the “confiscation of about 20 thousand acres of land designated thus: eight thousands acres for the government, five thousand as Jewish land and there wasdisagreement about the ownership of the remaining 6-7 thousand acres.”
The Zionist occupation authorities have dealt with the Palestinian Arab population based on the following Zionist theory: “What has become in our hand is ours, and what is still in the hands of the Arabs is required and is subject to negotiations.”
Indeed, after the establishment of the upper Nazareth settlement on the Arab lands of Nazareth and the villages of Ein Mahel, Reinah, Kafr Kana and Mashhad, a few days before the thirtieth of March, the occupation authorities confiscated thousands of acres of land from Nazareth and its jurisdictions.
4-1-3- The commemoration
Since that day, on the thirtieth of March, Palestinian Arab masses commemorate this historic day every year. And every year sparks a new, angry, comprehensive uprising that stretches from Deir Hanna in the Galilee to the north of Rafah on the edge of the Sinai.
On the thirtieth of March each year Palestinian masses in the occupied homeland announce their adherence to their national identity and their rights confirming their determination to survive and continue to survive, despite the aggressive and violent measures taken by the occupation and its attempts to obliterate the national identity and the liquidation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arab people.
This is the story of the historic Land Day – the day the Palestinian Arab people are reminded by the memory implanted in the hearts and emerging minds of the people from our community, who are wondering about the historic Land Day.
This is the story of Land Day, which is celebrated by the Palestinian masses in the occupied parts of the country each year in its own way, as it represents the meanings of unity… The unity of blood and destiny of the people of one Nation.
[i]. The Black Book on Land Day, 30/5/1976, Galilee publishing house, 1985, Amman, p.17.
[ii]. Haaretz newspaper 20/12/1989.
[iii]. Al HamIchmar newspaper, 9/3/1990.
[iv]. Haaretz newspaper 1/1/1991.
[v]. Al-Quds newspaper 10/3/1998.
[vi]. Al-Ayyam Palestinian newspaper 30/5/1998.