Every year on the 30th of March, Palestinians all across Palestine, yet especially those living inside the 1948 green line (governed by the Israeli government) revive the memory of ‘The Land Day’ (in Arabic : Yawm Al-Ard), a day that first became of significance in the year 1976 when the Israeli government announced the plan that it had in mind, to take and expropriate thousands of dunams of land from Palestinian citizens for “state purposes”… this led the Palestinian citizens living under Israeli rule to take on a general strike and go out in protests and demonstrations in large number against such a decision that deprives them from the lands that they own privately.
On the protests of March 30th 1976 the IOF killed 6 Palestinians (Khadeejah Qasem Shawahneh, Kheir Ahmed Yassin, Raja Hussein Abu Rayya, Khader Eid Mahmoud Khalailah, Mohsen Hasan Sayyed Taha, Ra’afat Ali Zuheiri) while injuring and arresting hundreds more…
Many literary and artistic pieces have been dedicated to the memory of Palestinian Land Day by various authors and artists, the most famous piece being a poem written by the renowned Palestinian author and poet Mahmoud Darwish named “Al-Ard” (which translates to “The Land” in English).
The BDS movement is encouraging people from all over the world to organize huge protests and demonstrations on Land Day, as it is a day that holds a big part of the Palestinian struggle, which is the struggle to take back the stolen lands that were expropriated by the occupation’s government.
So what will you be doing this Land Day (March 30th 2024) to help raise Palestinian voices ?
On Land Day, thousands descend upon Belfast to demand an end to occupation and an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank. Under chants of “what do we do when Lebanon / Syria / Yemen / Iraq / Palestine is under attack? Stand up fight back”, speakers spoke of the need to humanise Palestinians: not to see them as invincible heroes, but people like you and me who are grieving and feeling pain.
Our reaction to Aaron Bushnell right now is so so so important. The powers that be don’t gaf if we burn, they showed that when they swept the person from Atlanta who did the same under the rug.
Our emotional reaction, and more importantly us EXTERNALIZING that is what will make change.
Don’t stop talking about Palestine; don’t stop talking about Aaron Bushnell the American Airforce pilot, who stood in front of the Israeli Embassy and Announced to the world that he would not be complicit in Genocide.
I’ll emphasize that we have to be loud; whatever you’re doing do More and do so externally, do so In your community where ever you can. At this point maintaining the status Quo IS complicit
[im mostly saying this as an American because our countries name is on the bombs]
Usually I scroll through my dash and reblog Palestine posts from my mutuals and today it’s been a bit quiet and I refuse to let it go even a bit quiet for a second, even if it’s just randomly how my dash is showing up. So we’re reblogging from the tags today.
Actor Brain Cox reciting Refaat Alareer’s last published poem, ‘If I Must Die’. Alareer was murdered by Zionist air strikes on December 7, and he is still buried under the rubble in Gaza.
I found this initially on Instagram @palfest and you can find that here. I downloaded via Reddit, and you can find that here.
Today marks the 17th of April, which is Palestinian prisoner day…
on such an occasion we wish for all of our innocent and beloved detainees and prisoners who have been put (without a charge, or because of wrongful and false accusations) inside the occupation’s prisons to very soon be released, to be able to experience life between us as it is and to gain back their freedom that they have been deprived from for months, if not even years or decades.
we wish that in a few years, when it is again the 17th of April, we’ll be looking back at this day and date in a Free Palestine while telling these stories of detainment and imprisonment as something of the past that will never bother us or come upon our lives to ruin them ever again.
on this day, we wish for the mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, daughters, sons, grandchildren and friends of those imprisoned to have endless amounts of patience, faith and hope until their loved ones are released.
الحرّية لأسرى الحرّية 🍉
For Historical Context : The Palestinian National Council chose April 17 as Palestinian Prisoner’s Day in 1974 because it was the date that Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi was released in the first prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestine in 1971.