Israeli occupation troops in the Gaza Strip in a photo released on December 21, 2023.
The Israeli occupation is hardly looking for a military achievement to announce in Gaza on the 77th day of the brutal aggression on the besieged enclave.
The Israeli occupation army has been boasting with resounding statements by claiming to “destroy Hamas leaders tunnel network in Gaza city,” and “turning Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s home to dust.”
Such statements have been aimed at raising the morale of the Israeli army’s whose Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion withdrew from Gaza after suffering significant losses.
Israeli soldiers from the Golani Brigade celebrate leaving the battlefield in Gaza.
A few days ago, Israel's military announced massive losses during the unit's existence in Shejaiya. Meanwhile, the resistance announced that it caused heavy death toll and vehicle damage among… pic.twitter.com/29Iddeov4J
The Israeli occupation army announced on Friday the death of two Israeli soldiers, taking the death toll of Israeli troops since the start of the ground offensive in Gaza to 139 and the total number of troops killed since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood to 470.
Meanwhile, the occupation army said that 23 soldiers have been injured in the ground battles in the last 24 hours, taking the number of wounded troops since the start of the ground offensive to more than 600 including 179 seriously injured and 302 others in moderate condition.
Israeli occupation forces in Gaza (photo released by occupation military on December 16, 2023).
On the other hand, according to figures offered by Beirut-based Union Center for Research and Development (known as U-Feed), 720 Israeli vehicles and tanks have been destroyed or damaged during the ground battles in Gaza.
Fierce Clashes
Meanwhile on Friday, fierce clashes were reported in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, indicating that the occupation army hasn’t been able yet to control the northern region of the strip as the Israeli media has been propagating.
Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance group announced that its fighters managed to down an Israeli drone over Gaza on Friday. It added that the resistance fighters fired heavy mortar shells on gatherings of Israeli occupation troops stationed in Al-Qurm roundabout in northern Gaza Strip.
Continuous Massacres
On the other hand, the Israeli occupation went ahead with its brutal aggression against the besieged enclave, staging more strikes and shelling against several areas across the strip including Jabalia in the north and Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip as well as Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south.
BREAKING | Multiple injuries arrive at Al-Aqsa hospital after artillery shells were fired by the occupation in Bureij Camp, Deir-Al-Balah, moments ago pic.twitter.com/RoXRoHlXPI
Palestinian Health Ministry announced on Friday that 390 Palestinians have been martyred and 734 injured in the past two days, raising the toll of martyrs to 20,057 and the number of injured to 53,320 since the start of the aggression on October 7th.
Let’s imagine that the Sabra and Shatila massacre took place today, in the era of endless social media platforms and apps. Would things have turned out any different?
Scroll – a scream. Scroll again – a cry for help. Swipe – blood everywhere, piles of lifeless bodies, and countless people walking with bodies weighed down by sorrow and tears streaming from their eyes. Will you choose to look away, to shut off your phone, and pretend to not see? Or will you share, like, or ask for help?
What is the Sabra and Shatila massacre?
On September 16-18, 1982, militias of the Lebanese Forces (LF) carried out the brutal killings of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese citizens in Beirut’s Sabra neighborhood and the nearby Shatila refugee camp.
The Palestinian refugees were originally victims of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe), forced to flee from the violent crimes that Zionist gangs committed in their attempt to create “Israel.”
In June 1982, “Israel” invaded Lebanon with the aim of eradicating the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), based in Beirut. By September 1, 1982, the PLO had withdrawn from Lebanon, and assurances were given by the United States and other forces that remaining Palestinian refugees and civilians would be protected.
However, two weeks later, the Israeli military surrounded Sabra and Shatila, allowing their allies, the LF, to enter the camp and carry out the mass killings. This brutality lasted for 43 hours, resulting in over 3,000 civilian deaths.
After the horrific massacre, survivors started to describe the scenes, the endless acts of slaughter, mutilation, rape, and the existence of mass graves. The images, when broadcasted, shook the whole world.
From Thursday 6 pm till Saturday 1 pm, not a single sound was heard. From Thursday 6 pm till Saturday 1 pm, not one picture was seen. From Thursday 6 pm till Saturday 1 pm, not a single condemnation. How would the world know that such a massacre is taking place? There were no bombs heard, only the scattered sounds of weapons fired every now and then.
When the massacre took place, the world of livestreaming did not exist. The world of different social media platforms did not exist. Unfortunately, some victims of the massacre are still missing, and their families do not know their destiny.
Wherever you are, on your bed, in a café, or at your desk finishing your shift for the day, how do you imagine yourself receiving such news? Would you talk about it over lunch with some colleagues? Or do you see yourself doing something to help the victims, to spread the word for the whole world to know? Would things turn out to be different? Would the international community hold “Israel” and its allies accountable for such a crime, or would a few words of condemnation have been enough?
As we scroll through our feeds today, we are bombarded with a countless number of posts, from the mundane to the extraordinary. But imagine logging on to witness live updates from Sabra and Shatila, stories told by those on the ground, desperate for the world to hear their cries. Their words would not be confined to history books, but echoed through our screens, demanding our attention and compelling us to act.
Into the world of social media
Social media platforms would have been filled with live updates from the ground. Ordinary people, journalists, and activists would have used platforms such as Twitter to share real-time updates about what’s happening in Sabra and Shatila from photos and videos.
Survivors and witnesses could have shared their testimonies in real-time, making it harder for the perpetrators to deny their involvement in the massacre or their horrific actions.
People would start to create and spread hashtags related to the horrific massacre to raise awareness. The hashtags might have trended globally, putting pressure on governments and international organizations to respond.
Protests could have erupted around the globe, with solidarity movements taking place to support the victims by providing aid and support.
In our hypothetical digital world, some influencers and activists would use their platforms to amplify the voices of those who had been silenced. They would lend their reach to organizations working on the ground, shedding light on the urgent need for aid, support, and intervention.
The real question here is whether the algorithms of the big social media platforms would have allowed such content to spread. Would Meta censor some posts related to the horrific massacre?
Unwavering global indifference?
The real question in this hypothetical scenario is whether the international community’s stance regarding any Israeli-related massacre would have changed. Reports will be published, soft words of condemnation would have been issued, and ambassadors would have been summoned, but holding “Israel” directly accountable? Never.
After the massacre, the United Nations General Assembly classified the massacre as an “act of genocide.” In a non-shocking response, none of the responsible individuals from either the Lebanese or Israeli sides faced punishment. An Israeli investigation held the Lebanese Forces militia primarily accountable, but also held Ariel Sharon, who at the time was Security Minister and was in close contact with the Phalangists and Lebanese Forces, personally responsible for “neglecting the risk of bloodshed and revenge.” Although Sharon resigned in 1983, he was later elected as prime minister in 2001.
Although the presence of social media during the Sabra and Shatila massacre would have accelerated the spread of information and news, is there any chance that it would have influenced the international response? There are books and survivors who have talked about the massacre, and described it in detail even; did this change anything?
Not by a long shot.
It’s your choice now. You scroll and you see an Instagram reel that shows the story of Ahmad Manasra, the Palestinian prisoner who was arrested, interrogated, and sentenced to nine years in prison at the age of 13. You watch a video of an Israeli officer interrogating him in the most brutal way possible.
Today, #Palestinian prisoner #AhmadManasra turns 21 years old. Since Ahmad got to spend most of his childhood behind prison bars and all alone, here is what turning 21 would look like were Ahmad free and not living under a brutal #occupation. pic.twitter.com/7OcXQjrgV1
The decision by the United Nations also comes at an opportune time. In an age of disinformation, hybrid warfare, falsification, fake news, and attempts to equate Palestinian resistance with terrorism from “Israel”.
UN Recognition of the Nakba is a Step in the Right Direction
The year 2023 marks 75 years of the Nakba or genocide that was orchestrated, initiated, and perpetrated by Zionist fascist militias from 1948 and onwards. The toll of this catastrophe amounted to approximately 800,000 Palestinians being driven out of their homes and the first war between Arab states and the Zionist regime in 1948 also resulted in forced evictions of an indigenous population by an occupying force. The harrowing memories of Palestinians continue to live on as they bear witness to decades of state-sponsored Apartheid, oppression, persistent attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and expansion of settlements. In light of this, the commemoration of the Palestinian catastrophe remains a humanitarian imperative that needs greater promotion at the international level.
Hence, the decision by the United Nations to commemorate Nakba Day for the very first time on its platform in May 2023 is laudable, appreciable, and a step in the right direction. In a statement issued by the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), the ‘commemoration of the Nakba will bring life to the Palestinian journey and will aim to create an immersive experience of the catastrophe through live music, photos, videos, and personal testimonies.’ This acknowledgment and promotion of the foundational symbol of the Palestinian identity provides the momentum needed to sensitize the international community to what the occupied Palestinian population has had to bear which stands in stark contrast to being misguided by the hyper-nationalist Jewish press which negates Palestinian catastrophes, labels the legitimate resistance as terrorism and justifies its occupation.
The UN’s decision to commemorate the Nakba carries more than symbolic significance. Realities such as depopulation strategies, geographical erasures, shattering of Palestinian collective identities, orchestrating the exodus and eviction of 800,000 Palestinians from their homes, destroying over 500 Palestinian villages, and denying the right to return which continues in 2023, cannot be erased from Palestinian consciousness and should not escape international consciousness either. Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish for example described the Nakba as ‘an extended present that promises to continue into the future.’ As an institution that seeks to uphold principles of international justice, equity and conflict resolution, it is fitting that the United Nations has sought to commemorate the Nakba vividly, with photos, personal testimonies, and videos taking the Palestinian message of the just right to self-determination to the world for greater awareness, action against “Israel” and advocating for reparations.
The decision by the United Nations also comes at an opportune time. In an age of disinformation, hybrid warfare, falsification, fake news, and attempts to equate Palestinian resistance with terrorism from “Israel”, it is imperative to showcase actual facts, underline the genesis of the resistance and Palestinian discontent, and separate fact from fiction. This is precisely what President Mahmoud Abbas alluded to while praising the UN’s decision to commemorate the Nakba. President Abbas considered it the memories of the catastrophe to be at the top of the Palestinian priority list with the need to preserve the actual narrative and convey it to the entire world. He further stated that all the lies and falsehoods that distort facts, figures, and actual history must be taken head-on in order for the Palestinian identity and resistance to survive and gain traction. As the Nakba is taken up at the highest multilateral forum in the world, the potential to act as a curtain-raiser for lobbyists who continue to side with the Zionist regime’s revisionist interpretation of history remains a possibility.
Beyond the UN there is also a need for sovereign states with their respective legislatures and parliamentarians to acknowledge historical injustices meted out to the Palestinian people through genocide under the garb of Zionism. The best example of leveraging parliamentarian forums for greater action was witnessed in the US Congress, where Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib brought a resolution to recognize the Nakba of 1948. She further alluded to the undeniable fact that humanity is being denied to the Palestinian people even after decades of suppression and how the world has turned a blind eye to war crimes and human rights violations in fascist “Israel”. The resolution tabled by Tlaib has been hailed by the Institute for Middle East Understanding which termed it ‘historic’ and was also lauded by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights which acknowledged that for far too long, the Palestinian experience has been sidelined and ignored by Washington D.C.
Commemorating the Nakba at the United Nations should also be followed by a universal, coordinated strategy for “Israel” to be held accountable for its actions. There is little denying the fact that this far-right Netanyahu government or its predecessors have been allowed to systematically exterminate the indigenous Palestinian population with impunity. The character of the Zionist state in 2023 however, raises further alarms with demagogues such as Bezalel Smotrich at the helms of power who brazenly deny the existence of Palestinians. The frequency and severity of the barbarity unleashed would increase significantly which requires nothing short of a swift end to the occupation. The land that constitutes “Israel” belongs to the Palestinians only and the Nakba is a stark reminder of the sacrifices rendered by Palestinians from all walks of life, including the youth and veterans.
The commemoration of the Nakba at the UN is a step in the right direction.
The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
The Palestinian people are currently marking the 47th anniversary of “Land Day,” renewing their steadfast commitment to their identity and the land that remains the cornerstone of their struggle and the heart of the conflict with the Israeli occupation.
Against the backdrop of Israeli authorities’ ongoing policies of confiscation, home demolitions, and displacement, supposedly based on claims of unauthorized construction or non-recognition of Palestinian ownership of land they have inherited and owned since before the Nakba in 1948, this year’s commemoration takes on added significance.
At present, the Zionist ideology is more explicitly embracing the principle of “more land and fewer Arabs,” particularly in light of recent developments in the Negev region and the occupied West Bank. The challenges confronting Palestinians are increasingly dire, given the extremist Israeli government’s persistent attempts to Judaize more Palestinian land, annex it to the occupying state, and establish additional settlements and settlement blocs.
Today, Thursday, marks the anniversary day, a solemn occasion that the Palestinians commemorate with a series of activities and events. The event serves as a reminder of the vast areas of their land that the Israeli authorities confiscated, sparking a struggle that still rages today.
زرع أغصان الزيتون ضمن فعاليات إحياء ذكرى يوم الأرض شرق منطقة جحر الديك جنوب شرق مدينة غزة pic.twitter.com/AZuzXX1gFT
In commemoration, Arab-Palestinians are organizing a central march in the city of Sakhnin in the Lower Galilee to renew their pledge to the land, as per the organizers’ announcement.
The Higher Follow-up Committee for the Arab Citizens in ‘Israel’, the highest unitary representative body for the Arabs, has called for a central and unitary march in Sakhnin to commemorate the 47th anniversary of Land Day, with tens of thousands expected to participate.
The committee’s head, Muhammad Baraka, emphasized that the march signifies the renewal of the covenant to the land and homeland, intending to defend their children, lives, homes, and their beloved homeland, which they have no other place to call their own.
However, Baraka warned that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the most right-wing government in the history of the Jewish state, with plans that pose an existential danger and threat to the Palestinians through its legislation and policies. “The government has even claimed that there are no Palestinian people, and it has deployed heavily armed gangs in their villages and historic cities,” he said in a statement.
This anniversary usually sees thousands of Palestinians take to the streets in popular demonstrations, brandishing Palestinian flags, and calling for justice and peace.
Yesterday, Wednesday, dozens of children in Gaza participated in a scout march to commemorate the Land Day, raising Palestinian flags, as well as banners emphasizing their right to return to the lands from which their ancestors were expelled.
Standing Strong, The Fight for Land Continues
Palestinian factions consistently emphasize that land is the primary focal point and driving force in their confrontation with the Israeli occupation, which continues to pursue its endeavours to Judaize, confiscate, and alter the land’s character, and the continuation of these efforts is nothing short of a dangerous game with fire.
Hamas Representative in Lebanon Ali Barakah told Al-Manar TV that the Israeli entity is currently grappling with a significant predicament, as it confronts internal disintegration, which is not limited to its military apparatus but pervades the entire Zionist social fabric.
Ali Barakah in an interview with Al-Manar TV on Thursday, March 30, 2023
“The pronounced schism between the so-called extreme religious right and the Israeli center-left continuum betrays the vertical cleavage that besets this entity,” Barakah said, noting that such a state of confusion and schism within the enemy’s ranks provides an opening for the Palestinian resistance to assert itself and gain leverage.
“This deepening schism within the Zionist entity not only affects the military, but also the Israeli society as a whole, exposing the fragility of the so-called Jewish state,” he said.
Barakah also noted to Al-Manar’s Maa Al-Hadath program that the increasing polarization between the extreme religious right and the center-left further exacerbates the divide, leaving the enemy vulnerable and weakened. “This state of confusion and conflict provides fertile ground for the Palestinian resistance to exploit and advance their cause,” he asserted.
It’s worth noting that the Zionist entity is currently facing an internal crisis that could potentially lead to a civil war and result in the dissolution of the Israeli state, as Israeli President Isaac Herzog has cautioned. The conflict, which prompted a massive wave of protests and paralysis, is between a government coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, including religious and ultranationalist groups, and opposition from secular and right-wing parties at odds with Netanyahu.
For his part, Suhail al-Hindi, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, recently stated in an interview with Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that the land is everything to the Palestinians, symbolizing their history, memories, future, dignity, faith, religion, and fundamental principles. Palestinians cannot concede even an inch of their land, which is deeply embedded in their consciousness.
According to al-Hindi, it is impossible to partition the land that has been steeped in the blood of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Arabs. Palestinians derive the value of the land from its Arab identity, and no outsiders can settle in it. The claims of some Israeli extremists that the Palestinian land is the promised land are nothing more than falsehoods and fabrications.
Al-Hindi acknowledges that there may be tactical differences among Palestinian factions, but they are united in their steadfast determination to resist the occupier and reclaim their land without relinquishing any part of it.
Similarly, Ahmed Al-Mudallal, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Jihad movement, explains that “Land Day” is a national day for Palestinians to affirm their attachment, roots, and adherence to their land. He adds that the attempts to steal the Palestinian land by the Israeli occupation began before 1948. “However, the Palestinian people affirmed their roots in their land and made great sacrifices, and thousands were martyred until the start of Land Day in 1976,” he said. Al-Mudallal stresses that the Palestinian people are continuing their resistance, and can only stop it by expelling the occupation from the land of their fathers and grandfathers.
Munther al-Hayek, spokesman for the Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip, states that the conflict with the Israeli occupation is a struggle over existence and on the ground.
When Balfour promised the Zionist entity to establish a state on the land of Palestine in 1917, the goal was to control the land and displace the people. The conflict has extended to Christian and Islamic sanctities through various practices and attacks in Palestinian cities. Al-Hayek considers, in an interview with Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, that “Land Day” a day of confrontation, challenge, and steadfastness. He affirms that the land belongs to the Palestinian owners who are historically linked to it. “It is the beginning of the renewal of the covenant and the decision to continue the struggle process and field action until the liberation of the land and people from the usurper occupation,” he said.
The Palestinian people’s unyielding attachment to their land is rooted in a deep-seated sense of identity, history, and dignity that makes any attempt to Judaize, steal, or alter it an affront to their very existence.
As such, the Palestinian factions stand united in their unwavering commitment to the defense of their land, which they view not just as a physical space but as a symbol of their hopes and aspirations for a better future.
In the face of ongoing threats to their sovereignty and territorial integrity, including the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the Palestinian people remain resolute in their determination to achieve their goals, foremost among them the establishment of a state on their own land in accordance with the principles of international law and humanitarian norms. With Palestine now an observer member of the United Nations, the global community has a responsibility to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for self-determination and justice.
Palestine’s Central Bureau of Statistics reveals shocking numbers related to Palestine, its martyrs, prisoners, and lands, from the Nakba until the present day.
By the end of 2020, Palestinians around the world numbered 14 million, marking a tenfold increase from their numbers in the Nakba
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) says the number of UNRWA’s Palestinian refugees reached 6.4 million by December 2020.
The center’s statistics showed that 28.4% of Palestinian refugees are currently living in 58 official UNRWA camps, with 10 in Jordan, 9 in Syria, 12 in Lebanon, 19 in the West Bank, and 8 in the Gaza Strip.
These estimates show the minimum number of Palestinian refugees, seeing as some refugees are not registered, like those forcibly displaced from Palestine after 1949 until the war of June 1967, according to UNRWA, and this also does not include those who were displaced during the 1967 war, who weren’t refugees.
According to UNRWA’s official definition, Palestinian refugees are defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.”
The number of Palestinians increased more than tenfold since the Nakba
The PCBS revealed that historical Palestine’s population reached around 690,000 in 1914, 8% of whom were Jews. In 1948, the population rose to more than 2 million, around 31.5% of which were Jews, as 225,000 flocked to Palestine between 1932 in 1939’s organized migration waves.
Between 1940 and 1947, more than 93,000 Jews entered Palestine, and by 1975, the total number of Jews that immigrated to Palestine reached more than 540,000.
As for the total number of Palestinians around the world, the number was estimated in 2021 to have reached around 14 million, a tenfold increase of their numbers since the Nakba, especially since 7 million of them were living in historical Palestine, including 1.7 million living in 48-occupied territories.
Nakba cause of overpopulation in Palestine
The Palestinian Nakba turned the Gaza Strip into the world’s most densely populated area. While the population density in Palestine reached 878 persons/km2 by the end of 2021, with a density of 557 persons/km2, the Gaza Strip’s density reaches 5,855 persons/km2, knowing that 66% of Gaza’s citizens are refugees.
Furthermore, the occupation’s establishment of a buffer zone on the periphery of the Gaza Strip allowed it to seize control over 24% of the strip’s 365 km2 area, which further exacerbated the city’s economic difficulties, and impoverished over a half of its citizens, with Gaza’s poverty rate reaching 53% in 2017.
Over 100,000 martyred since the 1948 Nakba
Since the Nakba in 1948, both inside Palestine and out, close to 100,000 people were martyred, with the number of martyrs since the beginning of the Intifada reaching 11,358 between 29/9/2000 and up to 30/4/2022.
It is noted that 2014 was the bloodiest year, as 2,240 people were martyred, 2,181 of whom were martyred in Gaza during an Israeli aggression.
The number of martyrs in Palestine reached 341 in 2021, including 87 children and 48 women, whereas the number of wounded reached 12,500.
Close to 1 million arrests since 1967
The occupation has kept 25 Palestinians under arrest for over a quarter century, whereas the total number of detainees in Israeli prisons reached 4,450 in April, including 160 child prisoners, 32 women, 570 sentences to life, 700 prisoners who are in ill health, six Palestinian lawmakers, and 650 prisoners placed in administrative detention.
The overall number of arrests in 2021 reached 8,000 in Palestine, including 1,300 children and 184, while 1,595 people were sentenced to administrative detention without any charges being brought up against them.
226 prisoners have been martyred since 1967, either because of torture inflicted upon them following their arrest or due to medical neglect; these include 103 prisoners that were martyred since September 2000.
Continued colonialist expansion of Israeli occupation
By the end of 2020, 712,815 illegal settlers were living in the West Bank, around 47% of whom (246,909) were living in Al-Quds. The settler/Palestinian ratio reached 23/100 in the West Bank and surged to 71/100 in Al-Quds.
Moreover, 2021 also witnessed a large increase in the speed at which Israeli settlements were built in the West Bank, as Israeli occupation forces approved the building of more than 12,000 new settlement units in 2021, including 9,000 on the lands of Al-Quds’ Qalandia airport.
Continued confiscation of land
The Israeli occupation abused the categorization of lands according to the Oslo Accords (A, B and C) in order to further its control on Palestinian C-classified lands, which are completely under Israeli control in terms of security, planning, and construction, and close to 76% of their area are currently being exploited.
Al-Quds: Displacement and settlement policies
In 2021, Israeli occupation authorities approved the building of more than 12,000 settlement units, most of which were in Al-Quds. Meanwhile, it demolished more than 300 buildings and gave orders to demolish more than 200 others, in addition to approving a project to seize 2,050 Palestinian properties, including those of the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods in eastern Al-Quds, whose area is estimated at 2,500 acres.
Last year also saw close to 1,621 cases of attacks by settlers protected by occupation forces against Palestinians and their properties, marking a 49% increase in attacks from 2020. Israeli settlers are also exploiting around 120,000 acres of Palestinian lands for agriculture.
20% of water in Palestine is bought from Mekorot
Israeli measures against Palestinian water resources force them to compensate for their lack of water by buying 20% of their water from Israeli company Mekorot, meaning around 448.4 million m3. The main reason behind Palestinians’ inability to use surface water is due to the Israeli occupation’s control over the Jordan River and Dead Sea’s waters.
79% of available water drawn from groundwater
Palestine mainly relies on water extracted from surface and groundwater, which constitutes around 79% of all available water resources. In 2020, the amount of water pumped from groundwater wells (eastern, western, and northeastern basins) in the West Bank amounted to 108.6 million m3.
Unknown assailants have killed at least three “Israelis” and wounded five others on the anniversary of the Nakba [Catastrophe] Day, which marks the “Israeli” regime’s claiming existence in 1948.
The operation, for which no person or group has claimed responsibility so far, took place in the city of Elad in the central part of the occupied territories on Thursday.
Among the wounded, three are in “a serious condition,” while the remaining two have received moderate or light injuries, the occupying regime’s Magen David Adom [MDA] emergency response service was cited by AFP as reporting.
An MDA staff described the situation, which was encountered by the service, as a “complex scene.”
The staffer said all of the dead were men in their early 40s, and described those wounded seriously as men aged between 35 and 60.
The regime’s police have initiated a manhunt, scrambling helicopters and setting up roadblocks throughout the occupied territories.
May 15, 1948 marks the day, when the “Israeli” regime proclaimed existence after a heavily-Western-backed war that expelled more than 700,000 people from their homes in the Palestinian territories.
The Thursday incident came only several days after Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan.
The fasting month saw the “Israeli” regime scaling up its attacks on Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque’s compound in the holy occupied city of al-Quds.
Outraged by the barbarity, Palestinians intensified their attacks on “Israelis” throughout the Palestinian territories. Dozens of Palestinians and “Israelis” have been killed in the operations.
Resistance groups in the nearby Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip have described the Thursday operation as a token of Palestinians’ outrage at the occupying regime’s escalation targeting the compound of the mosque, which is Islam’s third-holiest site.
Hamas, the Gaza Strip’s leading resistance movement, called the attack “a heroic operation.” It noted how it had warned that the mosque was “a redline,” saying the operation was the “practical implementation” of the warning.
The Islamic Jihad, Hamas’ fellow resistance group in Gaza, called the operation “Victory for al-Aqsa.”
The group described violation of the mosque’s compound by the “Israeli” regime and illegal settlers was “a declaration of war against the Palestinian people,” vowing that “our people will continue to confront the occupation and its aggression.”
This 30th of March may more symbolically represent something very different for the youths of Palestine today than it did for those of past generations.
Land Day, first started in the 1948 territories of occupied Palestine, was revived again in 2018 and has shaped the way Palestinian youths are today opposing the occupation of their lands. Whilst mass demonstrations were used a few years ago, today we see a shift towards the use of armed struggle in order to oppose “Israel’s” settler colonialism.
In 1976 Palestinian demonstrations erupted in the Galilee, in addition to areas such as Wadi Ara and al-Naqab (the Negev). The protests inside the 1948 territories of Palestine came as a reaction to the Zionist entity’s expropriation of thousands of dunams of Palestinian land, resulting in Zionist forces killing 6 Palestinians and injuring of hundreds of others. Every year since, Palestinians have marked Land Day on the 30th of March, in order to remember the resistance of their people to “Israel’s” settler-colonial regime.
The 30th of March, however, may more symbolically represent something very different for the youths of Palestine today, than it did for those of past generations. This is also the date on which the ‘Great Return March’ was launched in 2018, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian demonstrators in the Gaza Strip protested against the separation fence/wall between them and their lands from which over 70% of the population are originally from and are forbidden to return to. The Palestinian refugees and native Gazans hoisted up banners calling for the implementation of United Nations General Assembly resolution 194, which demanded the Palestinian right of return to their homelands.
The Great Return March continued for over a year, it was overwhelmingly non-violent and resulted in no deaths of Israeli soldiers or settlers. Many international observers thought that this was it, the international community was finally going to be forced to break its silence and the blockade on Gaza would be put to an end. They were unfortunately wrong. The nonviolent protest movement, one of the largest in history – in terms of the percentage of the population in question – only gave Israeli snipers the opportunity for mass murder. Over 300 Palestinian civilians were massacred, more than 30,000 were injured. The international community remained silent, the Western media and governments defended “Israel”, barely even paying attention to the suffering of Gaza’s demonstrators. Women, children, infants, medical workers, journalists, disabled persons, and elderly were amongst the dead and injured, overwhelming Gaza’s already brittle health sector.
The world sat by and did nothing as the Palestinian people did exactly what is always asked of them, nonviolent resistance, quoting international law, and asking for their rights. Not only did the world media sit by and underreport the demonstrations, when they did touch on the subject they described them as “clashes” and “border riots”. This was despite the fact that no such “border” exists between Gaza and “Israel”. As for the allegation that there were clashes; if so, where are the dead Israelis? Where are the injured Israelis? What really occurred is that a heavily militarized force sat behind mounds of dirt or military towers, behind layers of barbed wire, on top of militarized fences/walls, and shot at defenseless Palestinians like fish in a barrel, often with banned explosive bullets. This was not just the likes of Fox News that reported on the demonstrations like this, it was the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, and just about every other mainstream Western news outlet you could think of.
Land Day in 2018 should have been, according to the liberal pundits who preach nonviolence for the Palestinians – but not for Ukrainians against Russia’s military of course – that ended all their oppression. Instead, it was the beginning of a massacre, a catastrophe.
On this Land Day, the Palestinian people prepare for the month of Ramadan ahead of them, where fascist Israeli settler mobs threaten to raid Al-Aqsa Mosque, they do so in a very different environment than the one we saw in 2018. The world lied to the Palestinians when they told them they could take back their rights through nonviolent resistance, and saw last May, that the only time they can extract a win against their occupiers is through armed struggle. The younger generations are tired of the lies and a Palestinian Authority that collaborates with the Zionist occupier through security coordination, they see that there is no hope in waiting on the Oslo process. The armed struggle is now rising inside the 1948 territories, the West Bank, Al-Quds, and is no longer isolated to the ‘Joint Room’ of resistance factions in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian armed struggle is undergoing a new revival and this time it will take more than empty promises to stop it. A United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), B’Tselem, and many more have declared “Israel” an Apartheid regime and this system of injustice will be confronted by any means necessary.
The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
Palestine Chronicle editor, Dr. Ramzy Baroud, delivered a speech at Casa Arabe on Thursday, as part of the Palestine Week, which was organized to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
The conference focused on the events that took place in Palestine last May, from the resistance against the forced evictions in Sheikh Jarrah to the Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip, as seen from the point of view of the Palestinian people.
ENGLISH ORIGINAL
Baroud, a historian whose books have focused on reorienting the history of Palestine towards a people-centered narrative, known as people history, traced the history of the events through the prism of a renewed sense of unity and the strong resistance movement that came into being.
SPANISH INTERPRETATION
Baroud’s presentation was facilitated in an interview form conducted by Spanish journalist Itxaso Domínguez de Olazábal, coordinator of the Middle East and North Africa Panel at the Alternativas Foundation, and Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Relations Coordinator.
Angry Moroccans against the butchers of the Palestinian children and those normalizing the savagery in the garb of lucrative military deals on Monday took to the streets in several cities across the country to protest Rabat’s normalization of ties with the Zionist regime and recent military agreements signed between the two sides.
The protesters, including activists and ordinary people, took part in large-scale protests in the cities of Oujda, Berkane, Ben Slimane, Beni-Mellal and Oulad Teima on Monday.
The demonstrators chanted vociferous anti-‘Israel’ slogans, calling for an end to normalization of relations between Rabat and Tel Aviv and voicing their support for the Palestinian cause.
The Moroccan police, however, foiled a similar protest by pro-Palestinian groups in the capital Rabat on Monday, using brute force, according to reports.
The demonstrations protested under the banner of “The Moroccan Front to Support Palestine and against Normalization”, denouncing recent bonhomie between the ‘Israeli’ occupation regime and Morocco.
They also condemned the visit of Benny Gantz, the Zionist war minister, to Morocco and rejected any collaboration with “the enemies of the Palestinian people.”
The pro-Palestine demonstrators said any cooperation with the Tel Aviv regime constitutes a threat to Morocco and the whole region.
Gantz visited Rabat last week, his first known visit to one of the Arab states that normalized ties last year, during which the two sides signed a military agreement and a pact that would see the occupation regime sell drones and weapons to Morocco.
In a statement, Gantz said that the agreement was “very significant and will allow us to exchange ideas, enter joint projects and enable ‘Israeli’ military exports here.”
Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan signed agreements to normalize relations with Tel Aviv in 2020 as part of the so-called ‘Abraham Accords’, brokered by the previous US administration.
The normalization deals sparked widespread protests in these countries, pointing to the overwhelming divide between the rulers and the people, and have also been condemned by all Palestinian political factions, who have termed it a betrayal of their cause.
Monday’s protests coincided with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, an annual day dedicated to expression of solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine.
On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, factions call on the Palestinian Authority to stop all relations with “Israel,” and stress that resistance is the only way to end the occupation.
The Committees called on the PA to stop all relations, agreements, and negotiations with the Israeli occupation.
On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, the Popular Resistance Committees in Palestine considered that the decision to partition the land represents Western and international complicity “that will not legitimize the usurpation of Palestine by the criminal Zionist enemy entity.”
The 29th of November marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People that the UN celebrates every year.
It also coincides with the day the UN General Assembly adopted Partition Resolution No. (181) which called for the partition of Palestinian lands to accommodate the occupation’s expansionist goals, forcefully separating the land into “Arab and Jewish states”.
The Committees considered that the partition plan “laid the foundations for the largest mass expulsion and displacement of the Palestinian people in history.”
In a statement, the Committees affirmed that the only feasible way to uproot “Israel” is through resistance in all its forms.
It called on the Palestinian Authority to stop all relations, agreements, and negotiations with the Israeli occupation, as well as withdraw its recognition of it.
In the same context, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine considered that ending the occupation could only come through the escalation of the struggle against “Israel,” and called for unifying the Arab stance against normalization.
For its part, the Palestinian Freedom Movement urged the Palestinian authority to harmonize with and acknowledge the magnitude of international solidarity that supports Palestinians and rejects the occupation.
Moreover, the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine celebrated the occasion through a series of projects and activities in support of the Palestinian people and their steadfastness in their land.
The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people is considered an opportunity to draw attention to the Palestinian cause that remains unresolved and the fact that Palestinians have not obtained their inalienable rights, despite numerous international resolutions.
November 20th marks World Children’s Day that was adopted by the United Nation; it is a universal day devoted by the international community to entrench promotion, respect and protection of child’s rights according to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This occasion comes this year in difficult circumstances that aggravated the difficult conditions children endure in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Children form 45% of the Palestinian society; 42% in the West Bank and 48% in the Gaza Strip; they are affected by both the continued Israeli occupation, which violates their human rights, and by the Palestinian internal division that impeded all attempts to enact laws that are more equitable to them.
The Israeli occupation commits multi-layered violated against children, either by directly harming them like what happened in the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in May 2021 when 59 children were killed and 632 were wounded while 8 children were killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the year. Also, children face arrests as there are 200 children arrested in the Israeli prisons in 2021. In addition, children suffer from the Israeli tightened restrictions on the freedom of movement due to the permanent and temporary checkpoints and the settlers’ attacks against civilians under IOF’s protection.
The Palestinian internal division is one of the main reasons behind the outgrowing suffering of the Palestinian child as the disruption of the Palestinian Legislative Council was a great obstacle in the way of enacting laws that are more equitable to children, particularly the victims of domestic violence.
In 2020, PCHR documented cases of domestic violence, where children were the victims; the latest of which was the rape of a 5-year-old girl from Rafah by her uncle. Children suffer from violence that has lately increased due to the outbreak of coronavirus, which has negatively affected the economic, social, and living conditions.
A study published by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs shows that 270,000 children were subject to different forms of mental, physical, and verbal violence while 10% of female children were exposed to cyber violence
The deterioration of economic and social conditions increased child labor to 3% according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics: 4% in the West Bank and 1% in the Gaza Strip.
As part of its concern of further deterioration of children’s conditions, PCHR Calls upon:
The international community, by virtue of their contractual obligations, to hold the Israeli occupation responsible and pressure it to end the closure and respect the Palestinian child’s rights in accordance with international conventions, particularly the 1948 Fourth Geneva Convention.
The Palestinian government to establish clear, fair, impartial, and transparent mechanisms to protect children in the oPt, including establishing a safe shelter for children exposed to violence.
The Palestinian President to adopt the Domestic Violence Protection Bill into law and to harmonize domestic laws with international conventions, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The police and public prosecution to exert more efforts for the prosecution of those committing domestic violence crimes and take all the necessary legal proceedings against them regardless of any excuses or justifications.
The governmental bodies to reconsider the policies taken over the years pertaining to children and to take lessons learned from the current experience that has led to this catastrophic situation, which requires governmental bodies’ to mainstream children’s rights across their policies.
The civil society and human rights organizations to work continuously on raising the awareness of the Palestinian society on the forms of violence children are exposed to and the mechanisms to end it.
A child raising a Palestinian flag on Land Day. (Photo: Fawzi Mahmoud, The Palestine Chronicle)
“In 2019 I went to Palestine twice,” wroteIbtisam Barakat, “one time with Palestine Festival of literature in April.” When an officer informed her at the border that she didn’t exist in Israeli records, Barakat started to cry. She “cried for two weeks nonstop. Nothing and no one could stop [her], not even a delicious falafel sandwich.” All that time, recalled the Palestinian-American poet, she “ate falafel and cried.”
On Land Day 2021, Barakat’s words are more relevant than ever. Forty-five years ago, on March 30, 1976, Israeli police murdered six Palestinian protestors as they were calling attention to the Israeli government’s expropriation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian land. Since then, notes Yara Hawari, March 30 has been commemorated as Land Day.
An important “event in the Palestinian collective narrative,” explains Hawari, it incorporates resistance to colonization, in particular “colonial policies of erasure,” efforts by Israelis to erase all Indigenous presence on the land. Indeed, since 1948, Palestinians have defied those policies with characteristic sumud (resilience), both by holding fast to a collective narrative that incorporates individual perspectives.
When Barakat returned to Palestine, an officer asked why she was coming back a second time in one year. At the time, she had no idea how to reply. “Now,” she explains, she knows “the world was going to change and the universe knew that I needed to see Palestine twice in a year” before it became impossible. “Seeing my Palestine or not seeing my Palestine is a spiritual experience for me,” she says, thereby calling attention to her individual refusal to be erased that is in turn part of a collective experience.
On March 30, 2018, Palestinians in Gaza began a series of weekly demonstrations that would last for months, resulting in a staggering number of deaths and injuries from Israeli snipers that drew the attention of the media. What did not get covered so much were the cultural aspects of the rallies—storytelling, cooking traditional dishes, performing dabke, and even weddings took place—thereby passing down traditions to a younger generation.
“What is largely missing from the discussion on Gaza is the collective psychology behind this kind of mobilization,” writes Ramzy Baroud, “and why it is essential for hundreds of thousands of besieged people to rediscover their power and understand their true position, not as hapless victims, but as agents of change in their society.”
In the same way that Barkat worked through her grief at being told of her non-existence, so Palestinians on a collective scale have maintained a narrative that resists the official story. As Baroud explains,
“For 70 years, Palestinians have embarked on that journey of recreation of the self. They have resisted, and their resistance in all of its forms has molded a sense of collective unity, despite the numerous divisions that were erected among the people. The Great March of Return is the latest manifestation of the ongoing Palestinian resistance.”
Two years later, in 2020, the spread of Coronavirus added to ongoing problems. In order to provide a safe space to commemorate the day, Samidoun: Palestinian Solidarity Network issued a virtual call to action:
“Mark Palestine Land Day (Yawm Al-Ard), a day of remembrance for six Palestinian citizens who were murdered by Israelis while protesting the Israeli government’s expropriation of thousands of dunums of their land. March together online on the second anniversary of the Great March of Return.”
Thanks to donations from Russia and the UAE, Gaza recently initiated a vaccine program in an effort to confront the virus pandemic and break the cycle of deaths.
According to Hawari, Land Day commemorates ongoing resistance, but it also “reminds us how the domination of space is an integral aspect of the Zionist settler-colonial project.” Moreover, she points out, “settler-colonial states the world over are in a constant process of colonizing more and more indigenous land while squeezing indigenous peoples into as little space as possible.”
In order to steal more land, colonists in both Israel and North America developed the myth of the vacant land. For example, on March 8, 1969, Golda Meir reportedly asked: “How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.”
Propaganda around the Indigenous in North America sounds much the same. As Steven Salaita tweeted: “you’ll never understand Zionism without a concomitant understanding of Manifest Destiny,” a phrase devised in 1845 to explain that the United States was destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its territory across the entire North American continent.
“Of all myths associated with American Indians,” explains Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes), “no myth is as pervasive as the myth of the vanishing Indian.”
In my American history classes, there would invariably be the student who said that Native people no longer exist, despite the fact that just by looking around the classroom that student might have reached a different conclusion. Nevertheless, because dominant society has been “indoctrinated with the idea of the vanishing Native their whole lives,” Gilio-Whitaker asserts, “the assumption that there is no such thing as real Natives anymore is like a software program constantly running in the background.”
To these deniers, the “real Indians were the ones who dressed in buckskins and hunted buffalo and deer for their living, and didn’t speak English,” Gilio-Whitaker notes, and, in reality, they have “been gone a long time.”
Despite all of the efforts to deny their existence, which makes it all the easier to steal land and resources, both Palestinians and Indigenous people in the States are still around. The commemoration of Land Day attests to that, as do efforts on the part of Native Americans to make their presence known.
Quoting Gerald Vizenor, a citizen of the White Earth Nation, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz calls attention to his notion of “survivance”:
“Survivance is an active presence: it is not absence, deracination, or ethnographic oblivion, and survivance is the continuance of narratives, not a mere reaction, however pertinent. Survivance stories are renunciations of dominance, the unbearable sentiments of tragedy, and the legacy of victimry” (An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, 2014, p. 217).
Decades after their displacement, the Palestinians long for a place, a homeland that could provide them with grounding to affirm that they exist. In the introduction to Nakba: Palestine, 1948 and The Claims of Memory (2007), Ahmad Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod write that “making memories public affirms identity, tames trauma, and asserts Palestinian political and moral claims to justice, redress, and the right to return” (p.2).
Memory, then, “continuance of narratives” as Vizenor calls it, serves as an expression of the need to officially exist. Manifested in events like Land Day, alternative histories affirm what happened in the past but also what should be done in the present to assure that all formerly oppressed peoples have a future.
– Benay Blend earned her doctorate in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. Her scholarly works include Douglas Vakoch and Sam Mickey, Eds. (2017), “’Neither Homeland Nor Exile are Words’: ‘Situated Knowledge’ in the Works of Palestinian and Native American Writers”. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
Palestinian farmers say they face constant threats while working on family lands due to Israel’s annexation policies
Iyad Abughleiba, a Palestinian farmer, finds it increasingly difficult to work on his land in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s annexation policies. (MEE/Sanad Latifa)
On 30 March 1976, six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces as hundreds of Arab citizens in the occupied territory took to the streets to protest Israel’s expropriation and occupation of Palestinian lands.
The event became known as the Land Day and a symbol of national struggle that unites Palestinians around the world.
Forty-five years later, Palestinians say that not much has changed, as Israel continues its policy of annexation.
Middle East Eye met with Palestinian farmers and land owners in the Gaza Strip, who have been unable to access hundreds of dunums of land belonging to their families due to Israel’s restrictions and annexation policy.
Land theft normalised
Iyad Abughleiba, 49, a Palestinian who owns agricultural land in the eastern central Gaza Strip, says that farmers find it increasingly difficult to work in the blockaded enclave as Israel continues to “normalise land theft”.
Since age 15, he and his brothers would help their father cultivate the family lands. When his father passed away, the siblings inherited the lands and continued to work as farmers.
“My grandfather had owned more than 400 dunums of land. But over the years, and with every Israeli decision or new policy, the lands have been gradually shrinking. Today we only have 25 dunums left,” Abughleiba told MEE.
‘Our safety depends on the Israeli soldiers’ mood. You could be killed at any moment’
– Iyad Abughleiba, Palestinian farmer
Although Israel dismantled its settlements in Gaza in 2005 and withdrew its forces and settlers from the enclave, it still controls vast areas of land in the northern and eastern perimeter of the Strip.
“Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip is the biggest lie. They are controlling every inch of the Strip – the land, the sea, and can you hear that noise? They are also controlling the air,” Abughleiba said as an Israeli drone buzzed at low altitude above his land.
“Like the majority of Palestinians, our grandparents lost most of their lands in Gaza and the West Bank during the [Palestinian] Nakba. But land theft did not stop here.”
The Nakba, meaning the “disaster, catastrophe or cataclysm”, marks the partition of Mandatory Palestine in 1948 and the creation of Israel. At least 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes that year. A further 280,000 to 325,000 fled their homes in territories captured by Israel in 1967.
Following its disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel established a “buffer-zone”, a military no-go area that stretches across the Strip’s borders with Israel. The first reference to a buffer-zone in the Strip appeared in the Oslo Accords in 1993, which mentioned a 50-metre wide area along the enclave.
Today, it extends to more than 300 – 2,000 metres inside the Strip.What is the Nakba? Day of catastrophe for Palestinians, explainedRead More »
“When Israel first established the buffer zone, we lost part of our lands. Then when they expanded it in 2009, we lost another part. This is how they gradually annex more parts of our lands every now and then,” Abughleiba explained.
Abughleiba is always on high alert while farming, even though it’s been a couple of years since Israel last annexed parts of his family’s lands.
“Even if the rest of our lands is still accessible, we are always cautious due to threats of crops being bulldozed or shots being fired at us whenever we are working.
“In 2008, the Israeli forces bulldozed our lands, uprooting dozens of olive trees and destroying a water well. In 2014, during the war on Gaza, they did it once again,” he said.
Gaza farmers and landowners bear the brunt of Israel’s policies, facing periodic bulldozing of lands, flooding of crops, and shooting by Israeli forces stationed adjacent to their lands.
“After they bulldozed our lands, we planted them again and still insist on coming back to them because they are our only source of living.
“But after all, our safety depends on the Israeli soldiers’ mood. You could be killed at any moment.” Abughleiba told MEE.
‘Modernised’ methods to steal land
Um-Emad is a Bedouin woman who was expelled from her family’s land in Beersheba during the Palestinian Nakba in 1948.
The 79-year-old lives in a small room in her sons’ house, built in the middle of their agricultural land in the eastern Bureij, in the central Gaza Strip.
For Um-Emad, living on agricultural lands is part of her family’s heritage.
‘I can never imagine my life away from our land. One metre of this land is worth a thousand apartments elsewhere.’
– Um-Emad, 79, Gaza resident
“I can never imagine my life away from our land. One metre of this land is worth a thousand apartments elsewhere,” she told MEE as she sat on the ground of her room overlooking the fields.
“If I have to leave my land in Gaza, then it has to be to my family’s land in Beersheba. That is the only place I can leave to before I die.”
Um-Emad, who was evicted to Gaza at gunpoint when she was six years old during the Nakba, thinks that Israel intends to make Palestinians pay a high price for sticking to their lands, while facilitating their migration from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
For years, Israel has been implementing an annexation plan in the West Bank that was accelerated following the announcement of former US president Donald Trump’s “deal of the century”, in January 2020.
As a result, dozens of families across the West Bank and East Jerusalem have been evicted and displaced.
According to rights groups, Israel’s annexation of Palestinian lands constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, and “can have no effect on the legal status of the territory, which remains de jure occupied”.
Palestinian farmers work in the fields in the Gaza Strip (MEE/Sanad Latifa)
“Israel today implements a systematic policy of forcing Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to migrate and leave their lands.
“The occupation does this both softly and by force. They make Palestinians believe that living in Europe with better life standards is a dream, and thus make thousands of youth leave in search for a better life, in order to make room for [Israeli] settlers.
“We are being forced to abandon our lands, but I would rather be buried here before selling one centimetre of my family’s land,” he said.
‘Every day is Land Day’
Jalal Abujlala, 47, depends mainly on his agricultural land in the eastern central Gaza Strip for living.
But with the remaining area of land after annexation by the buffer zone, the father of eight children can barely cover his family’s expenses, which include the tuition fees for his daughter who’s attending university to study medicine.
‘I always tell (my children) about our stolen lands, and that one day we will regain them back’
– Jalal Abujlala, 47, Gaza farmer
“A large part of our lands was annexed by the Occupation during the Palestinian Nakba and also due to the establishment of the Israeli buffer zone. Now the remaining area can only provide the life’s necessities,” said Abjlala.
“I can see my family’s annexed lands in the occupied territory from here. Sometimes, I approach a bit and take my children to see them. I always tell them about our stolen lands, and that one day we will regain them back,” he said.
“You would think that cultivating in this land is safe since it is not very close to the Israeli borders. But in fact, it does not have to be close in order for the farmers to be hurt,” he continued, recalling memories from Israel’s military attack on Gaza in 2014, where artillery shells targeted vast areas of agricultural lands.
“Owning a land in our country comes with no guarantees. At any moment you are threatened with bulldozing or eviction and annexation.”
For Abujlala, Israel’s measures in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are similar to the event that sparked the Land Day demonstrations in 1976.
“History repeats itself. The Land Day happens everyday in Palestine.”
Palestinian protesters mark Land Day in the Umm Al-Hiran village in the Wadi Atir area of the Negev (Naqab) desert (AFP)
Ghada Karmi is a former research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. She was born in Jerusalem and was forced to leave her home with her family as a result of Israel’s creation in 1948. The family moved to England, where she grew up and was educated. Karmi practised as a doctor for many years working as a specialist in the health of migrants and refugees. From 1999 to 2001 Karmi was an Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where she led a major project on Israel-Palestinian reconciliation.
For Palestinians, Land Day continues to be an inspiration and a tribute to the just struggle of an unbowed people for their land
The centrality of the struggle for land has always been fundamental to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It is at the heart of two major events whose anniversaries fall due on 30 March. The first, Land Day, commemorates the surge of Palestinian resistance to the takeover of their land by Israel in 1976; and the second marks the start of the Great March of Return in 2018, when thousands of Palestinians in Gaza demonstrated for the right of refugees to return to their confiscated lands in Israel.
From the start the Zionist movement was predicated on the acquisition of an empty territory on which to establish a state exclusively for Jews. Since no such land was available in the Palestine of the time, it had to be carved out, first by purchase, and later by war.
The land-grabbing journey
As Jewish immigrants began to arrive in the country in increasing numbers after 1917, Zionist organisations such as the Jewish National Fund and the Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association set about buying Palestinian land, provided it was untenanted at the time of purchase.
Today, Israel’s settlements have meant that Palestinian ownership of West Bank and East Jerusalem land has shrunk to under 13 percent
Many Arab landowners living outside Palestine, in addition to a minority of Palestinian peasants, sold them land. These sales were mainly motivated by economic necessity, since the Zionist organisations had access to foreign funds unavailable to Arabs.
Years of intense Zionist effort, however, yielded disappointing results. By 1947, and despite their funding and connections to powerful supporters of Zionism, these organisations had acquired no more than a meagre 6.7 percent of Palestine’s land.
But this disappointment was soon reversed by the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. In that war Israel captured 78 percent of Mandate Palestine, taking large swathes of Palestinian land, mostly untenanted thanks to population flight and expulsions in the war.
After 1948 the new Israeli state swiftly enacted a series of laws designed to acquire more Palestinian land by pseudo-legal means. These included the 1950 Absentee Property Law, permitting the state to take over Palestinian land and property in their owners’ absence; and soon after, the 1953 Land Acquisition Law, which introduced a new category of “state lands” and “closed areas”.
This had the effect of making the state the majority owner of the land, which was to be permanently out of the reach of its previous Palestinian owners.
Subsequent events up to and including the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, that put Israel in occupation of the rest of Palestine, have been stages on the same land-grabbing journey. Today, Israel’s settlements have meant that Palestinian ownership of West Bank and East Jerusalem land has shrunk to under 13 percent. That is set to diminish further as the settlement process continues with further land loss.
Palestinian children hold up pictures of keys, symbolising the homes they left behind (AFP)
This is the background to the dramatic protests of Land Day in 1976. Their trigger at the time was the Israeli government’s plan to expropriate thousands of dunums of Arab land in the Galilee to build Jewish industrial villages. In line with the Israeli government’s 1975 “Galilee Development Plan” to expand Jewish settlement, it would accelerate Judaisation of what was a majority Arab area.
A turning point
On 30 March a general strike was called, and widespread demonstrations in Arab towns erupted from the Galilee to the Negev. Thousands marched in protest, while solidarity demonstration were held in the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.Land Day: A potent symbol of the Palestinian struggle
Unexpected at the time from what had been a largely quiescent Arab population, Israel was alarmed and deployed thousands of police, army units and tanks to quell the protests. Six Arabs were killed, hundreds wounded, and hundreds more arrested.
Land Day, as it became known, was a turning point. It was the first time since 1948 that the Arabs in Israel acted as a national collective, refusing to accept the theft of their land after years of control by Israel’s military rule. Land Day was an expression of national pride and self-confidence. It marked the assertion of an Arab presence that Israel’s politics could no longer ignore, and the starting point for Arab political participation in Israel.
From that time to this, Land Day has been commemorated annually by Palestinians everywhere. In 2018 it was marked by the start of another great Palestinian protest over land. The Great March of Return saw 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza demonstrate near the Israeli separation fence of electrified barbed wire and sensors. It was a peaceful protest, demanding the right of refugees to return to their lands and an end to the blockade of Gaza. Intended to last from 30 March to 15 May, Nakba Day, the same protests took place every Friday.
A double heroism
As in 1976 Israel retaliated with murderous violence. Between 30 March and 15 May 2018 an estimated 110 protesters were killed, and 13,000 wounded by a combination of sniper fire and drones. By the time the March of Return was halted by Hamas in December 2019, 214 people had been killed, and 36,000 wounded. Of these, 1,200 needed long term rehabilitation following bone infections and limb injuries. Israeli soldiers seemed to be using a “shoot-and-maim” policy, deliberately targeting the legs of protestors to cause maximum disability.
Land Day marked the assertion of an Arab presence that Israel’s politics could no longer ignore
Gaza’s health system, damaged by years of blockade, understaffing, and equipment and power shortages, has been unable to cope with the toll of so many injured. Yet that did not stop Palestinian youth braving death and injury each week for nearly two years, and creating a new Palestinian legend to commemorate on 30 March.
Israel never changed course in the face of that double Palestinian heroism celebrated on Land Day. It went on to build “Development towns” for Jews, 26 by 1981, with the effect of altering the Galilee’s demography in favour of Jews.
In Gaza, likewise, the blockade continues, and Israel’s pretext of its brutality as self-defence against the Great March of Return has been accepted by many Western governments. Its programme of Palestinian land theft goes on undisturbed.
But for Palestinians on 30 March, Land Day continues to be an inspiration, and a tribute to the just struggle of an unbowed people for their land.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Palestine’s Land Day is commemorated on March 30 every year marking the day on which in response to the ‘Israeli’ occupations government’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of Palestinian land in 1976.
A general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the al-Naqab. In the ensuing confrontations with the Zionist army and police, six unarmed Arab citizens were martyred, about one hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others detained.
ما خلفته نكبة فلسطين العام 1948، من ضربٍ لأسس البنية الاجتماعية لشعبنا الفلسطيني جراء احتلال أرضه وتشريده، من قبل اليهود الصهاينة. سعى الشباب الفلسطيني في مطلع خمسينات القرن المنصرم إلى الإنضمام للأحزاب والجيوش العربية، إيماناً أنه الحلّ المتوفر للمساهمة في تحرير فلسطين وإعادة اللاجئين إلى ديارهم وممتلكاتهم التي طردوا منها، وما شهدته خمسينيات القرن الماضي من ثورات وطنية وأممية في فيتنام وكوبا والجزائر، محققة الانتصارات على قوى الاستعمار والرجعيات المتحالفة معها. الأمر الذي شكلّ بارقة أمل، فبدأت مجموعات من أبناء شعبنا تدعو إلى ضرورة البحث الجدي عن حلول تُسهم في تنظيم الشعب الفلسطيني، بهدف تحقيق آمالهم الوطنية والقومية. فمن قلب أزقة البؤس والتشرّد في مخيمات اللجوء، تفجّرت ثورة الشعب الفلسطيني إبداعاً ثورياً خلاقاً يبشر بفجر جديد لثورة شعبية، هي حرب الشعب طويلة الأمد في مواجهة العصابات الصهيونية المغتصبة لأرض فلسطين. ومن بين تلك المجموعات، كانت جبهة التحرير الفلسطينية التي تشكلت في العام 1959، وطرحت شعار تحرير فلسطين بأسلوب الحرب الشعبية. الأمر الذي جوبه بالاستهجان والعداء من قبل أحزاب عربية تقليدية كانت مسيطرة آنذاك، بأنّ مطلقي الشعار جماعات مرتبطة بأجهزة أجنبية.
بدايات عمل الجبهة شهدت مرحلة من العمل السري حتى العام 1965، بهدف الإعداد والتدريب لتهيئة الأجيال لثورة تواجه شكلاً جديداً من الاحتلال الصهيوني ببعديه الاستيطاني والإجلائي. من خلفية أنّ الجبهة آمنت أنّ السبيل الوحيد إلى تحرير فلسطين هو الكفاح المسلح، استعداداً لخوض الصراع مع المحتلّ الغاصب. لذلك أطلقت شعارها ثورة حتى تحرير الأرض والإنسان، بمعنى تحرير الأرض من دنس الاحتلال الصهيوني الغاصب، وتحرير الإنسان من كلّ معيقات تطوّره وتقدّمه ورفع الظلم عنه، رافعةً ثالوثها الكفاحي فداء – عودة – تحرير.
عقدت الجبهة مؤتمرها التأسيسي في 19 كانون الأول 1966، وفيه جرى تشكيل الهيئة التأسيسية، كهيئة قيادية تضمّ الكادر المركزي في الجبهة. وترأس المؤتمر آنذاك رفاق هم اليوم شهداء، علي بوشناق رئيساً، ويوسف طبل نائباً للرئيس، ورياض سعيد أميناً للسر. حيث اعتبر الرفاق الموجودين في هذا المؤتمر هم المؤسّسون للجبهة، حيث أطلق عليها اسم الهيئة التأسيسة لجبهة التحرير الفلسطينية، والتي ضمّت في صفوفها خمسة وعشرين رفيقاً، منهم من غادر الجبهة لأسبابه، ومنهم من غادرها شهيداً، ومنهم لا زال على رأس عمله، وهم الرفاق أحمد جبريل الأمين العام، والدكتور طلال ناجي الأمين العام المساعد، وعمر الشهابي أمين سر المكتب السياسي، وزكي الزين.
في ستينات القرن العشرين، طُرحت الجبهة بقيادة الرفيق أحمد جبريل، مبادئها الستة التي اعتبرت في حينه الأسس النظرية والسياسية والتنظيمية لتحالف وطني لمختلف طبقات الشعب الفلسطيني. وأطلقت عليها اسم المبادئ الإئتلافية، وتلخصت بتحمّل الشعب الفلسطيني المسؤولية الأولى عن قضيته، ومن ثم شعوبنا العربية، على اعتبار أنها قضية الأمة ومركزيتها، فاسحة أمام الأشقاء العرب الانخراط في صفوفها، وصل بعضهم إلى مراكز قيادية في الجبهة. ورفض كلّ أشكال الوصاية. وتحريم التكتلات والنشاط الحزبي. والتأكيد على مبدأ الديمقراطية والاستشارة من ضرورات تحقيق الانتصار. ورفض أنصاف الحلول، ومشاريع التسوية. وبالتالي ترك شكل الحكم لما بعد التحرير، يقرّره مجلس وطني. وإلى جانب المبادئ الستة أعلن عن الميثاق، في المؤتمر الأول للجبهة أواخر العام 1968، الذي شكلّ قفزة نوعية في المنطلقات النظرية للجبهة، من دون تبنيها لنظرية فكرية محددة.
في نهاية عام 1968 عقدت الجبهة مؤتمرها الأول، وأقرّت فيه برنامجها السياسي، أطلق عليه (الميثاق من 15 مادة )، أكدت فيه أنّ «الثورة المسلحة على العدوان والاستعمار، هي الطريق الوحيد، والحق المقدس لكلّ الفلسطينيين. وأنّ القضية الفلسطينية قضية قومية، والثورة الفلسطينية مرتبطة ارتباطاً، عضوياً ومصيرياً، بالثورة العربية، وهي أحد عناصرها. وأنّ الكيان الصهيوني، هو المخلب والرأس، الذي يشكله الاستعمار والإمبريالية، في الوطن العربي». ومنذ أيلول 1969 عقدت الجبهة 7 مؤتمرات، في أعوام 1971 و 1973 و 1979 و 1986 و 2005، 2010 .
وايماناً من الجبهة بأنّ المقاومة والوحدة الوطنية شرطان متلازمان لتحقيق الانتصار، فقد انخرطت الجبهة ومنذ بدايات انطلاقتها في عدد من التجارب الوحدوية الاندماجية، وكانت أولى هذه التجارب مع تنظيم حركة فتح، غير أنّ هذه الوحدة لم تصمد طويلاً. وعلى إثر هزيمة حزيران تداعت ثلاثة فصائل فلسطينية هي جبهة التحرير الفلسطينية وشباب الثأر التي كانت بمثابة التنظيم العسكري الفلسطيني لحركة القوميين العرب بقيادة الشهيد جورج حبش، وتنظيم أبطال العودة، ليشكلوا معاً الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين. غير أنّ مسيرة هذا الائتلاف قد تعثرت نتيجة خلافات تنظيمية وسياسية، فحصل الطلاق الديمقراطي بينهم في تشرين الأول عام 1968. فتمسك كلا الطرفان باسم الجبهة، ومنعاً للالتباس ميّزت الجبهة اسمها بإضافة كلمة القيادة العامة، لتصبح الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين – القيادة العامة. ومنذ ذاك التاريخ لم تشهد الساحة الفلسطينية تجارب وحدوية على الإطلاق.
وبسبب تعذر تحقيق الوحدة الوطنية، انخرطت الجبهة في تحالفات وإئتلافات جبهوية على أساس الرؤى السياسية الواحدة، المتناقضة مع رؤى سياسية بدأت بالتمظهر في الساحة الفلسطينية، وتحديداً بعد حرب تشرين عام 1973، والداعية إلى تبني البرنامج المرحلي وإمكانية الحلّ السياسي عبر المفاوضات مع العدو. فتشكلت جبهة الرفض الفلسطينية في العام 1974 من (القيادة العامة والجبهة الشعبية وجبهة النضال وجبهة التحرير العربية).
منذ انطلاقتها، اشتهرت الجبهة بالعمليات العسكرية النوعية، لا سيما العمليات التي سُميت «العمليات الإستشهادية»، التي أصرّت قيادة الجبهة ومن منطلق إيمانها بقومية الصراع، أن تكون تشكيلات هذه العمليات من مقاتلين عرب. عملية مطار اللد 1968، وعملية كريات شمونة (الخالصة) في 11 نيسان 1974، وعملية كفار شامير (أم العقارب) في 13 حزيران 1974، وعملية شهداء قبية التي نفذها خالد أكر، وميلود بن ناجح نومه في 25 تشرين الثاني 1987 مستخدمين طائرات شراعية، وهذه العملية كانت الملهم والشرارة للانتفاضة الفلسطينية الأولى عام 1987 (انتفاضة الحجارة)». ونفذت الجبهة أكبر عمليات تحرير للأسرى من السجون الصهيونية. ففي (14 آذار من عام 1979 كانت عملية النورس، وحُرر بموجبها 77 أسير)، مقابل أسير صهيوني هو «إبراهام عمرام أسرته الجبهة في 5 نيسان عام 1978»، خلال الاجتياح الصهيوني لجنوب لبنان «عملية الليطاني». أما العملية الثانية، (عملية الجليل في 20 أيار من عام 1985، وحُرر بموجبها 1150 أسير، ومن أبرز المعتقلين الذين تم إطلاق سراحهم الشيخ الشهيد أحمد ياسين والعديد من قيادات العمل الوطني الفلسطيني من كافة الفصائل. والعلامة الأبرز كانت إرغام العدو على إطلاق المناضل الأممي الياباني كوزو اوكوموتو. كما تضمنت الصفقة، إطلاق سراح 50 من فلسطينيّي 48، و99 من دول عربية مختلفة و 6 من دول أجنبية). بالاضافة إلى عمليات إرسال السلاح إلى فلسطين إسناداً ودعماً لانتفاضة الأقصى العام 2000. والمساهمة في إسناد ودعم قوى المقاومة الوطنية والإسلامية بقيادة حزب الله في لبنان، في مواجهة العدو الصهيوني المحتلّ لأرض الجنوب، والإنخراط المباشر في تنفيذ العمليات القتالية إلى جانب قوى المقاومة حتى التحرير في 25 أيار 2000.
… الجبهة وإنْ كانت عضواً مؤسّساً في منظمة تحرير ومؤسّساتها (اللجنة التنفيذية – المجلس الوطني – المجلس المركزي)، إلاّ أنّ العلاقات بين الجبهة ومنظمة التحرير قد شهدت توترات في مراحل عديدة. وجميعها على خلفية تبنّي المنظمة للنقاط العشر المتعلقة بالتسوية الإستسلامية، والتي على اثرها تشكلت جبهة الرفض الفلسطينية. وكذلك ما اتخذته المنظمة ولجنتها التنفيذية من مواقف تبنت من خلالها رؤى سياسية تخالف مواد ميثاقها الوطني. ولعلّ القطيعة الأكبر كانت منذ العام 1983، ولا زالت مستمرة حتى الآن، خصوصاً بعد موافقة المنظمة على مبادرة الملك السعودي في القمة العربية الاستثنائية الثانية في فاس أواخر العام 1982. وبالتالي ما عمّق القطيعة هو التوقيع باسم المنظمة في 13 أيلول 1993 على اتفاقات «أوسلو» مع الكيان الصهيوني، في حفل احتضنه البيت الأبيض برعاية الرئيس بيل كلينتون. والتي تمّ بموجبها الاعتراف بالكيان، ومن ثم التنازل عن 78 بالمائة من أرض فلسطين التاريخية.
من خلفية رفضها لاتفاقات «أوسلو»، لا توجد بين الجبهة والسلطة الفلسطينية علاقات تجمعهما، والعلاقة مقتصرة على الفصائل. وهذا لم يمنع الجبهة من الانخراط في الحوارات التي أجرتها الفصائل منذ العام 2003 و أذار 2005 في القاهرة، والذي اتفق فيه على تطوير وتفعيل منظمة التحرير وتشكيل الإطار القيادي المؤقت. ومن ثم اتفاق أيار 2011 في القاهرة، الذي تمّ التوصل إليه. وصولاً إلى الحوار الذي جرى في موسكو برعاية روسية في شباط 2019. انخراط الجبهة في تلك الحوارات جاء من خلفية أنّ رأب الصدع في الساحة الفلسطينية من شأنه أن يمكننا من مواجهة التحديات التي تفرضها سياسات كيان العدو والإدارة الأميركية، بهدف تصفية القضية وعناوينها الوطنية.
أما ما يتعلق بالعلاقة بالفصائل وتحديداً حركتي حماس والجهاد الإسلامي اللتين انطلقتا خلال الانتفاضة الأولى (انتفاضة الحجارة) في العام 1987، فقد اتسمت العلاقة معهما بالإيجابية جداً، خصوصاً أنهما تتبنيان خيار المقاومة على أنها الطريق الوحيد لتحرير فلسطين، وترفض التسويات الإستسلامية وعلى وجه الخصوص اتفاقات «أوسلو» في العام 1993. وقد تطورت العلاقات مع الحركتين بشكل كبير على كافة المستويات وفي مقدمتها المستوى العسكري. والجبهة في علاقاتها مع الحركتين ذهبت بعيداً في التعاون العسكري فوضعت مواقعها ومعسكراتها في تصرف الحركتين، والمساهمة في التطوير من قدراتهما حسب الممكن والمتاح
وبقيت العلاقة تتطور إيجاباً حتى بدأت أحداث المنطقة أواخر العام 2010، وما سُمّي زوراً بـ «الربيع العربي»، لتشهد العلاقة وتحديداً مع حركة حماس حالة من شبه القيطعة، على خلفية تبني حماس مواقف منحازة لمن سمّوا أنفسهم بـ «الثورة السورية» منذ آذار 2011، لتكشف الأيام عن زيف ادّعاءات هؤلاء، ومدى تورّطهم وارتباطهم بأجهزة الاستخبارات الدولية والإقليمية، التي ثبُت انغماسها في تخريب وتدمير سورية كرمى عيون كيان العدو الصهيوني.
أقامت الجبهة علاقات عربية واسعة خاصة مع الدول ذات التوجهات القومية، حيث تقع سورية في مقدمتها، فقد حافظت الجبهة على علاقات مميّزة معها، قيادةً ودولةً وحزباً وشعباً، لما مثلته سورية من عمق وحاضنة استراتيجية للقضية الفلسطينية، منذ ثورة الثامن من آذار 1963. لتتكرّس هذه العلاقة مع مجيء الرئيس الراحل حافظ الأسد إلى سدة الحكم، حيث قدّم كلّ ما من شأنه تعزيز مقاومة الشعب الفلسطيني، وشرّع أبواب سورية أمام مقاومتها. ومن بعده تابع السيد الرئيس الدكتور بشار الأسد مسيرة والده في جعل سورية رافعة وحاضنة للمقاومة الفلسطينية، وسائر المقاومات العربية، وخطاً أمامياً في مواجهة المشروع الصهيو أميركي في المنطقة. ولعلها مناسبة لنتقدّم بشهادة تاريخية أنّ ما حظي فيه الشعب الفلسطيني في سورية منذ العام 1948، لم يحظ به أيّ من الفلسطينيين المقيمين في بقية دول الطوق لفلسطين، حيث عومل الفلسطينيون معاملة السوريّين باستثناء الترشح والانتخاب، وما دون ذلك فقد عومل الفلسطيني معاملة شقيقه السوري على حدّ سواء. وسورية لما مثلته وما زالت من فرادة في المواقف الوطنية والقومية الأصيلة، وسط واقع عربي رسمي متهاو وخانع، يبحث عن استرضاء الإدارات الأميركية بطريقة خطب ودّ كيان الاحتلال والتطبيع معه، وصولاً إلى إقامة التحالفات، في استبدال فاضح في أولويات الصراع ووجهته وعناوينه. سورية دفعت ولا زالت من دماء أبنائها وجيشها ومقدراتها وقدراتها، عشر سنوات من حرب كونية أميركية صهيونية رجعية إرهابية، طالت الحجر والبشر والشجر. سورية ورغم الحرب الظالمة بقيت صامدة أبية، ومتمسكة برؤيتها ومواقفها السياسية، وهي اليوم ومع شركائها وحلفائها تنتصر على امتداد جغرافيتها الوطنية. وفي هذا السياق، وقفت الجبهة إلى جانب سورية من خلفية أولاً فهمها ووعيها لطبيعة الأهداف الصهيوأميركية وحلفائهم وأدواتهم في تغيير وجهة المنطقة، لصالح ذاك المشروع المعادي. وثانياً، لأنها تُدرك أنّ في السعي إلى إسقاط الدولة الوطنية في سورية، إنما هو إسقاط لقضية الشعب الفلسطيني، وتصفية عناوينها وحقوقها الوطنية.
وارتبطت الجبهة بعلاقات متأرجحة وليست مستدامة مع كلّ من العراق ومصر (زمن الرئيس الراحل جمال عبد الناصر)، والجزائر والكويت والسودان وارتيريا زمن الاحتلال الأثيوبي. أما ليبيا فامتدت العلاقة بالقيادة الليبية عقود من الزمن بقيادة الرئيس الراحل معمر القذافي، واستمرت العلاقة إلى ما قبل سقوطه بأكثر من عشر سنوات. وفي هذا السياق لا تنكر الجبهة ما قدّمته ليبيا وقيادتها لها ولمعظم الفصائل الفلسطينية.
أما إسلامياً، فالعلاقة الوحيدة هي مع الجمهورية الإسلامية الإيرانية، حيث اعتبرت الجبهة أنّ انتصار الثورة في إيران بقيادة الإمام الراحل الخميني عام 1979 ضدّ حكم الشاه، هو انتصار للقضية الفلسطينية، وتعويض عن خروج مصر بعد أن وقّع السادات اتفاقات كامب ديفيد في العام 1979. وكانت الجبهة من أولى الفصائل الفلسطينية التي وطدت علاقاتها مع إيران الإسلامية بقيادة الإمام الخميني رحمه الله، الذي أغلق سفارة كيان العدو، ووضع مكانها سفارة فلسطين. وأطلق نداءه التاريخي بإعلان يوم الجمعة الأخير من شهر رمضان من كلّ عام يوماً للقدس العالمي. ولا زالت هذه العلاقة متواصلة وراسخة متميّزة مع إيران بقيادة الإمام السيد علي الخامنئي، الذي لم يترك والقيادة الإيرانية فرصة أو مناسبة إلاّ وأكدوا فيها على وقوفهم ودعمهم الحازم للقضية الفلسطينية ومقاومتها. ولعلّ العلامة الفارقة التي مثلها الشهيد القائد الحاج قاسم سليماني في دعمه اللامحدود للمقاومة الفلسطينية، بكلّ ما استلزمها من إمكانيات وقدرات تمكنت المقاومة من خلالها تطوير تلك القدرات مما مكنها من إفشال كلّ الحروب التي شنّها كيان الاحتلال الصهيوني على قطاع غزة.
أما دولياً، فارتبطت علاقات الجبهة مع دول المنظومة الاشتراكية بقيادة الاتحاد السوفياتي قبل انهياره مطللع التسعينات. حيث كانت الجبهة ترسل البعثات التعليمية والدورات العسكرية إلى العديد من هذه الدول وخصوصاً الاتحاد السوفياتي وبلغاريا. واستمرت هذه العلاقة حتى سقوط الاتحاد السوفياتي وتفكك حلف وارسو. وأعيد تجديد العلاقات، بعد قدوم الرئيس بوتين إلى رئاسة الاتحاد الروسي. وكذلك مع الدول والأحزاب والحركات ذات التوجهات الإشتراكية والمؤيدة للحق والنضال الكفاحي للشعب الفلسطيني.
أما علاقة الجبهة مع الأحزاب الوطنية أو القومية، سواء اللبنانية أو العربية، فهي تحظى بعلاقات تاريخية مع أحزاب وطنية وإسلامية وقومية وناصرية وحتى العلمانية منها، طالما أنّ ناظم هذه العلاقة هي فلسطين ومقاومة شعبها ودعمها وإسنادها.
ختاماً ومع حلول الذكرى 55 لانطلاقة الجبهة المعمدة بدماء الآلاف من الشهداء والجرحى، الذين سقطوا على درب مسيرة الكفاح الوطني الفلسطيني، ومعارك الدفاع عن قضايا أمتنا. الجبهة مطالبة أولاً، بالتأكيد على إرثها النضالي والكفاحي الوطني والاعتزاز به، والدفع ثانياً، بروح التجديد بآليات وأدوات عملها ومؤسساتها، مشفوعاً في إفساح المجال والطريق أمام الطاقات الشابة الواعدة.
The Palestinians mark today Prisoner Day in honour of the Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails and their sacrifices in the battle of steadfastness in defence of their people’s legitimate rights amid international silence towards the flagrant Israeli violations.
Endorsed by the Palestinian National Council in 1974, The Palestinian Prisoner Day is commemorated this year amidst grave fears of the Palestinian families in light of the occupation authorities’ medical negligence and their rejection to take any precautionary measures to protect the captives against the spread of the Corona virus.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded from the international community and its legal and humanitarian organizations to put pressure on the occupation authorities to release them in light of the accelerated spread of the Corona virus pandemic.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that the Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails are facing the danger of the fatal virus which penetrated into Israeli prisons because of the occupation authorities’ deliberate medical negligence.
Several Palestinians bodies in charge of captives affairs said that about 5000 Palestinians captives are being detained by the occupation authorities including 41 women and 180 children. They stressed that there are 700 captives suffering from chronic diseases calling for sending an international medical committee to the Palestinian inmates’ cells to be briefed about their deteriorating health conditions.
On the Day of the Palestinian Prisoner, the Palestinian leadership renews its call for the release of all Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. According to a press release sent today to Syria Times e-newspaper, the member of the PLO Executive Committee Dr. Hanan Ashrawi said that Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli detention centers and prisons are hostages to Israel’s gratuitous cruelty and victims of its regime of oppression and subjugation, which has maintained this illegal occupation for decades. Dr. Ashrawi made it clear that approximately 5000 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel in deplorable conditions, including 432 so-called administrative detainees languishing in prison without charge or trial. “In violation of international humanitarian law, Israel subjects Palestinians to a myriad of racist and illegitimate laws that deny them their basic rights to due process and justice. On the Day of the Palestinian Prisoner, the Palestinian leadership renews its call for the release of all Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. This call takes on added urgency, as 700 Palestinian prisoners suffer from chronic illnesses and other underlying conditions that make them especially vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic, ” Dr. Ashrawi added. She asserted that as the Palestinian people confront the challenges of colonial occupation and this vicious virus, Israel has persisted in its illegal policies against Palestinian prisoners. “Israel has denied Palestinian prisoners access to family and lawyer visits and refused to take any preventive measures inside prisons, including testing for COVID-19, even after 1 prisoner tested positive upon release and several occupation officers in prisons have tested positive. Israel has also persisted in its illegal policy of arbitrary mass detention of Palestinians. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Israeli occupation forces have detained 357 Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Among those detained are 48 children.” Dr. Ashrawi concluded by saying: “As an occupying power, Israel has undeniable and binding obligations under international law. It is directly responsible for the life and health of all prisoners and must face consequences for its grave violations of international law. We call on all human rights defenders and relevant international organizations to support our call for the release of Palestinian prisoners and their protection from this deadly virus.” Basma Qaddour
Samidoun issued a call for a rally in New York City to commemorate the second anniversary of the Great Return March in Gaza, that has been transformed into a virtual event. (Photo: via Samidoun)
On March 3, 2020, Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Network issued a call for a rally in New York City to commemorate the second anniversary of the Great Return March in Gaza.
Plans were to hold the march in conjunction with the Palestine Writes Festival (March 27-29), but due to the Coronavirus the literary gathering has been postponed, and the march, like so many other events, has been transformed into a virtual event.
Two years ago, on March 30, 2018, Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip launched the Great March of Return in order to demand an end to Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip and the right of return for millions of Palestinian ethnically cleansed from their homes.
Despite Israel’s ongoing use of live ammunition, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, Palestinians continue to use every legitimate means possible—including armed resistance, general strikes, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, and the Great Return March—in their struggle for national liberation.
This year, in the words of Tamara Nassar: “Palestinians face two enemies: occupation and pandemic.” As Nassar notes, their struggle against the virus entails the same precautions as the rest of the world, while, in addition, Israel “continues to demolish structures, conduct night raids, arbitrarily arrest children and routinely harass civilians.”
For example, palinfo.com reports that on March 27, 2020, Israeli occupation soldiers invaded several areas in the West Bank city of al-Khalil where they “deliberately spat” at Palestinian homes and cars. After their departure, Palestinian workers sterilized the places where the soldiers spat in order to reduce the chances of infection.
Moreover, while the West Bank and Jerusalem are quarantined, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights last week recorded that Israelis undertook 59 home raids and 51 arrests.
All of these atrocities and more are unique to the Occupation. Nevertheless, there is a larger framework that makes it possible to place the Palestinian struggle within a broader context. As stated in Samidoun’s decision to transform the various rallies in support of Gaza into virtual events:
“Protecting each other’s health at this critical time is essential to continuing the struggle against the forces of oppression and exploitation that deny people health care or price it with a profit motive.”
For many in the labor force, this is not an option. In countries under the rule of right-wing capitalist leaders, workers are being told that they have a choice between staying home without a paycheck, thus placing their families under economic hardship, or going to workplaces that put them at risk for serious infection with the virus.
For example, the lieutenant governor of Texas Dan Patrick suggested that older Americans would surely sacrifice themselves in return for guaranteeing their grandchildren’s economic future. He also advocated that the country should be opened up for business in weeks, not months as health professionals propose.
President Donald Trump’s call to open up the country for business by Easter echoed a similar prioritizing of business and mega-church religious leaders over the lives of workers and their families.
In Palestine, too, Akram Al-Waara reports that workers face a similar dilemma, though aggravated by realities of the Occupation. For those working in Israel, new restrictions related to the Coronavirus mean that they have a choice between sacrificing a “much-needed income,” or taking the chance of being apart from their families for months.
As the virus continued to extend across Israel and the West Bank, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennet, who had already closed the borders around Bethlehem, announced that only workers in “essential” fields—construction, healthcare, and agriculture—would be granted entry; everyone else would be quarantined at home.
“While the Israelis are staying inside their homes, they are putting us to work so that things don’t collapse,” Kareem, a Palestinian construction worker, told Middle East Eye, all “for the sake of saving their economy.” Though the situation is different within the context of the Occupation, the paradigm of profit over people is inevitable wherever there is a capitalist economy. In New Mexico, where I live, Indian reservations make up expendable labor pools, much like Palestinians are today.
In the preface to Simon Ortiz’s Fight Back: For the Sake of the People, For the Sake of the Land (1980), historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz explains that “Indians have a basis of unity with non-Indians,” and it is there, “in the fields and on the picket line, that they may see through the smokescreen of racism” to pinpoint the real cause of their oppression: capitalism.
She continues:
“For the Indian and non-Indian worker in the United States and most of the hemisphere, their exploited labor provides the profits for those who claim to own the land and the factories and have armies to back their claim.”
Dunbar-Ortiz’s analysis is more important today than ever as we see workers around the world faced with the choice of watching their families starve without a paycheck or bringing sickness home from their workplace.
As Italians called for a General Strike on March 25 under the slogan “Our lives are worth more than your profits,” and requests for a nationwide rent strike erupt in the U.S., it seems an excellent time for international solidarity among the working class, Indigenous, immigrants and all other oppressed groups of people.
Meanwhile, news sources such as NPR are using fears over the Coronavirus to air the following message: “Israelis and Palestinians now have a common enemy: the Coronavirus.”
Described by +972 Magazine as “ ‘colonization of the mind,’ whereby the oppressed subject comes to believe that the oppressor’s reality is the only ‘normal’ reality that must be subscribed to, and that the oppression is a fact of life that must be coped with,” “normalization” never sleeps. Neither does colonialist oppression, even during the height of the pandemic.
As Akram Al-Waara relates, Palestinian workers in Israel who are suspected to have the virus are “dumped…like trash” near the most convenient checkpoints. “This is the true face of the Israeli occupation,” Ibrahim Abu Safiya told Middle East Eye. “They kill us on a daily basis, so this isn’t any different for them.” No cooperation here over a “common enemy to battle,” as Daniel Estrin of NPR termed it, only the continuation of the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
In Israel, the United States, and around the world, exploited groups of people are expendable, thrown away when no longer serving the needs of the elite. As a community activist and scholar Oliver Baker wrote on Facebook, this is how “whiteness in capitalism works. It expects you to consent to give it your labor and enforce empire. But it cares nothing about your life. It’s time to betray it, or if not, you’ll be in the way of people trying to free themselves from these conditions, and you don’t want to be in the way of that right now.”
Nevertheless, the message of Land Day 2020 remains one of sumoud (steadfastness) and creativity, as Palestinians from Gaza to Bethlehem mobilize collectively to fight the virus.
“If we can overcome Coronavirus, we can overcome the occupation,” writes Suha Arraf, a sentiment echoed by Lucy Thaljiyeh, a city council member and feminist political activist: “The solidarity between people has returned, the solidarity we had during the First Intifada which somehow disappeared in the Second Intifada. We are together once again, trapped; we are taking care of each other.”
As support gathers around the world in the coming days for Land Day 2020, it seems fitting to end with the words of Palestinian American activist and scholar Steven Salaita:
“I find myself thinking about the Gaza Strip, Attica, Wounded Knee, the Warsaw Ghetto, not because our situation is analogous, and not because suffering must be exceptional to have meaning, but because they’re examples of incredible strength amid hardship and insecurity and therefore provide a radical vision of fortitude in which victims of power, not its beneficiaries, serve as inspiration for survival.”
– Benay Blend earned her doctorate in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. Her scholarly works include Douglas Vakoch and Sam Mickey, Eds. (2017), “’Neither Homeland Nor Exile are Words’: ‘Situated Knowledge’ in the Works of Palestinian and Native American Writers”. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
Israel is accelerating settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. (Photo: File)
Newly-released statistics show a sharp rise in the building and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Quds Press reported on Sunday.
According to a report issued to mark Palestine Land Day today, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said that the number of Jewish settlements and outposts now stands at 448.
This one on the left is the 1947 partition plan of Palestine.
The one on the right is what is left of Palestine currently because of illegal Israeli settlements. Palestinians fully lost the North part btw and now they only have the red separated parts.
This includes 150 settlements approved by the Israeli government, 26 outposts that are regarded as extensions of approved settlements and 128 outposts that have been built without the approval of the government.
In the report, the PCBS pointed out that the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank was 671,007 by the end of 2018. Furthermore, last year, the Israeli occupation authorities approved 8,457 new settlement units and 13 new outposts.
In the same period, the Israeli authorities demolished 678 Palestinian facilities, including 251 residential buildings, and issued 556 orders for Palestinians to stop work on building new homes or renovating older premises.
Under international law, Jewish settlements constructed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories constitute a violation of international law and are considered illegal.
يُعدّ يوم 1/8/1882 في التاريخ الحديث نقطة الانطلاقة الفعلية من قبل العدو اليهودي باتجاه اغتصاب أرضنا في فلسطين. ففي ذلك التاريخ أنشأت حركة «أحباء صهيون» أول مغتصبة يهودية على أرض فلسطين.
إلا أنّ الإعلان الأبرز عن ذلك التوجه الاغتصابيّ كان على إثر تأسيس المنظمة الصهيونية العالمية بتاريخ 29/08/1897، وعقدها لمؤتمرها الأول في مدينة بازل السويسرية، وكانت أبرز مقرراته إقامة «وطن قومي لليهود» على أرضنا في فلسطين.
باشرت الحركة الصهيونية نشاطها لتستفيد من اندلاع الحرب العالمية الأولى وتوقيع اتفاقية سايكس – بيكو التقسيمية بتاريخ 16/05/1916، فاستحصلت بتاريخ 02/11/2017 على ذلك الوعد المشؤوم من وزير خارجية بريطانيا – آنذاك – آثر بلفور بإقامة الوطن القومي اليهودي المزعوم.
بطبيعة الحال، تصدّى أبناء شعبنا في فلسطين للخطة اليهوديّة المعادية، وعقد المؤتمر الفلسطيني الأول في القدس بتاريخ 27/01/1919. وتلاه المؤتمر الشعبي الكبير في فلسطين بتاريخ 05/03/1919 الذي تقرّر فيه رفض الاحتلال البريطاني ووعد بلفور والهجرة اليهودية ِإلى فلسطين.
ويسجل التاريخ في 27/02/1920 خروج أول تظاهرة وطنية فلسطينية احتجاجاً على سلخ فلسطين عن سورية، فأعلن شعبنا الفلسطيني تمسكه بهويّته القومية وإصراره على البقاء موحداً مع محيطه الطبيعي.
وعلى الرغم من تقرير عصبة الأمم تم تنفيذ الاحتلال البريطاني لفلسطين بتاريخ 24/07/1922، إلا أنّ شعبنا الفلسطيني البطل استمرّ في رفضه ومقاومته لذلك الاحتلال حتى وصل إلى إعلان الثورة الشاملة بتاريخ 15/04/1936.
ولا نذيع سراً أنّ الحزب السوري القومي الاجتماعي الذي تأسّس في 16/11/1932 ليكون الخطة النظامية المعاكسة للمشروع اليهودي ولحركته السياسية المسمّاة بالحركة الصهيونية، كان واحداً من المشاركين في تلك الثورة، حيث لبّى القوميون الاجتماعيون نداء فلسطين، وقاتلوا دفاعاً عنها ضدّ العصابات اليهودية. فكان أن ارتقى في مدينة نابلس بتاريخ 23/09/1936 أول شهداء الحزب الرفيق حسين البنا إبن بلدة شارون في قضاء عاليه – جبل لبنان.
على الرغم من التصدي البطولي لأبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني في مواجهة مغتصبي الأرض، جاءت لجنة بيل لتعلن عن اقتراحها في 07/07/1937 للمرة الأولى بتقسيم فلسطين إلى دولتين تكون الأولى لأهل الأرض الأصليين والثانية لمغتصبيها من اليهود.
بدأت الحرب العالمية الثانية، فوضعت الحركة الصهيونية كلّ ثقلها للاستفادة من نتائجها في سبيل تحقيق هدف إقامة كيان الاحتلال، خاصة بعد إنشاء الأمم المتحدة بتاريخ 24/10/1945 لتكون الهيئة الدولية الجديدة التي ترعى مصالح الأمم المنتصرة في الحرب.
بتاريخ 02/03/1947 عاد مؤسس الحزب السوري القومي الاجتماعي أنطون سعاده من مغتربه القسري إلى لبنان، فكانت في استقباله حشود قدّرت بعشرات الآلاف من القوميين الاجتماعيين، فألقى خطابه الشهير المعروف بخطاب العودة الذي جاء فيه:
«ولعلكم ستسمعون من سيقول لكم إنّ في إنقاذ فلسطين حيفاً على لبنان واللبنانيين وأمراً لا دخل للبنانيين فيه. إنّ إنقاذ فلسطين هو أمر لبناني في الصميم، كما هو أمر شامي في الصميم، كما هو أمر فلسطيني في الصميم. إنّ الخطر اليهودي على فلسطين هو خطر على سورية كلها، هو خطر على جميع هذه الكيانات».
استمرّت الخطة المشؤومة في سيرها، فصدر قرار الأمم المتحدة رقم 181 بتاريخ 29/11/1947، والذي قضى بتقسيم فلسطين كما خطّط له أيام عصبة الأمم. ليتبع ذلك إعلان قيام كيان الاحتلال الإسرائيلي بتاريخ 15/5/1948.
ما كان هذا الإعلان أن يمرّ مرور الكرام، فانتفض كلّ من أحبّ فلسطين ليدافع عنها في مواجهة ذلك العدو الوجودي. ومجدّداً، واستجابة لنداء زعيم الحزب السوري القومي الاجتماعي أنطون سعاده تشكلت الفرق القوميّة للذوْد عن جنوب الأمة السورية، فكانت أولاها «فرقة الزوبعة الحمراء» التي تأسّست بتاريخ 21/5/1948 لتقاتل بقيادة الأمين الراحل مصطفى سليمان النبالي.
استولى المغتصبون اليهود نتيجة حرب العام 1948 على ما يقارب من 78% من أرض فلسطين، وقاموا بتهجير حوالي 85% من أهلها.
لم تكد تضع الحرب أوزارها حتى أعلن كنيست الاحتلال القدس عاصمة أبدية لكيان الاغتصاب اليهوديّ بتاريخ 23/01/1950. وتلا ذلك إصدار ما يُسمّى بقانون العودة بتاريخ 5/7/1950 الذي يبيح أرض فلسطين لكلّ يهود العالم.
تسارعت الهجرة اليهودية إلى أرض فلسطين المحتلة، وسعت حكومة الاحتلال إلى تهويد كلّ القرى والمدن الفلسطينية حتى تلك التي صمد فيها أهلها ورفضوا تهجيرهم رغم كلّ الضغوط التي تعرّضوا لها من قبل قوات الاحتلال.
من ضمن الأراضي المستهدفة بعملية التهويد كانت الأراضي التي تعرف باسم «المل» أو المنطقة رقم 9، وهي تقع ضمن قرى سخنين وعرابة ودير حنا، وتبلغ مساحتها 60 ألف دونم.
وكانت هذه الأراضي تحت سيطرة جيش الاحتلال البريطاني بين عامي 1942 و1944 حيث كان يستخدمها كمنطقة تدريبات عسكرية أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية.
أبقى جيش الاحتلال الإسرائيلي على الوضع نفسه الذي كان سائدًا في أيام الاحتلال البريطاني، حتى جاء العام 1956 فقام بإغلاق المنطقة بهدف إقامة مخططات بناء مغتصبات يهودية ضمن مشروع تهويد الجليل.
نتيجة لطبيعته الاحتلالية والتوسعية، لم يكتفِ كيان الاحتلال بما احتله من أراضٍ في العام 1948، حتى بلغ أوجه في حرب العام 1967 التي تمكن خلالها من احتلال ما تبقى من أرض فلسطين والجولان وسيناء.
محطة جديدة يثبت فيها الحزب السوري القومي الاجتماعي أنه حزب فلسطين عبر تشكيل «جبهة الفداء القومي» بقيادة الأمين الراحل سامي خوري، والتي نفذت عمليات عدة ضدّ جيش الاحتلال كان أبرزها العملية البطولية التي نفذت في غور الأردن بتاريخ 17/03/1968 وأسر فيها الرفيق الدكتور عزمي منصور.
على الرغم من تحرير أجزاء من أرضنا القومية المحتلة خلال حرب تشرين التحريرية في العام 1973، إلا أنّ الصراع لم يتوقف، بل استمرّ في سبيل تحرير ما تبقى من أرض تحت الاحتلال ومنع تهويدها ومصادرتها.
وفي هذا الإطار عقد بتاريخ 29/07/1975 اجتماع في حيفا المحتلة حضره مبادرون لتنظيم حملة الاحتجاج على مصادرة الأراضي الفلسطينية بعد أن أعلنت سلطات كيان الاحتلال عزمها على مصادرة 21 ألف دونم من أراضي نحو 12 قرية فلسطينية. وقد ضمّ الاجتماع عدداً من رؤساء المجالس المحلية الفلسطينية وشخصيات وطنية مختلفة من مجاهدين وأطباء ومثقفين ورجال دين وفلاحين. وتقرّر في هذا الاجتماع تشكيل لجنة للدفاع عن الأراضي الفلسطينية.
بتاريخ 15/8/1975 دعت هذه اللجنة إلى عقد اجتماع شعبي موسّع في الناصرة المحتلة تقرّرت فيه الدعوة إلى مؤتمر شعبي عام للمطالبة بوقف مصادرة الأراضي. وصدر عن الاجتماع نداء موجه إلى الرأي العام يدعوه إلى المشاركة في الحملة ضدّ سياسة المصادرة، حيث وقع على هذا النداء آلاف المواطنين وجميع الهيئات الشعبية والمجالس المحلية الفلسطينية.
وعقدت لجنة الدفاع بعد ذلك عشرات الاجتماعات الشعبية في الجليل والمثلث، فكان أبرزها المؤتمر الشعبي العام الذي عقد في الناصرة المحتلة بتاريخ 18/10/1975، الذي عدّ أكبر مؤتمر شعبي يُعقد في فلسطين المحتلة بعد عام 1948 حتى ذلك الحين.
وفي هذا المؤتمر تقرّر إعلان الإضراب العام وتنظيم مظاهرات أمام كنيست العدو إذا لم تتراجع حكومة الاحتلال عن مخططات مصادرة الأراضي الفلسطينية وتهويدها. لكن سلطات الاحتلال تجاهلت ذلك وضربت بمطالب أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني عرض الحائط.
استمرّ العدو المحتلّ في ممارسة أعمال التهويد، فصدر بتاريخ 13/02/1976 قرار بإغلاق منطقة المل (المنطقة رقم 9) ومنع أهلها من أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني من الدخول إليها.
كما صدرت بتاريخ 1/3/1976 وثيقة متصرف لواء الشمال في ما يسمّى وزارة داخلية الاحتلال (وثيقة كيننغ) المتضمّنة مجموعة اقتراحات لاستكمال تهويد الجليل، حيث تضمّنت النقاط التالية:
1 ـ تكثيف الاستيطان اليهودي في شمال فلسطين المحتلة (منطقة الجليل).
2 ـ السعي لإنشاء حزب من أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني يُعتبر «أخاً» لحزب العمل الإسرائيلي ويركز على المساواة والسلام.
3 ـ رفع التنسيق بين الجهات الحكومية الاحتلالية في معالجة مسائل أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني.
4 ـ إيجاد إجماع «قومي يهودي» داخل أحزاب الاحتلال حول موضوع أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني الصامدين داخل الأرض المحتلة.
5 ـ التضييق الاقتصادي على العائلات الفلسطينية عبر ملاحقتها بالضرائب وإعطاء الأولوية لليهود في فرص العمل، وكذلك تخفيض نسبة أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني في التحصيل العلمي وتشجيع التوجهات المهنية لدى التلاميذ.
6 ـ تسهيل هجرة الشباب والطلاب من أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني إلى خارج البلاد ومنع عودتهم إليها.
دعت لجنة الدفاع بالاشتراك مع لجنة رؤساء المجالس المحلية الفلسطينية إلى اجتماع موسّع عقد في الناصرة المحتلة بتاريخ 6/3/1976 وحضره أكثر من 70 مندوباً يمثلون مختلف القرى والتجمعات الفلسطينية في المثلث والجليل. وفي هذا الاجتماع اتخذ القرار التاريخي بإعلان الإضراب العام يوم 30 آذار عام 1976. لكن سلطات الاحتلال استمرت في تنفيذ مخططها التهويدي.
وبتاريخ 19/3/1976 أصدر وزير المالية في حكومة الاحتلال أمر مصادرة الأراضي الفلسطينية. وانكبّت حكومته على ممارسة شتى أنواع الترهيب بهدف ضرب وحدة أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني ومنع نجاح الإضراب المقرّر.
وأشاعت حكومة الاحتلال أنه سيتمّ صرف كلّ العمال الذين يتغيّبون عن أعمالهم يوم 30 آذار 1976 من دون تسديد تعويضاتهم المستحقة. كما عمّمت على الدوائر بعدم إعطاء إجازات للعمال من أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني في يوم الإضراب المحدّد.
كما عمدت حكومة الاحتلال إلى تعبئة قوات كبيرة من الشرطة وحرس الحدود والجيش، ومركزتها في القرى والمدن الفلسطينية.
لم تكتف حكومة الاحتلال بكلّ هذه التدابير الاستثنائية، بل بات وزير شرطتها في مدينة الناصرة المحتلة منذ تاريخ 29/03/1976 ليتابع شخصياً كلّ إجراءات القمع الاحتلالية، حتى وصف ذلك اليوم بأنه اليوم الذي لم يبق فيه جهاز في كيان الاحتلال إلا واشترك في محاولة إفشال الإضراب.
على الرغم من كلّ هذا الاستنفار العام لدى جميع أجهزة سلطات الاحتلال، قرّرت لجنة الدفاع عن الأراضي الفلسطينية والقوى الوطنية الأخرى الاستمرار في المواجهة وخوض صراع قاسٍ مع حكومة الاحتلال أقلّ ما يُقال فيه إنه صراع وجود بكلّ ما تحويه الكلمة من معنى.
وكما هو مقرّر، في يوم الثلاثين من آذار من العام 1976، عمّ الإضراب الشامل مدن وقرى الجليل والمثلث الفلسطينية. فصبّت سلطات الاحتلال جامّ غضبها على أبناء شعبنا الفلسطيني في محاولة بائسة منها لثنيه عن المضي في إضرابه. مما أدّى إلى اشتباكات مباشرة مع قوات الاحتلال كانت أشدّها ضراوة في قرى سخنين وعرابة ودير حنا.
ارتقى نتيجة الصدامات البطولية مع قوات الاحتلال ستة شهداء: ثلاثة من سخنين هم خديجة قاسم شواهة ورجا أبو ريا وخضر خلايلة، وخير ياسين (من عرابة) ومحسن طه (من كفركنا) ورأفت علي زهيري (من مخيم نور شمس في الضفة الغربية واستشهد في الطيبة). هذا فضلاً عن 49 جريحاً ونحو300 معتقل. فيما أصيب من شرطة الاحتلال 20 شرطياً.
لا يختلف إثنان على أنّ يوم الأرض شكل علامة فارقة في تاريخ الصراع الوجوديّ بين أبناء شعبنا في فلسطين المحتلة وقوات الاحتلال. فكانت هذه واحدة من المحطات الأبرز في تاريخ المقاومة الوطنية الفلسطينية المستندة إلى إرادة شعبية موحدة تمكنت من قيادة مواجهات بطولية ضدّ المحتل اليهودي على الرغم من انعدام الموارد واختلال موازين القوة المادية.
يوم الأرض، نجمة مضيئة في تاريخنا القومي المليء بوقفات البطولة، يستمدّ شعبنا الفلسطيني منها روحه المقاومة، فكان في العام 2018 شرارة الانطلاق لمسيرات العودة التي انطلقت من قطاع غزة المحاصر باتجاه أرضنا الفلسطينية المحتلة عام 1948. فأراد أهلنا المقاومون في غزة، ومن ضمنهم رفقاؤنا في منفذية جنوب فلسطين، أن يجعلوا من هذا التاريخ – الثلاثين من آذار – تاريخاً محفوراً في الذاكرة القومية أنه تاريخ حياة التي لا يمكن أن تكون إلا وقفة عز فقط.
*عضو المجلس الأعلى في الحزب السوري القومي الاجتماعي.
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