On Land Day, Israel Attacks and Massacres Palestinians in Gaza

On Land Day, Israel Attacks and Massacres Palestinians in Gaza

(Above photo credit: Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

Today, March 30^th, when USPCN, Palestinians, and supporters all across the world remember the six martyrs killed by Israeli soldiers in 1976, the terrorist Israeli state continues its murderous rampage against our people in Gaza.

Over 30,000 of these Gaza Palestinians set up camp at the border with Israel (1948 Palestine), to participate in the Great March of Return and demand their Right of Return to the homes and lands from which they were exiled, along with 750,000 other Palestinians, in 1947 and 1948 during the Nakba. Israel responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition, killing 15 and injuring over 1,000.

On March 30, 1976, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in protest of Israel’s plans to expropriate 60,000 dunam (each dunam is 1,000 square meters) of Palestinian land in the Galilee (the northern region of 1948 Palestine). In the ensuing confrontations with Israeli soldiers, six Palestinians were killed, hundreds injured, and hundreds more imprisoned.

Ever since, those events have become memorialized in Palestinian history and consciousness as Land Day. In Arabic, Yawm al-‘Ard is one of the most widely-observed Palestinian national anniversaries. It signifies the unity of the land on all of historical Palestine, and the indivisibility of Palestinians wherever we live.

The Gazans massacred today have not only been under a criminal siege for close to 12 years, unable to cross over into Egypt or 1948 Palestine; but also anxious and concerned about Trump’s announcement that the U.S. Embassy in Israel is to be moved to Jerusalem on Nakba Day, May 15^th.  This is what originally prompted the organizing of the Great March of Return, planned to begin on Land Day and last six weeks until Nakba Day.

We denounce Israel’s terrorist attacks on our people, as well as Trump’s provocation, a political move that supports Israeli attempts to expropriate more Palestinian land, to push more Palestinians out of their homes, and to claim for itself the Palestinian capital of Jerusalem.

Israel acts with impunity and is emboldened by Trump (like all U.S. Presidents since Truman before him) to commit its crimes against humanity. Call your Senators and demand that they condemn this massacre and force Israel to end its attacks on Gaza and all Palestinians.

Continue to support the Great March of Return, the Palestinian political prisoners, and our people’s brave resistance to Israeli colonialism, occupation, and apartheid.

USPCN – Friday, March 30th, 2018