Protest Marks Palestinian Land Day
Minneapolis, MN - Protests against Israeli land theft marked the 30th anniversary of Palestinian Land Day. 25 people gathered at rush hour near the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, March 30, in solidarity with demonstrations all over the West Bank, Gaza and the 1948 territories. The protest called for dismantling the Israeli Apartheid Wall, dismantling Israeli settlements, an end to home demolitions, the Right of Return for all Palestinians, and an end to U.S. aid to Israel. Protesters carried signs, banners and flags, gave information to passers-by, and chanted slogans including, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Aid to Israel has got to go!”
Israel receives $5 billion in aid per year from the United States. $3 billion is direct aid that has no strings attached; $2 billion is loans that are not expected to be paid back. The Minneapolis protest was organized by the Anti-War Committee, which said in a statement, “U.S. aid supports an Israeli apartheid system that denies Palestinians safety and basic human rights. The biggest example of this is the Israeli Apartheid Wall, which forces communities apart and unlawfully grabs Palestinian lands.”
A new study by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs reports that Palestinians in the West Bank have been imprisoned in separate enclaves, or ‘ghettos,’ surrounded by the Wall and unable to move. In building the Wall, Israel has grabbed more land from Palestinians and strengthened illegal settlements all over the West Bank.
Over 116 Palestinian villages have been isolated on the Israeli side of the Wall, while 50 more have been separated from their farmlands. Salfit, the most fertile area of the West Bank (known as Palestine’s food basket) has lost more than 70% of its land behind the Wall. The Jerusalem district will lose 90% of its land when the Wall is completed. The Anti-War Committee statement continued, “This amounts to theft, pure and simple. And we’re here to say no more.”
Home demolitions are another tactic used to steal Palestinian land. The Israeli military has demolished more than 2500 Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip in the past four years. Nearly two-thirds of those homes were in the southern town and refugee camp of Rafah, on the border with Egypt. 16,000 people in Rafah - more than 10% of the local population - have lost their homes.
The Minneapolis protest included readings from solidarity activist Rachel Corrie. Three years ago on March 16, 2003, an Israeli soldier used a Caterpillar bulldozer to tear down the home of Samir Nasrallah, a Palestinian physician, in Rafah. 23-year old American Rachel Corrie was there, and tried to protest the demolition. Rather than stopping when he saw her, an Israeli soldier pushed the bulldozer ahead, running over and killing Corrie.
Three years later, the U.S. government has done nothing to investigate her murder. CAT D-9 and D-10 bulldozers are still used to demolish Palestinian homes, uproot olive trees, raze agricultural lands, build the Wall and murder Palestinian civilians.
Land Day commemorates the bloody killing by Israeli troops of Palestinians peacefully protesting land confiscation on March 30, 1976. Israeli authorities had announced the confiscation of a total of 5500 acres of land from Palestinian villages in the Galilee and had classified them as ‘closed military zones.’
Israeli army and police responded to the demonstrations with violence, killing six Palestinians, injuring 96 others and arresting over 300. Arab villages and towns were declared closed military zones by the Israeli authorities and a curfew was imposed on a number of them. The expropriated lands later fell subject to heavy illegal Israeli settlement expansion. Repression and imprisonment continue be used by Israel against Palestinians who resist the occupation.
Speakers at the Minneapolis protest called for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, including general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Saadat. He and five others were captured by Israel two weeks ago, when the Israeli military destroyed a Palestinian prison in Jericho. He had been held there without charges since 2002.
The creation of the Zionist state of Israel forced nearly three quarters of a million Palestinians to become refugees. Together with their descendants, these refugees are today the largest and longest suffering refugee population in the world. Over 3.7 million are registered by the United Nations and more than 2 million are not registered.
Land Day not only a reminder of Israeli injustices against the Palestinian people, but also a day of protest, in the struggle against the Israeli occupation, and for Palestinian self-determination, national liberation and the right of return.
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