March 30, 2009 - No. 65

33rd Anniversary of Land Day

Long Live the Palestinian Resistance!

March 30, 2009: Palestinian protesters confront Israeli Occupation Forces' soldier during a
Land Day demonstration near the West Bank town of Idna, west of Hebron.

• Long Live the Palestinian Resistance!
• Boycott Israel! Make It Account for Its Crimes in Gaza! - Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions National Committee (Palestine) Statement
• Israel's Ethnic Cleansing Policy and Land Day: Palestinian Uprising and Resistance - Ahmad Jaradat, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
• Turkey's Fallout with Israel Deals Blow to Settlers - Jonathan Cook
• Deir Hanna Commemorates Land Day
• Quebec Festival Drops "Tolerance" Award - Malcolm Guy
• Hamas Win in UNRWA Elections - Palestinian Information Center

• Background: Day of the Land

SUPPLEMENT
• Incriminating Evidence of Israeli War Crimes in Gaza - Stephen Lendman, Palestine Chronicle

33rd Anniversary of Land Day

Long Live the Palestinian Resistance!

Left: Demonstration to mark Land Day and to demand opening of blocked roads in the West Bank city
of Hebron March 28, 2009. Israeli soldiers attacked protesting Palestinians, Israelis and international
peace activists using tear gas and concussion grenades. Right: Land Day demonstration at the
Erez Crossing in the Gaza Strip, March 30, 2009.

Today marks yet another black day in Palestinian history, known to all Palestinians as Land Day. On March 30, 1976, six Palestinians from Arab villages inside the Green Line were shot and killed by Israeli forces while protesting the order to confiscate 5,500 acres of land from the Galilee. Since then, Land Day has been commemorated by Palestinians inside Israel as well as in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and around the world.

The leaders of the Palestinian community in Israel have decided to mark this year's Land Day as a day against "Zionist fascism and racism" to protest the intensified targeting of Palestinian citizens, especially with reactionaries such as Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman holding leading positions in the new Israeli cabinet. There is a central rally planned in the village of Deir Hanna, which came under curfew and military occupation 33 years ago. There are activities planned in support of Palestinians in East Jerusalem whose houses Israel wants to demolish as part of its attempts to force Arabs out of the city. The National Democratic Assembly party of the Palestinian community in Israel is organizing a series of lectures under the banner "We Fight Racism by Defending our Land and Homes." The event will oppose the racism and discrimination imposed by the Zionists, using zoning laws and other means to steal more Palestinian land. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza will also hold rallies and activities to celebrate Palestinian resistance and commitment to holding on to the land as a vital part of winning liberation and ending the occupation.

The focus on racism is part of the resistance to current Israeli efforts to organize racist and fascist attacks against the Palestinians inside Israel and to divide resistance to the occupation by both Palestinians and Israelis. On March 24, 2009, the Israeli authorities had a fascist Zionist gang stage a provocative march into the Palestinian town of Umm al-Fahm. The group came out of the banned, racist Kach party, and advocates the forced "transfer" of Israel's Palestinian community outside of Israel. The Palestinians militantly resisted this state-organized racist attack, while the Israeli police protected the fascist gang and attacked the demonstrators.

Umm al-Fahm, March 24, 2009

TML joins the people of Palestine and the world over in marking Land Day. Through demonstrations, meetings and other activities, let us step up demands to end the occupation, end to the siege of Gaza and all attacks on Palestinians. Peoples worldwide stand with the Palestinian resistance and their rights to their land and natural resources. They stand as one with the heroic fight of the Palestinians, who refuse to give up in the face of the U.S.-Israeli war machinery and continue to advance the fight to achieve their national and social rights.

Boycott Israel! Make It Account for Its Crimes in Gaza!

- Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions National Committee (Palestine) Statement on Land Day-BDS Global Day of Action, March 30, 2009 -

Today, the Palestinian people scattered across the globe mark Land Day, commemorating the events of 33 years ago, when Israeli security forces shot and killed six young Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured many.

These brave youth were among the thousands protesting Israel's expropriation of Palestinian land to build new Jewish colonies and expand existing Jewish cities. Today, Land Day symbolizes Palestinian resistance to Israel's ongoing land expropriation, apartheid, colonization and occupation. It marks as well the first Global Day of Action for Palestinian rights and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), launched at the 2009 World Social Forum in Brazil.

Israel's racist policies of confiscating Palestinian land and forcibly displacing Palestinians have gained in intensity since the original Land Day. The policies of incremental ethnic cleansing that Israel calls "Judaization" are proceeding apace in Palestine's historic cities, including Jerusalem, Jaffa, Acre, Lydda and Ramla, with daily home demolitions and forced evictions. Israel's aggressive land grab continues with the construction and expansion of the Apartheid Wall and colonies on occupied Palestinian land. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face imminent displacement as their villages are slated to be erased from the map in their entirety.

Moreover, the fundamental injustices that gave rise to the original Palestinian Civil Society BDS Call in 2005 are more acute than ever today. Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba and ever since, their UN-sanctioned right to return to their homes of origin; it continues its institutionalized racial discrimination against the Palestinian citizens of Israel; and its military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip is intensifying in repression and cruelty.

Land Day Memorial, Sakhnin, Galilee

Land Day this year takes on further significance in light of Israel's atrocious war of aggression against the hermetically besieged Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip. The more than 1,400 deaths, 5,000 injuries, and 14,000 homes damaged or destroyed are only the latest manifestation of the contempt with which Palestinian life is regarded by Israel. The silence of powerful world governments in the face of the massacre was yet another astounding failure of the "international community" to uphold international law and to hold Israel to account for persistently and gravely violating the most basic of international norms.

Indeed, all these forms of Israeli colonial and racist oppression could not have reached this critical level without the direct or indirect support and collusion of the United States, the European Union and many other countries, including several Arab regimes. The isolation of Israel through boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), as was done to apartheid South Africa, must become a top priority for anyone struggling for freedom, justice and the consistent application of international law and universal human rights principles.

For the martyrs of land day and the thousands of others who gave their lives for freedom, justice and self-determination, for the thousands imprisoned for their commitment to human dignity, for Gaza, for return, equality and freedom, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls on people of conscience around the world struggling against all forms of oppression to boycott Israel and divest from it and from companies profiting from its oppression until it fully abides by its obligations under international law and recognizes our inalienable rights on our land. We salute all the groups and individuals who heeded the call to organize BDS-related activities on this Global Day of Action for Palestine. With your support, we shall overcome.

BNC Secretariat

Israel's Ethnic Cleansing Policy and Land Day: Palestinian Uprising and Resistance

- Ahmad Jaradat, Alternative Information Center (AIC), March 30, 2009 -

Bethlehem, Land Day 2009

On March 30, 1976, six young Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in mass demonstrations that took place in many towns and villages. Twenty-eight years before, Palestinians lost 78% of their land to the Zionists during the months before and after Israel declared itself a State in 1948. Not until 1966 did Palestinians, who remained in what became Israel, receive citizenship, living under military rule in the 20 year interim, much like Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza live today. These years were marked by continued land theft and the activation of Israel's policy of "Judeazation" of the Galilee, and other areas where indigenous Palestinians remained on their lands.

The State of Israel continues its policies of land theft. But on this day, March 30th 1976, Palestinians took to the streets to protest Israel's land confiscations orders. They were met by police and soldiers who opened fire on protesters, killing six of them and injuring many others.

The brave young men who were killed, and the many others who continue to protest Israel's policies of land confiscation, have done more than fight for their rights and the rights of all Palestinians. They have revealed the true face of Israel; a racist state whose aim, carried out through its policies of land confiscation, is to ethnically cleanse the land of all Palestinians, including Palestinians who are now citizens of Israel.

Palestinians everywhere commemorate Land Day, March 30th. Not only to remember those who were killed in struggle but to unite in their message: Our land is the cornerstone of our struggle, it is the land on which we can exercise our rights and self determination.

In the West Bank, Israel's goal of theft and control plays out through the building of more illegal Jewish-only settlements and "security" infrastructure to support them, including bypass roads and, of course, the monstrous Apartheid Wall. The effect on Palestinian life is crushing. This is the real aim of the occupation. As Palestinians continue standing on their land and resisting against the occupation, they are resisting Israel's policy of "silent deportation."

In 2009, the commemoration of the Land Day is particularly poignant Suffering Gazans are still being kept under siege as the world continues to watch. 1,400 Gazans were killed during Israel's 23 day massive assault and another 5,000 were injured. It is estimated that 30% of dead and wounded are children. Tens of thousands have been made homeless. There are reports of Israel having used white phosphorus weapons against the civilians.

This year's land day comes at a time when massive deportation is taking place in east Jerusalem through the demolition of houses.

Of course, when we talk about settlers and settlement projects we are talking about a struggle for land. The usurpation and confiscation of Palestinian land involves more constraints and difficulties at all levels. Politically, it is an attempt to create an argument "facts on the ground" used to prevent Palestinians from implementing their rights in a state. It means Palestinians losing the revenues from their own land. Since 2000, one million trees where uprooted to expand settlements and to build the Apartheid wall.

Since the Oslo Accords, the supposed peace process signed in 1993, the number of settlers increased from 150,000 to 500,000 and the number of houses in the settlements increased five times. In some Palestinian cities or towns, like Hebron downtown, the number of settlers increased from 150 in 1993 to 500 in 2009.

Dozens of villages and towns have become virtual prisons, as they are completely surrounded by settlements. This is the case of Nahhaleen, in the west of Bethlehem.

The occupation displacement policy is daily implemented in the West Bank, according to district reports.

In south hills of Hebron, thousands of citizens were deported from their villages. In the north valleys, more than 6 villages like Aqaba, Madam and Bardallah are facing a displacement policy that includes demolition of their homes or confiscation of their land; such policies are to facilitate the development and expansion of the illegal settlements. Many villages close to the Jerusalem Municipality border were illegally annexed to the city during the eighties. However, the residents still hold West Bank identity cards. This is the case of Al-Walaja, Alkas, and Alon'man, in the Bethlehem district. These towns are now closed off by barrier fences. Their residents are absolutely prevented from building new houses because, as West Bank residents, they cannot request the Jerusalem Municipality for building permits.

Land Day 2009, Global Day of Action for Palestine

The Land Day as a symbol of the struggle in Palestine has become a day of solidarity with Palestinian people in their struggle for their rights. At the World Social Forum, held in Brazil this past January, an initiative was launched calling for March 30 to be a Global Day of Action for Palestine and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign to end the Israeli occupation and apartheid.

This is a very important step forward towards real solidarity for Palestine. It is provides a way to put real pressure on the International Community to seriously and clearly address creating a real and fair peace in Palestine. The Land Day, and actually the land of Palestinians, has become not only a Palestinian symbol of struggle but also a symbol of solidarity movements and of all powers who work for peace in Palestine. Demonstrations, meetings, exhibitions, conferences, etc. have been prepared around the world to commemorate the Day of Land.

From all indications, Land Day 2009 will again focus on the so-called peace process of the Oslo Accords, on the fight of Palestinian people for their rights on their land, and on the creation of real solidarity at an international level. Last year, we wrote an article for the occasion called: "Land Day 2008: Eyewitness on the failure of Oslo Agreement." In 2009, everybody knows well what happened: War Against Gaza, Settlements Expansion, Displacement Policy, Home Demolishing, Land Confiscation, Assassination policy, Detentions, etc. All of these point to the same conclusion: while the occupation continues its policy of ethnic cleansing, Palestinians will continue to struggle for their land and their rights.

Turkey's Fallout with Israel Deals Blow to Settlers

- Jonathan Cook, Electronic Intifada, March 25, 2009 -

A legal battle being waged by Palestinian families to stop the takeover of their neighborhood in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers has received a major fillip from the recent souring of relations between Israel and Turkey.

After the Israeli army's assault on the Gaza Strip in January, lawyers for the families were given access to Ottoman land registry archives in Ankara for the first time, providing what they say is proof that title deeds produced by the settlers are forged.

On Monday, Palestinian lawyers presented the Ottoman documents to an Israeli court, which is expected to assess their validity over the next few weeks. The lawyers hope that proceedings to evict about 500 residents from Sheikh Jarrah will be halted.

The families' unprecedented access to the Turkish archives may mark a watershed, paving the way for successful appeals by other Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank caught in legal disputes with settlers and the Israeli government over land ownership.

Interest in the plight of Sheikh Jarrah's residents peaked in November when one couple, Fawziya and Mohammed Khurd, were evicted from their home by an Israeli judge. Mr. Khurd, who was chronically ill, died days later.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Khurd, 63, has staged a protest by living in a tent on waste ground close to her former home. Israeli police have torn down the tent six times and she is facing a series of fines from the Jerusalem municipality.

The problems facing Mrs Khurd and the other residents derive from legal claims by the Sephardi Jewry Association that it purchased Sheikh Jarrah's land in the 19th century. Settler groups hope to evict all the residents, demolish their homes and build 200 apartments in their place.

The location is considered strategic by settler organizations because it is close to the Old City and its Palestinian holy places.

Unusually, foreign diplomats, including from the United States, have protested, saying eviction of the Palestinian families would undermine the basis of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The help of the Turkish government has been crucial, however, because Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire when the land transactions supposedly took place.

Israel and Turkey have been close military and political allies for decades and traditionally Ankara has avoided straining ties by becoming involved in land disputes in the occupied territories. But there appears to have been an about-turn in Turkish government policy since a diplomatic falling-out between the two countries over Israel's recent Gaza operation.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, accused his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Olmert, of "lying" and "back-stabbing," reportedly furious that Israel launched its military operation without warning him. At the time of the attack, Turkey was mediating peace negotiations between Israel and Syria.

Days after the fighting ended in Gaza, Mr. Erdogan stormed out of a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, having accused Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, of "knowing very well how to kill."

According to lawyers acting for the Sheikh Jarrah families, the crisis in relations has translated into a greater openness from Ankara in helping them in their legal battle.

"We have noticed a dramatic change in the atmosphere now when we approach Turkish officials," said Hatem Abu Ahmad, one of Mrs. Khurd's lawyers. "Before they did not dare upset Israel and put us off with excuses about why they could not help."

He said the families' lawyers were finally invited to the archives in Ankara in January, after they submitted requests over several months to the Turkish consulate in Jerusalem and the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Officials in Turkey traced the documents the lawyers requested and provided affidavits that the settlers' land claims were forged. The search of the Ottoman archives, Mr. Abu Ahmad said, had failed to locate any title deeds belonging to a Jewish group for the land in Sheikh Jarrah.

"Turkish officials have also told us that in future they will assist us whenever we need help and that they are ready to trace similar documents relating to other cases," Mr. Abu Ahmad said. "They even asked us if there were other documents we were looking for."

That could prove significant as the Jerusalem municipality threatens a new campaign of house demolitions against Palestinians. Last week, Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the recent issuing of dozens of demolition orders in Jerusalem "ethnic cleansing."

Palestinian legal groups regularly argue that settlers forge documents in a bid to grab land from private Palestinian owners but have great difficulty proving their case.

Late last year the Associated Press news agency exposed a scam by settlers regarding land on which they have built the Migron outpost, near Ramallah, home to more than 40 Jewish families. The settlers' documents were supposedly signed by the Palestinian owner, Abdel Latif Sumarin, in California in 2004, even though he died in 1961.

The families in Sheikh Jarrah ended up living in their current homes after they were forced to flee from territory that became Israel during the 1948 war. Jordan, which controlled East Jerusalem until Israel's occupation in 1967, and the United Nations gave the refugees plots on which to build homes.

Mrs. Khurd said she would stay in her tent until she received justice.

"My family is originally from Talbiyeh," she said, referring to what has become today one of the wealthiest districts of West Jerusalem. "I am not allowed to go back to the property that is rightfully mine, but these settlers are given my home, which never belonged to them."

* Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are "Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" (Pluto Press) and "Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair" (Zed Books). He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit his website at: www.jkcook.net. (A version of this article originally appeared in The National, www.thenational.ae, published in Abu Dhabi.)

Deir Hanna Commemorates Land Day

Arab residents of Deir Hanna village located inside the Green Line, commemorated Land Day today, demanding an end to Israeli apartheid and racism as part of protests throughout villages in the Galilee and other Arab villages and cities.

The Higher Follow-up Committee had announced Deir Hanna village as one of the main locations for the protests to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of Land Day. The Committee issued a statement calling that the day be marked with greater determination and steadfastness especially while extremist parties are coming to power in Israel.

"It seems that racism and fascism became the center point of Israeli politics. This year we will mark Land Day with steadfastness and determination to counter racism in Israel," the Committee said in its release.

The committee added that Israel increased its illegal attacks and demolitions against Arab villages, and is continuing with demolishing more homes in the Negev, Jerusalem, and in Arab areas that Israel considers 'unrecognized villages.'

Demonstrators wave Palestinian, Hamas and communist and local party flags at a protest marking
Land Day in the northern Israeli village of Deir Hanna, Monday, March 30, 2009.

"The Israeli attacks are targeting Arab and Bedouin villages, in the Negev and in mixed towns along the coast. This is happening while incitement against the Arabs and Arab leaders is on the rise, while unemployment and poverty is gradually increasing due to Israeli apartheid polices," the committee said.

Furthermore, the Committee called on the Palestinian factions to end their difference and unite in order to counter the Israeli expansion plans in the Palestinian territories.

The committee also demanded prosecuting Israeli officials at international courts for war crimes against the Palestinians, especially the war crimes in Gaza, and for war crimes and collective punishment against the Palestinian political detainees in Israeli prisons.

(Source: International Middle East Media Center)

Quebec Festival Drops "Tolerance" Award

- Malcolm Guy, March 2, 2009 -

Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois (RVCQ), the annual festival honouring Quebec cinema, has just wrapped its 2009 edition with the awards evening. Special congratulations to Richard Brouillette, who won the Prix Pierre et Yolande Perrault / Meilleur espoir documentaire for his film Encirclement : Neo-Liberalism Ensnares Democracy and also to our friends at Péripheria, who won the short film award for Three Mothers by Daniel Schachter.

You may not be aware, but one award was cut from the Rendez-vous this year.

I was involved in pushing for the festival to drop the prize for Tolerance through cinema (le prix de la Fondation Ruth et Alex Dworkin pour la promotion de la Tolérance à travers le cinéma). Please find below an open letter signed by almost 60 members of the Quebec film community supporting the decision by the RVCQ to no longer present this controversial award. This letter was sent to the Rendez-vous on January 19, 2009.

Open Letter to the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois

A recent e-mail to filmmaker Malcolm Guy from Ségolène Roederer, the directrice générale du Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois was curt but clear:

Bonjour, I confirm that the Rendez-vous has decided to no longer award the prize of the Ruth and Alex Dworkin Foundation for the promotion of Tolerance through cinema. (translation)

Surprising as it may seem, this is very good news and the Festival is to be congratulated for taking this decision.

A little history is in order. In February, 2008 Montreal-based filmmaker Malcolm Guy addressed an open letter to the Rendez-Vous in which he officially withdrew as a member of the jury for the 2008 Prize of the Alex and Ruth Dworkin Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance through Cinema (2008 Prix annuel de la Fondation Alex et Ruth Dworkin pour la promotion de la tolérance à travers le cinéma). The award, which included a grant of $5000, went "to a producer representing the production team which has best demonstrated, in the winning work, a message of comprehension and tolerance."

Guy suggested that the Rendez-Vous cut its ties with the Tolérance prize because "(b)ehind this noble sounding "award for tolerance" hides a story of intolerance, division and discrimination."

Guy explained that the annual Prize of the Alex and Ruth Dworkin Foundation is an initiative of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec Region, an organization which he considers to be "fundamentally intolerant of dissent and difference, particularly when it comes to Israeli government policies." In his letter he raised two main arguments.

Firstly, he pointed to the refusal of the national leadership of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) to accept a membership application from the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (ACJC).

Guy wrote that the ACJC presents itself as a "cross-Canada alliance of Jewish anti-occupation forces" that is critical of Israel's pursuit of "a primarily military strategy while claiming to speak in the name of Jewish people around the world." The ACJC says that, "Canadians, especially Jewish Canadians, seeking a peaceful resolution to the seemingly endless Israel-Palestinian conflict should no longer remain silent in the face of Israel's actions in the Occupied Territories." He said that the decision of the CJC to deny membership to an organization critical of the Israeli government's policies revealed a lack of tolerance.

Secondly, Guy also revealed that Alex and Ruth Dworkin are major backers of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and are among a select group of people "who have demonstrated an enduring commitment to Israel and JNF" by contributing $1 million and above to this institution.

Guy said that the JNF has been involved in many controversial projects in Israel, which, "under the guise of reforestation and land purchase," have led to "the massive displacement of the Palestinian people and the occupation of their land."

He pointed to the example of Canada Park, which is located a short distance from Jerusalem. He wrote, "In a documentary widely shown on Canadian television entitled "Park with no peace," it was revealed that this JNF-sponsored park, using tax-deductible money raised in Canada, was built on the remains of the Palestinian villages of Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba. CBC TV's The Fifth Estate stated that some 10,000 Palestinians were forcibly removed by the Israeli armed forces from the land that was eventually turned into Canada Park. As a former member of the Israeli parliament who was interviewed put it, 'Canadians were used to cover-up a war crime'."

Guy concluded that for these reasons, "the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois should drop its affiliation with the Alex and Ruth Dworkin Foundation and the CJC. This award and award money is tainted, thus casting a negative light on the Festival."

We, the undersigned, agree with Malcolm Guy's decision to withdraw from the jury and for the call to put an end to this prize at the Rendez-Vous.

We understand that the decision of the Rendez-Vous to cut its ties with this prize supported by the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Alex and Ruth Dworkin Foundation was not an easy one to take. That is why we would like to salute and commend the Conseil d'administration et la direction du Rendez-Vous for this necessary, honourable and principled position. It raises the stature of the Festival and is a recognition that absolutely no intolerance can be accepted, especially from those involved in a prize for tolerance.

On this 60th anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights, we hope that other film festivals and arts organizations will take note of this decision and examine their consciences and their own sources of funding. We hope they will ensure that the principles of fair treatment, equality and fundamental human rights are strictly observed and that they will accept absolutely no "intolerance" or discrimination, even when support comes packaged under the guise of "tolerance" or other such terms.

For list of signatories:

http://pmm.qc.ca/english/spip.php?breve15&var_mode=calcul

Hamas Win in UNRWA Elections

- Palestinian Information Center, March 25, 2009 -

The Hamas Movement stated Wednesday that its win in the elections of the Arab workers union in the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), in which more than 10,000 employees participated, dealt a blow to the Israeli occupation authority which thought it could undermine the popular rallying around the Palestinian resistance forces spearheaded by Hamas.

In a statement received by the Palestinian Information Center (PIC), Hamas said that the UNRWA elections proved to the whole world that the Movement's popularity is on the rise and the Palestinian people would never forsake their Movement.

Hamas expressed its rejection of all ways of deception and misinformation used by some people to gain votes and purchase consciences, stressing that the Palestinian people today could separate the wheat from the chaff.

Informed sources had told the PIC that the Hamas bloc won 17 seats out of 27 in the elections of UNRWA employees, while eight seats went to the PLO factions and two to the independents.

Background

Day of the Land

Land Day posters through the years.

The following background information was provided by Palestinian-Canadian Nabil Hdeib to the 2004 Halifax Forum to commemorate Land Day.

***

The original establishment of the state of Israel actually marked the third successive failure historically of the Zionist project to acquire land from the indigenous Palestinians. At the time of the British Colonial Mandate in 1921, systematic Zionist colonization, which had begun to unfold at the end of the 19th century, had succeeded in acquiring only 2 percent of Historic Palestine. In the 30 years prior to World War I, the Jewish settlers were still under 8 percent of the total population.

Despite 47 years of British imperial carrot-and-stick tactics under its Colonial Mandate, the Zionist project again failed. Even the poorest Palestinian farmers stood strong and refused to sell or abandon their land under the Zionist pressure. As well, the World Zionist Organization was unable to entice European or North American Jews to reconstitute a Eurocentric society of wealthy capitalists, wealthy professionals, industrial workers and farmers.

Statistics published by the British government reveal that the total area acquired by Zionists from 1920, when Land Registry Offices were opened, permitting transfer of ownership, until the dislodging of the Palestinian Arabs, was under 4 percent of the total area of Palestine. Although they had no control over the immigration of Zionist colonists into Palestine, the Palestinians did have some control over the sale of individually-owned land to those colonists. In fact, much of the land acquired by the Zionists was from absentee landlords, or transferred by the British government from the public domain, although it was supposed to be held in trust for the Palestinian people.

What the British called "public domain" began under Ottoman law as "public land," i.e., land kept aside from private ownership to be brought into use or production under exceptional circumstances such as extended drought. It was not to be alienated into private hands. Under the British Colonial Mandate, although this Ottoman category was officially recognized, the Land Office treated so-called common land as "public domain" available for private ownership. Private ownership could and did include appropriation or a hand-over of control to the "Jewish National Fund," established in 1901 and part of the World Zionist Organization, deliberately designed to act as a private owner in the name of the "Jewish people." Land was taken from the collective of the Palestinian people, "nationalized" or "collectivized" by kibbutzim, but actually never turned over to individual Jewish property owners before 1948.

Monopoly Right Disguised as "Jewish Right"

Still, by 1947 the Zionists controlled not more than 5.6 percent of Palestinian land. As a result of this failure, and with the Anglo-American imperial governments facilitating their moves, the Zionists ruthlessly used armed force to expel 780,000 Palestinians in "Nakba" (the Catastrophe), emptying the land of their rightful inhabitants, establishing what became the state of Israel on robbed Palestinian land, and thus forcibly depriving them not only of the right to self-determination but also of their elemental right to exist on their own land. Israel was opened for a well-organized and liberally-financed new wave of colonization, speedily executed in order to create a seeming fait accompli, the reversal of which world public opinion would be reluctant to urge.

The fundamental Zionist principle of racial self-segregation originally outlined by Herzl in Der Judenstaat in 1896 of "land redemption" and "transfer" also demanded racial purity and racial exclusiveness in the land. As such, the Zionist credo of racial self-segregation necessarily rejected the coexistence of Jews and non-Jews.

Coexistence with the indigenous inhabitants in the territory in which Jewish colonists were to assemble was deemed a blemish on the image of pure Zionist racism. Outside Israel, the Zionists similarly criticized, from the same racist standpoint, continued Jewish residence in the lands of the Gentiles. On this basis, the State of Israel erected an entire legal order, including prohibition against the resale or lease of Jewish-owned land, a so-called Absentee Property Law (which in Arabic is called Qanoon Elhader/Gayeb) adopted in March 1950 along with other measures. It declared as "abandoned" any property temporarily vacated by Palestinians who were not present directly before, during or after the war of 1948, even if they took refuge within Palestine!

Through these measures, 90 percent of the land was seized by the Jewish National Fund. No land transaction could take place except with a Jew or a Jewish entity. The new state of Israel, established according to the conceptions of the European nation state, defends the property rights of the contending forces in the name of "Jewish right." In Europe and North America, Jews were excluded from many residential areas by the technique of adding special "covenants" to all property deeds in a given area or neighbourhood, specifying that the property could not be sold to anyone of Jewish background. In Israel, exactly the same racist principle was applied with the backing of the state against the Palestinians. However, "Jewish right" was elevated by Zionist Israel to monopoly right. As a result, almost 100 percent of the land is held "in trust" by the JNF, which is still technically an agency of an international body, the World Zionist Council, whose board consists of prominent Zionist millionaires and billionaires from around the world.

Of the 150,000 Palestinians who remained in the new Israeli state, approximately 25 percent were displaced from their homes and villages and became internal refugees. That left less than 22 percent of Palestine under Arab control. In 1967, Israel completed its expansionist colonial plan and occupied more Palestinian land while systematically dispersing its inhabitants. In the areas occupied in 1967, Israel used military orders to confiscate Palestinian land, of which over 1,300 have been issued so far, and which can be contested only with great difficulty. Since 1967 Israel has confiscated more than 750,000 acres of land from the 1.5 million acres comprising the West Bank and Gaza.

By 1993, over 80 percent of the lands owned by Palestinian Arabs living within Israel had been confiscated and placed at the exclusive disposal of the Zionist state and movement. So the Day of Land became an occasion to remember these collective injustices and an opportunity to draw attention to the land grab policies administered by the Zionist entity of Israel up until this day.

The Significance of Land Day

Today the Palestinians are facing another major land grab threat embodied in Israel's Apartheid Wall. "It is a land grab tool in the first place despite the official Israeli jargon of 'separation' and 'security'," Hdeib stressed. "The only 'separation' this wall is doing is separating Palestinian villages from their land and adding it to Israel, and the only thing Israel is securing by building the wall is a guarantee of maximum profits, more violence and an even weaker chance of peace."

"Still in its early stages of construction, way before any 'separation' has been achieved, the Apartheid Wall is causing immense damage. Two hundred ten thousand Palestinians are barred in enclaves, in severe violation of their rights under international law. Sixty-seven villages are separated from their means of livelihood. Twenty-eight hundred acres of Palestinian land were confiscated. Eighty-three thousand olive trees were uprooted. Thirty water wells producing 4 million cubed metres per year were confiscated. Thirty-five thousand meters of water infrastructure were destroyed by the bulldozers.

"Added to the Apartheid Wall is the expansion of the infrastructure of military checkpoints (now over 700) and segregated bypass roads built on expropriated land, and designed to contract and split the Palestinian space and facilitate illegal Zionist settlements.

"While it is the Palestinians who continue to be dispossessed, it is the titans of international finance capital -- concentrated in real estate and 'property development' (including highways construction) and originating from the U.S., Canada and France as well as Israel -- who continue to be enriched in the name of 'security' on the basis of increasing their stake in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

"For instance, Canadian Highways International Corporation (CHIC) which enriched itself through monopoly right in Canada -- the Highway 407 Express Toll Route (ETR) in Toronto, Ontario (the world's first all-electronic highway); the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island; and the Cobequid Bypass (a toll highway) in Nova Scotia and part of the Trans-Canada Highway -- is constructing the Cross-Israel Highway known as Route 6 in alliance with the most powerful real estate and construction interests within Israel. This monstrous, segregated, four-lane highway is rampaging through woodlands, deserts and villages and will stretch from the southern tip of Israel all the way up to its northern border with Lebanon. In part it parallels the Green Line or pushes it eastward into the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The consortium -- Derech Eretz Highways (1997) Ltd. -- is also made up of monopolies from Israel (Africa Israel Investment Ltd. and 36 other firms), France (Société Générale d'Entreprises), and the U.S. (Hughes Transportation Management Systems and Raytheon Company, the weapons manufacturer which supplied the dysfunctional Patriot missile system to Israel).

"The Day of the Land is an occasion not only for Palestinians but for every people and nation that has had its land stolen and its inhabitants dispersed be that in Palestine or Canada, be it the indigenous and First Nations or the ordinary people themselves. The costly sacrifices and unyielding resistance of the Palestinian people has not been in vain. They safeguarded the Palestinian national rights and underscored the legitimacy of their claim to their national heritage. Rights undefended are rights surrendered. Not a single day has passed or is passing that the Zionist junta of Israel has not expropriated land for self-serving reasons. The Zionist settler-state, therefore, has remained a usurper, lacking even the semblance of legitimacy -- because the people of Palestine has remained loyal to its heritage and faithful to its rights."

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