EXPLAINEREvery yr on March 30, Palestinians dangle protests and vigils and plant olive timber to reaffirm their connection to the land.Once a year on March 30, Palestinians follow Land Day, or Yom al-Ard, recalling the occasions of March 30, 1976, when six unarmed Palestinians have been killed and greater than 100 injured by way of Israeli forces all the way through protests in opposition to Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian land.
How a lot land did Israel confiscate?
Israel ordered the confiscation of two,000 hectares (4,942 acres) of land belonging to Palestinian electorate of Israel within the Galilee. Those plans have been a part of Israeli state coverage to Judaise Galilee following the introduction of the state of Israel.
The confiscated land is more or less the dimensions of three,000 soccer pitches or the realm from the top of Long island to Central Park in New York, US.
What do Palestinians do on Land Day?
Palestinians, each within Israel and around the occupied territory, mark this present day by way of keeping protests and vigils and planting olive timber to reaffirm their connection to the land. The protests are incessantly met with brutal use of drive by way of Israel.
Um Ahmad al-Banna was once wounded within the protests of March of Go back and joined Land Day commemorations in Gaza in 2022 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Is Israel nonetheless seizing land?
Sure, Israel has persisted to take hold of massive swaths of Palestinian land, designating them as army zones, state land and different labels.
Maximum lately, on March 22, 2024, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared Israel was once seizing 800 hectares (1,977 acres) within the occupied West Financial institution, in a transfer that may facilitate construction extra unlawful settlements.
“Whilst there are the ones in Israel and on this planet who search to undermine our proper to Judea and Samaria and the rustic typically, we endorse agreement thru arduous paintings and in a strategic method all over the place the rustic,” Smotrich stated, the usage of Biblical names for the realm which might be recurrently heard in Israel.
Settlements – unlawful below global regulation – are Jewish-only communities constructed on Palestinian land within the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem.
On March 6, Israel’s settlement-planning authority introduced it had authorized the development of a few 3,500 new housing devices in Maale Adumim, Kedar and Efrat inside the occupied West Financial institution.
From November 1, 2022 to October 31, 2023, Israel has authorized a minimum of 24,000 unlawful housing devices to be constructed on Palestinian land.
Previous this month, the United International locations’ Prime Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk stated settlements had expanded by way of a file quantity and risked getting rid of any chance of a Palestinian state.
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