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| Palestinian communist Tawfiq Zayyad speaks at a rally, 1979 |
In early 1975, a new offensive began on Arab lands, through racist schemes, most notably the so-called “development of the Galilee”, which aimed to achieve Jewish demographic control in the Galilee, whose citizens were majority (70%) Arabs, as the Israeli authorities tried to confiscate about 21,500 dunams, most of it in the Galilee.
In response to this attack, the Communist Party of Israel and Palestinian figures mobilized the widest opposition against the policy of confiscation, and the efforts and meetings culminated in the establishment of the “Committee for Defense the Lands” in August 1975, and then a large popular convention was held in the city of Nazareth on October 18 1975, and there declared the establishment of the “National Committee for the Defense of Lands”.
On February 13, 1976, the Israeli authorities declared closure on “El-Mell Area”, also known as “Area No. 9”, and banned its owners access, and declared it a “closed military zone”, in preparation for its confiscation. On March 6, 1976, the Committee for the Defense of Lands held an extensive meeting in Nazareth, in which it called for the declaration of a general strike on Tuesday, March 30, 1976, for the first time since 1948, and to turn this day into a Day of Land and to demand an end to the policy of confiscation that became a threat to the existence and future of the Arab Palestinian masses in their homeland.
The Israeli authorities sought to sabotage the strike using its crutches, so a meeting of the heads of the Arab local authorities was held in Shfa’amr (Shfaram) on March 25, 1976, with the aim of deciding to cancel the strike and to actively suppress its leaders. However, the CPI and the late leader, the mayor of Nazareth MK Tawfiq Zayyad said, “the people decided to strike.” From March 25 to March 30, the leaders, youth and students’ movement of the Communist Party were heavily persecuted to intimidate the masses from participating in the strike. This attempt only made the people embrace those leaders and be more determined the strike succeeds.
On March 29, 1976, clashes broke out between the army and the people of Deir Hanna and then Arraba, in which nine young men were wounded and one of them, Khair Yassin, dead because of his wounds, becoming the first victim before the strike began. At the dawn of March 30, the Israeli army and police announced a curfew with the aim of terrorizing the people, but the Arab masses rose up in an unprecedented strike, which included all Arab cities and villages. On that day, tanks and armored vehicles were brought on the streets and clashes broke out during which five martyrs were killed, in addition to Khair Yassin from Arraba: Raja Abu Raya, Khader_Khalayla and Khadija_Shawahneh (Sakhnin), Mohsen Taha (Kafr Kana), Rafat_Zuhairi (Nour Shams camp, fell in Taibe in the Triangle), in addition about 50 people were wounded and 300 detainees.
For fifty years, Arab Palestinians in Israel commemorate the Land Day, in pride and remembrance of this glorious day when “the people decided to strike.” In the last years, Land Day has spread from a local day of the Palestinians in Israel, to the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian diaspora and international solidarity movements, a process which expresses the importance of the unified struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people for land and their Sumud near and far, the struggle continues.
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