Land Day March 30: Global Virtual Day of Action for Gaza & Palestine in the time of Covid-19

Coronavirus in the U.S., Palestine, and the world

On Monday, March 30^th, 2020, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) will join the call for a full day of social media action to commemorate the 44th Palestinian Land Day (Yom Al-Ardh) and the two-year anniversary of the #GreatReturnMarch, to End the Siege on Gaza Now, to protect all our people in Palestine from the coronavirus / COVID-19, and to Free All Palestinian Political Prisoners. The call was issued by Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and the Higher National Committee for the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege in Gaza.

Six Palestinians were killed, and hundreds injured, by Israeli forces on March 30^th, 1976, when a general strike was organized across the Jalil (Galilee, the northern part of 1948 Palestine) to protest Israel’s plan to expropriate large amounts of Palestinian land by the zionist settler colonialists. Since then, the date has been commemorated across the world as Land Day.

Trump’s racism and incompetence

As the whole world faces the spread of the coronavirus and the deadly Covid-19 disease it causes, the U.S. is struggling to provide testing to its residents and equipment to its healthcare workers; and now has surpassed China and Italy for the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world. According to theguardian.com, “[Trump] has been widely condemned for failing to act fast enough, misjudging the public mood and seeking to blame others rather than taking personal responsibility.”

Besides trailing the rest of the world in his administration’s response, Trump continues to call the virus the “Chinese flu,” which has certainly played a role in the numerous racist, physical attacks against Chinese and other Asians in the U.S. In addition, while governments across the world are calling for an easing of economic sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Palestine, Cuba, and others during the crisis, Trump has refused, putting many more millions of lives in danger. In contrast, China and Cuba have sent hundreds of doctors to Italy and other countries to help in the fight.

This moment also reminds us that regardless of who is president or what party they are from, capitalism (and the pharmaceutical corporations that thrive in it) cares only about profit, not about meeting society’s needs. The U.S. government, its economic system, and its healthcare system are failing to protect its people from the most terrifying threat to public safety anyone has seen in 100 years.

Gaza Strip

U.S. sanctions on people and countries that are resisting its brutal attempts at economic and political domination include, of course, the 14 years of Israel’s siege on Gaza, which is quickly running out of clean drinking water and lacks basic infrastructure, essential medications, and other goods and supplies.

Last week, the first Gazans tested positive for Covid-19. The “open air prison” that is Gaza (one of the most densely populated places on earth) cannot possibly practice the type of social distancing needed to protect its people from the virus. Israel has been successful at literally and figuratively starving Gaza for years, and is in complete control of what necessities can enter. It just allowed 1,000 test kits in, but Gaza’s population is two million. In addition, there are only 70 ICU beds and 65 ventilators in the entire Strip, according to Physicians for Human Rights.

Of course, the health situation for Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and 1948 Palestine is not much better, but an outbreak in Gaza would be catastrophic. End the siege on Gaza now!

Political Prisoners

Another critical issue is the fate of Palestinian political prisoners, who are detained by Israel in unhealthy and unsanitary conditions, and regularly subjected to psychological and physical torture. The apartheid state currently holds nearly 5,000 Palestinians in its jails – 180 are children, almost 700 are sick, and over 200 have chronic diseases.

Israel and its U.S. benefactor are fully responsible for the health and safety of all our people living under Israel’s occupation and colonization, especially our political prisoners. It is the most vulnerable sector of our society in the time of the coronavirus, when Covid-19 will almost certainly spread dangerously fast in Israeli prisons.

So just as we demand during this crisis that U.S. prison authorities #FreeThemAll – especially prisoners who are infirm, held pretrial because they cannot afford bail, or are survivors of torture and were unlawfully convicted to begin with – we demand freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners.

Join our Land Day of social media action

As we reflect on the resilience and steadfastness of the Jalil Palestinians in 1976, we are inspired to continue our own protests against the U.S. and Israel’s attempts at further land theft, like the “Deal of the Century,” better known as the #StealOfTheCentury.

We reject that Trump-Netanyahu-Kushner farce, but it is already dead on arrival, so ALL DAY Monday, March 30^th, 2020, follow USPCN on Facebook and Instagram and @uspcn on Twitter, use the hashtag #PalestineLandDay, and join the Global Virtual Action for Gaza on Palestinian Land Day.

Stay tuned for sample tweets, images, memes, infographics, informative news articles, and more, which we will publish on Sunday night, March 29^th.

Until Liberation and Return,

USPCN

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