Tag: Land Day

Land Day demonstration in Ni’lin

30 March 2009

On March 30th, about 30 Palestinian villagers from Ni’lin, supported by international and Israeli solidarity activists, held a protest to commemorate Land Day. The nonviolent demonstration was stopped by Israeli forces on the outskirts of the village, far away from the construction site of the wall. Three military jeeps parked in the main street of the village to block the protest, shooting tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber coated steel bullets against the demonstrators.

The demonstration started at the main square of the village and continued towards the field where the Israeli army blocked their path. Several speeches were given and when the demonstrators tried to continue the army claimed that the village fields was a closed military zone. The Israeli commander also argued that villagers in Ni’lin do not have the right to demonstrate.

Demonstrators then tried to enter the field from other spots near the clinic and were subsequently attacked by soldiers with sound bombs, tear gas and rubber coated steal bullets. At the end of the demonstration some protesters managed to reach the illegal Apartheid Wall, damaging a small part of it.

This Land day demonstration remembers the six Palestinans murdered by the Israeli army for protesting against land confiscation in 1976. Ni’lin villagers know well that land confiscation is still a reality in Palestine. Since 1948, Ni´lin residents have lost more than 85% of their land to confiscation from Israeli authorities and illegal settlement building. Since the resistance against the Apartheid Wall began in Ni´lin in May 2008, four youth have been killed by Israeli forces in nonviolent demonstrations. Nineteen people have also been shot with live ammunition and over 600 have been injured by other army weaponry.

Rummana village marks Land Day by planting trees near Israeli military base

On Land Day, the 30th of March, around 75 men, women, and children from Rummana village protested Israel’s Apartheid Wall and a nearby military base. Rummana, located in the Jenin region of the northern West Bank, has lost many dunums of farmland due to the construction of the military base.

Villagers, supported by international solidarity activists, held a demonstration about 200 meters away from the Wall. Demonstrators made speeches against the occupation and planted more than 20 olive trees near the Israeli military base. During this time, here was no army in sight so the villagers were able to continue their demonstration without repression from Israeli forces.

This demonstration was organized to commemorate Land Day. Land Day remembers the 1976 murder of six Palestinian demonstrators by Israeli forces in Galilee. Every year, Palestinian communities mark this day with activities and demonstrations to reclaim their land and to resist the continued Israeli occupation.

Land Day in Deir Sharaf

30 March 2009

Palestinians protest against water pollution
Palestinians protest against water pollution

During the land day the 30th of March 2009, the Palestinian Popular Party and several other Palestinian Associations organized a demonstration near a polluted Waste Land in Deir Sharaf and Cosin village close to Nablus in the West Bank. This toxic waste comes from the industrial areas from the settlements nearby the two villages, and the toxic waste is simply being thrown on Palestinian land, causing severe problems for the Palestinians in many of the villages in the Nablus region. This waste land affects the ground water providing drinking water to several villages included Nabus City, as well as causing pollution and bad smell in the air.
Between 80 and 100 people participated at the demonstration in order to show their frustration about the situation with the toxic waste. The demonstrators destroyed the fence that was surrounding the Waste Land in protest of the IDFs demand that nobody were allowed to enter the area. The coordinator of the Palestinian Popular Party held a speech, calling for the international society to stand up for the Palestinian people to support their struggle against the occupation, and for institutions like the UN security council to truly acknowledge the Israeli actions as going against International Law.

List of actions in Palestine for Land Day and Global BDS Day

Stop the Wall | Global BDS Movement

30 March 2009

The people in Palestine are mobilizing for the 32nd annual commemoration of Land Day, happening March 30. Land Day marks the date of the Palestinian demonstration that occurred in the Galilee against a wide-scale land confiscation, when Israeli forces killed 6 Palestinians, injured 96 and arrested 300.

Today, the Land Day protests of the people in Palestine and around the world are focused on the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The call for a global day of action on March 30 came out of the World Social Forum in Belem (Brazil) and aims to promote BDS as the most effective tool to stop Israeli policies of land theft and colonization and the discrimination, massacres and ethnic cleansing that have been carried out against the Palestinian people in pursuit of these goals.

Actions all across historic Palestine tie the ongoing defense of Palestinian land and agriculture from the Wall and settlement project to the call for boycott of Israeli products and institutions. Where farming becomes a form of resistance, choosing Palestinian over Israeli products is an essential part of the Palestinian struggle for justice, freedom, and return. Where a people is besieged, bombed and starved with the complicity of governments around the world, the call for global BDS becomes an essential tool to break the siege.

LIST OF ACTIONS

Galilee (’48 Palestine) – organized by the Higher Follow Up Committee of the Arab citizens of Israel

March 30, Deir Hanna: Demonstration against Israeli racism and fascism. Gathering at 3 pm.

March 30, Kufr Kanna: Demonstration at 10 am

March 30, Sakhnin: Demonstration at 10 am

Jenin

March 30, Rumaneh: Tree planting along with a workshop entitled “Land Day, BDS and the struggle against the Wall”.

Qalqiliya

March 27, Jayyous: Demonstration against the Wall and for the boycott of Israeli products.

March 29, Qalqiliya city: BDS district meeting. Activists, political representatives and students will discuss the boycott strategies in the district to work towards a ‘Qalqiliya district free of Israeli products’.

March 30, Jayyous: Demonstration against the Wall and for BDS along with the planting of olive trees.

March 30, Qalqiliya city: Demonstration against against Israeli occupation and for BDS

April 6 and 7, Qalqiliya city: Workshop in al Quds Open University Qalqiliya on economic and academic boycott as a form of resistance.

Ramallah

March 27, Ni’lin and Bil’in: demonstrations against the Wall and for BDS

March 27, al-Lubban: A day for voluntary work and painting of murals for the children, political workshop on BDS, and a film screening.

March 28, Shuqba: A day for voluntary work and painting of murals for the children as well as political workshop on BDS.

March 28, Sinjil: A day for voluntary work and painting of murals for the children, political workshop on BDS, and a film screening.

March 30, Qalandiya: Demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint against the isolation of Jerusalem and for BDS.

April 3, Ni’lin and Bil’in: Demonstrations against the Wall and for BDS.

April 4, Beit Liqiya: A day for voluntary work and painting of murals for the children, political workshop on BDS, a film screening, and a dabke festival.

Saffa, April 4: A day of voluntary work, painting of murals for the children and the planting of olive trees.

Bethlehem

March 27, al Ma’sra: Demonstration against the Wall and for BDS.

March 30, Qubbet Rahel (Bethlehem): Women’s demonstration against the Wall and for BDS.

March 30, Beit Sahour: Workshop at the Palestinian Center For Rapprochement Between People covering the topics of communication for western audiences about Palestine and activism on Palestine and abroad, including BDS. (9 am – 12am).

April 3, Irtas: Planting olive trees.

April 3, al Ma’sra: Demonstration against the Wall and for BDS.

BDS global day of action

Boycott National Committee | Global BDS Movement

30 March 2009

Boycott Israel! Make it account for its crimes in Gaza!

Today, the Palestinian people scattered across the globe mark Land Day, commemorating the events of 33 years ago, when Israeli security forces shot and killed six young Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured many.

These brave youth were among the thousands protesting Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land to build new Jewish colonies and expand existing Jewish cities. Today, Land Day symbolizes Palestinian resistance to Israel’s ongoing land expropriation, apartheid, colonization and occupation. It marks as well the first Global Day of Action for Palestinian rights and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), launched at the 2009 World Social Forum in Brazil.

Israel’s racist policies of confiscating Palestinian land and forcibly displacing Palestinians have gained in intensity since the original Land Day. The policies of incremental ethnic cleansing that Israel calls “Judaization” are proceeding apace in Palestine’s historic cities, including Jerusalem, Jaffa, Acre, Lydda and Ramla, with daily home demolitions and forced evictions. Israel’s aggressive land grab continues with the construction and expansion of the Apartheid Wall and colonies on occupied Palestinian land. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face imminent displacement as their villages are slated to be erased from the map in their entirety.

Moreover, the fundamental injustices that gave rise to the original Palestinian Civil Society BDS Call in 2005 are more acute than ever today. Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba and ever since, their UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes of origin; it continues its institutionalized racial discrimination against the Palestinian citizens of Israel; and its military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip is intensifying in repression and cruelty.

Land Day this year takes on further significance in light of Israel’s atrocious war of aggression against the hermetically besieged Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip. The more than 1,400 deaths, 5,000 injuries, and 14,000 homes damaged or destroyed are only the latest manifestation of the contempt with which Palestinian life is regarded by Israel. The silence of powerful world governments in the face of the massacre was yet another astounding failure of the “international community” to uphold international law and to hold Israel to account for persistently and gravely violating the most basic of international norms.

Indeed, all these forms of Israeli colonial and racist oppression could not have reached this critical level without the direct or indirect support and collusion of the United States, the European Union and many other countries, including several Arab regimes. The isolation of Israel through boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), as was done to apartheid South Africa, must become a top priority for anyone struggling for freedom, justice and the consistent application of international law and universal human rights principles.

For the martyrs of land day and the thousands of others who gave their lives for freedom, justice and self-determination, for the thousands imprisoned for their commitment to human dignity, for Gaza, for return, equality and freedom, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls on people of conscience around the world struggling against all forms of oppression to boycott Israel and divest from it and from companies profiting from its oppression until it fully abides by its obligations under international law and recognizes our inalienable rights on our land. We salute all the groups and individuals who heeded the call to organize BDS-related activities on this Global Day of Action for Palestine. With your support, we shall overcome.