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great march of return
'Every Year It Is More Relevant': Palestinians Mark Land Day Amid Genocide
"We honor those who rose up in 1976 and all who have risen up to fight for justice in Palestine," said one advocacy group.
Mar 30, 2024
This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
Palestinians on Saturday were joined by people across the globe in marking Land Day, the 48th anniversary of Israel's killing of six unarmed protesters who rose up against the Israeli government's confiscation and occupation of Palestinian land.
Thousands of Palestinian people marched through Deir Hanna, one of the Israeli towns where authorities violently cracked down on nonviolent protesters on March 30, 1976, as they honored Raja Abu Raya, Khader Khalayleh, Khadija Shawahneh, Kheir Yassin, Mohsin Taha, and Raafat Zuhairi.
More than 100 people were also injured by Israeli authorities during the protest in 1976, which was organized in opposition to Israel's confiscation of nearly 5,000 acres of land that belonged to Palestinian citizens of Israel in the northern Galilee region.
The Good Shepherd Collective, an anti-Zionist human rights group based in the West Bank, said that with Israel bombarding Gaza and conducting raids almost daily in the West Bank as officials seize more land, Land Day becomes "more relevant" every year.
"No Palestinian needs to be reminded of the centrality of the land in the struggle for justice and liberation. Land Day is more a remembrance of one massacre among hundreds over more than one hundred years of Zionist violence," said Good Shepherd Collective. "In the midst of a genocide, we must continue to speak out and speak of the context of settler-colonialism's baked-in logic of elimination."
Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrichannounced Israel was seizing nearly 2,000 acres of land in the occupied West Bank, which would allow the country to build more illegal settlements. The country's settlement-planning authority said earlier this month it had approved the construction of 3,500 new housing units in the territory.
As the Middle East Eyereported, Israeli forces conducted overnight raids across the West Bank ahead of Land Day, killing a 13-year-old boy named Nabil Abu Abed near Jenin.
The U.S.-based Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) marked Land Day as organizers with the group held solidarity marches and rallies in cities including Boston; Portland, Maine; and Providence, Rhode Island. Other groups organized a march scheduled for Saturday evening in New York City.
The group noted that Land Day also marks the beginning of the Great March of Return protests, which were held weekly for 21 months starting on March 30, 2018 as demonstrators demanded an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza and the right to return to the homes their families were expelled from in 1948 when Zionist forces cleared the way to establish Israel. More than 200 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces for participating in the marches, including 46 children.
"We mourn the thousands whom the Israeli military murdered or permanently injured over the years. We honor those who rose up in 1976 and all who have risen up to fight for justice in Palestine," said JVP.
Marches also took place in Cardiff, Wales; London; Madrid; and Helsingborg, Sweden, with protesters reiterating the demand for an immediate, permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
"I'll keep [marching] as long as the bombing and the apartheid and the injustice is going on," Stephen Kapos, an 86-year-old survivor of the Holocaust, told Al Jazeera.
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US Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Silence Palestinian Rights Advocacy
This marks the third straight time a federal court has dismissed a case targeting the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights' support for the 2018-19 Great March of Return protests in Gaza.
Jan 22, 2024
Free speech defenders welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to take up a lawsuit that outlandishly claimed a civil society group provided "material support" for terrorism by advocating for Palestinian human rights.
The Supreme Court's punting of
Jewish National Fund v. U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights—which comes over three months into Israel's war on the Gaza Strip—marks the third consecutive time a federal court has dismissed the case, which USCPR said casts "collective activism and expression of solidarity as unlawful."
In the case's first dismissal in March 2021, a federal judge
said that the plaintiffs' argument was "to say the least, not persuasive."
USCPR executive director Ahmad Abuznaid
hailed Monday's move by the nation's highest court, reiterating the group stands for "justice for all and an end to funding genocide."
"There's no lawsuit in the world that can stop us from pushing our demands for human rights," he added. "We will remain focused on opposing Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people and pursuing justice and freedom for the Palestinian people."
According to USCPR:
At issue were USCPR's fiscal sponsorship of the Boycott National Committee and expressions of support for the rights and demands of Palestinians participating in the Great Return March, when Palestinians protested to demand respect for their right to return to the villages from which Israeli settlers expelled them in 1948.
More than 230 Palestinians including at least 46 children were
killed when Israeli forces responded to the largely peaceful demonstrations against Israel's ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation with live and "less-lethal" ammunition. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were wounded over the course of the protests, which continued for the better part of two years.
The
Jewish National Fund (JNF)—which was established in 1901 to purchase land for Jewish settler colonists in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire—claimed USCPR's advocacy during the demonstrations violated a provision of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a highly contentious law signed by then-President Bill Clinton which prohibits "material support" for activities the United States considers terrorism.
"The JNF's prolonged and egregious pursuit of a fishing expedition to silence and intimidate urgent advocacy for Palestinian rights has been definitively put to rest by the Supreme Court," said Diala Shamas, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which supported the defendants.
"Now, as the government of Israel is carrying out an unfolding genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, it is more important than ever that activists be free to speak out without fear."
"The JNF's accusations were baseless, as recognized by the district court, the court of appeals, and now confirmed by the Supreme Court," Shamas added. "Now, as the government of Israel is carrying out an unfolding genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, it is more important than ever that activists be free to speak out without fear. This is an important victory, but USCPR shouldn't have been subjected to these smears in the first place."
According to Palestinian and United Nations officials, nearly 25,300 Palestinians have been killed and around 63,000 others wounded during Israel's 108-day, U.S.-backed assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks of October 7. Another 7,000 Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble.
More than 1.9 million Palestinians, or over 85% of Gaza's population, have been forcibly displaced, while medical officials say babies and children in Gaza are
starving to death due to Israel's self-described "complete siege" of the embattled enclave.
Israel's conduct in the war is the subject of a South African-led genocide case before the International Court of Justice.
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