March 30, 1976, is a sacred and “painful” date. On that day, Israeli occupation forces confiscated a total of 5500 acres of land from the Palestinian villages of the Galilee, in northern Palestine. These areas were classified by the Israelis as “closed military zones” and later fell subject to heavy illegal settlement expansion. The confiscation of land provoked heavy confrontations between Palestinian citizens, land owners, and Israeli military forces, confrontations that claimed the lives of 6 Palestinians, injured 96, and resulted in the arrest of 300.

Today, Israel’s illegal policies of land confiscation and settlement expansion continue; since 1967, Israel has confiscated more than 750,000 acres of land from the 1.5 million acres comprising the West Bank and Gaza. Furthermore, Israel is annexing more land in order to erect its illegal separation and expansion wall, designed to confiscate close to 50% of the West Bank. This wall is a most evident exploitation of Israel’s breach of convention and is an implementation of new borders within the West Bank, an occupied territory. This effective annexation of land, alongside combined violations of basic human freedoms including freedom of movement, destruction of private property, and collective punishment of the civilian population have highlighted Israel’s selfish and destructive policies.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 clearly asserts that the “…occupying power cannot move segments of its own population to parts of the land it occupies,” or make any demographic changes that are not in the interest of the occupied. Furthermore, provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention have unquestionably condemned Israel’s settlement activities and demanded the ceasing of “all” settlement expansion by Israel.

The Israeli government is evidently not making any efforts, or expressing any willingness, to alter its policies; amidst world criticism and as the world awaits the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the legality of this wall, the wall continues to grow and settlements continue to expand, land is being confiscated and destroyed regularly and demonstrators are shot dead on a daily basis.

Palestinian Land Day is a day for remembrance. Yet equally, it is a day for peaceful demonstrations against injustice, and a call for freedom by Palestinians inside the territories, Israel proper and refugees in the Diaspora.