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Follow Us on TwitterPALESTINIAN LAND DAY AND GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION 30Mar10 March 28, 2010
This beautiful land Palestine is dying. Israel’s assaults on the land are turning the once lush green pastures into desert. The land which is being burnt, battered and scarred by Israeli bulldozers, artillery fire and explosives is also being denied water and the Palestinians who are trying to eke out a living from the land they once nurtured are hardly able to survive on the little water allowed them. There is almost nothing left of the original historic Palestine for around 4 million Palestinians still hoping for their own viable, independent state. Israel has expropriated, annexed and occupied all the land and continues to build illegal Jewish settlements amongst the Palestinian population while at the same time building an illegal Separation Wall to contain that population in ghettos. Palestinians who live inside Israel have also seen their properties and farming land confiscated. In 1976, the Israeli government confiscated 20,000 dunams (5,500 acres) of Palestinian farmland for new Jewish settlements and declared all Palestinian villages and towns in the lower Galilee area as “closed military zones”. Palestinians came together in a mass protest only to be faced with army tanks and heavy artillery. Seven Palestinians were killed, 96 were wounded and over 300 were arrested. This day – 30 March – has become known as Land Day (“Yaum al-Ard”) and every year Palestinians inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories demonstrate against Israel’s occupation and confiscation of their land. Israel’s response has been to continue with the Judaisation of the Galilee and East Jerusalem by building new settlements or expanding old ones. Not a week goes by without some land somewhere being expropriated, razed, or turned into a military zone.
Over sixty years of expropriation and occupation have left the whole area in dire straits and has sunk Israel into a mire of apartheid policies and ethnic cleansing. The land which sustained Palestinians for millennia and which they had nurtured with such care is expiring with its people. For this reason we must act and support the global campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. The only ray of hope for the Palestinians is for the international community to recognise their desperate plight and finally hold Israel accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Thank You.
