land day : rafat

In 1976, Israeli policy of expropriating Palestinian land in northern Israel to build Jewish settlements provoked Palestinian residents in the Galilee town of Sakhnin to protest on March 30. Six Palestinians were killed during the demonstration. Since then, Palestinians inside Israel and the West Bank have commemorated March 30 as "Land Day" and turned the day into a general protest against what they view as discriminatory practices by the government.

I attended a demonstration in the West Bank village of Rafat, where 3000 Dunams out of a total land area of 3500 has been isolated from the village by the Annexation Barrier. The Israeli army has announced 300 Dunams of the remaining land are a closed military zone.