Land Day

What is the land? How valuable is the land? Is it easy to give up the land? 

It’s not just any piece of land, our father’s and grandfather’s land. They were born there, and they planted it with their bare hands. They waited for their crops to grow, and anticipated the harvest season impatiently. They lived on the land and lived off of it too. Until one day tanks and planes took over the land, they kicked the people off the land and claimed that it was their own. People were alarmed, and had no choice but to abandon their oranges and leave.  

Before the establishment of the Israeli State, 75% of the Palestinians made their living off the land.  After the Palestinian exodus and the effects of the 1948 Arab-Israel war, land continued to play an important role in the lives of the 156,000 Palestinian Arabs who remained on their land, serving as the source of honor and pride.  The Israeli government adopted the “Law of Return” to smooth the progress of Jewish immigration; as a result many Jews are occupying the land and living on it. The Israeli government encouraged the Jews to move to Palestine and to live there in especially built settlements on the land.    

Absentees’ Property Law

 This law transferred the property rights of absentee owners to a government-appointed Custodian of Absentee Property.  This legalized the confiscation of lands belonging to Palestinians who fled or were expelled from the area in 1948. The number of absentees from among 1.2 million Palestinians is estimated in 2001 to be 200,000 or some 20% of the total Palestinian Arab population.

During the Six Day war of 1976, many citizens were killed, hundreds were wounded, and plenty arrested.  In addition to that, the Israeli forces took hold of hundreds of acres of land. They took the land that belongs to our ancestors, they took our olives and oranges, and they mistreated our history. On March 30^th, we honor our land, and we teach the young generations to honor the land as well.

For the Palestinians, Land Day has become a day of honor and tribute to those who have fallen in the struggle over the past decades to hold onto their land and identity. Our grandparents talk about the land, they talk about their trees, and they talk about the well. They pass on their memories and past to us, hoping that we value and appreciate them and pass them on to the coming generations. 

Written by: Hoor Al-Amin, 10

With the help of: Leen Kurdi, 8