(MintPress) – This Saturday, thousands of Palestinians are expected to publicly commemorate Yom al-Ard (“Land Day”) marking the confiscation of vast tracts of Palestinian land in 1976 and the death of six Palestinian residents during clashes with Israeli authorities. The event has sparked violent conflicts with police, injuries and arrests in previous years prompting Israeli authorities to gear up for protests this weekend.
Decades after Yom al-Ard, the issue of land confiscation remains a salient one as Israel continues the expropriation of Palestinian land through illegal settlements housing some 500,000 residents in areas beyond the legally recognized borders of Israel.
Yom al-Ard and land confiscation
The events of March 30, 1976, culminated in the deaths of six Palestinian residents following the Israeli government’s plan to expropriate thousands of acres of land for “security and settlement purposes.”
Palestinian groups throughout Israel organized a general strike in Arab towns, gathering thousands of people from the Northern Galilee to the Southern Negev. In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six Arab citizens were killed, roughly one hundred were wounded and hundreds of others were arrested.
The event typically is marked every year with marches and demonstrations organized by Palestinian civil society, including social organizations, labor unions and university groups. Members of the Palestinian diaspora have also lent support, participating in demonstrations abroad.
Land Day is recognized in Israel and Palestinian communities as a pivotal event — the first major political uprising since the mass expulsion of roughly 700,000 Arab residents in 1948.
In protests last year, at least 121 people were injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers at the Qalandiya checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Most suffered from tear gas inhalation, according to medical sources. Other protests in Bethlehem, Nablus and throughout the Gaza strip led to smaller clashes with Israeli police.
The issue of land confiscation is one that continues presently, as the proliferation of illegal Israeli settlements continue to consume land throughout the West Bank, an area that is considered Palestinian land under international law.
“Since 1967 Israel has established over a hundred settlements in the West Bank. These settlements were established on vast tracts of land taken from the Palestinians, in breach of international humanitarian law,” writes B’tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.
Disappearing, too, is the possibility of a two-state solution in accordance with the June 1967 borders that are widely recognized as the solution to the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflict.
“The very existence of the settlements violates Palestinian human rights, including the right to property, equality, a decent standard of living and freedom of movement. Israel’s dramatic alteration of the West Bank map has precluded realization of Palestinians’ right to self-determination in a viable Palestinian state,” said B’tselem.
The criticism from human rights organizations hasn’t slowed the Israeli government’s expansion of illegal settlements. “Building will continue in accordance with what the government’s policy has been thus far, said Housing Minister Uri Ariel in a statement earlier this month. “I see no reason to change it.”
In December and January, Israel announced plans to build more than 11,000 new houses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, nearly double the 6,800 built under Netanyahu’s previous administration dating back to March 2009. These figures were confirmed by the settlement watch group Peace Now.
Israel has offered partial settlement freezes as a means to jump-start negotiations with Palestinian leadership in the past. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met separately with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a recent trip to the Middle East earlier this month, attempting to bring the two sides back to the table for constructive dialogue.
Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator rejected the idea of a “partial-settlement freeze” put forth by Kerry and the Netanyahu government earlier this week, insisting that nothing short of a full freeze will bring Palestinian leadership back to negotiations.
Israel agreed to a 10-month settlement construction freeze on all of its settlements in the West Bank November 2009. After negotiations broke down, the Netanyahu resumed construction of illegal settlements throughout the West Bank.