“Our people commemorate a group of righteous martyrs who died in defense of their land in the Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev on this day in 1976,” Hamas stated on Wednesday on the 46th anniversary of Land Day.

The Movement reiterated its adherence to the historic land of Palestine and the legitimate right to defend it and its holy sites and protect the Palestinian people against israeli aggression.

Hamas also warned the zionist occupation entity of its persistence in persecuting Muslim worshipers at the Aqsa Mosque and allowing Jewish settlers to defile its courtyards, stressing that it would never remain silent on its practices in Jerusalem and at the Aqsa Mosque.

In 1976, zionist occupation police shot and killed six Palestinians as they were protesting the zionist government’s expropriation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian land in the Galilee, Negev and Triangle areas. Since then, March 30 has been known as Land Day. 

It has become a major commemorative date in the Palestinian political calendar and an important event in the Palestinian collective narrative – one that emphasizes Palestinian resistance to israeli colonization and steadfastness.

The 1976 protests were a result of mass collective action across historic Palestine, which saw Palestinian communities resisting not only the theft of land but also overall settler colonial policies of erasure. 

Although there were also protests in the Negev and Wadi Ara, most of the action took place in six villages in the Galilee that had been placed under curfew: Sakhnin, Arraba, Deir Hanna, Tur’an, Tamra, and Kabul. 

The demonstrations were met with aggression and violence; in addition to the six demonstrators killed, hundreds were injured.

Annually, on this very special day, Palestinians take to the streets to speak up for their inalienable rights, most notably their right of return to their homeland—Palestine—from which they were expelled at gunpoint by Zionist gangs.

This year, the anniversary comes as Israel escalates demolition and displacement policy against 150,000 Palestinians in the Negev. 

On the Land Day, Palestinians demand once and for all that the international community pick the right side of history. (ILKHA)