Thousands in Israel call for end to Gaza war as they mark Palestinian Land Day
Israel Police reportedly condition permission for main annual rally in northern town of Deir Hanna on absence of Palestinian flags, a request that is mostly ignored
Thousands of Arab Israelis rallied Friday for an end to the Gaza war as they marked Land Day, an annual commemoration of a deadly 1976 crackdown on protests against plans to seize land owned by Arab citizens.
The protesters, led by Arab members of Knesset, marched through the northern town of Deir Hanna waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners reading: “Stop the war on Gaza.”
Most of the demonstrators were Arab citizens of Israel — Palestinians who remained during the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation and who, with their descendants, now constitute around 21 percent of its population. Primarily referred to as Arab Israelis, they often refer to themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel.
A smaller contingent of Jewish Israelis joined the rally, some carrying signs reading: “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.”
Each year on March 30, Arab Israelis, and Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza, commemorate Land Day.
In March 1976, the Israeli government decided to expropriate 20,000 dunams (4,940 acres) of land in the Galilee, a third of which was owned by Arab Israelis, to build Jewish towns.
On March 30 of that year, Arab Israelis held strikes and demonstrated against the decision. During the riots that followed, six protesters were killed by Israeli troops.
The government plan was subsequently annulled.
צעדת יום האדמה בדיר חנא היום. pic.twitter.com/zeHY57etkZ
— Asslan Khalil (@KhalilAsslan) March 30, 2024
Haaretz reported Saturday that Israel Police permitted the rally to go ahead on condition that Palestinian flags were not displayed, with the force telling the newspaper that waving the flag “may incite agitation and has the potential to cause a breach of public peace.”
Quite a few Palestinian flags were flown at the rallies. Demonstrators also wrote anti-war placards in the red, white, black, and green colors of the Palestinian flag.
“On this day 48 years ago, our people thwarted the project to confiscate our lands with their protests… and they embodied an important and prominent milestone in history,” Deir Hanna town council chief Saeed Hussein said in a speech in its main square.
“48 years have passed, yet the machine of death and displacement persists… the attempt to erase our national identity and seize our lands continues,” he said.
Though having equal rights, Israel’s Arab citizens may suffer higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and crime than Jewish Israelis.
Mohammad Baraka, the head of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens in Israel, an umbrella forum for the Arab community, told Haaretz that the day’s focus on the war is “a message of resolute opposition” to the war Israel is “waging against the Palestinian people.”
The war began with Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7 cross-border from the Gaza Strip that killed 1,200 people in Israel amid horrific atrocities. The thousands of attackers who burst through the border into southern Israel also kidnapped 253 people who were taken as hostages in Gaza.
Israel retaliated with a military offensive to destroy Hamas, topple its regime in Gaza, and free the hostages, of whom 130 remain in captivity.
Baraka said Arab Israelis were still facing “displacement and repression.”
“This flesh that burns in Gaza is ours and the women murdered in Gaza are our sisters,” he said.
Eyal, a 33-year-old Jewish Israeli activist, said he joined the rally in solidarity with Arabs.
“We demand an end to the massacres by the Israeli government in Gaza and an end to the war on Gaza,” he said, asking to be identified by his first name only.
