On 30th April 1976, Palestinian residents in the town of Sakhnin held a march against the confiscation of Arab land close to the town as a part of the Israel’s policy of building Jewish settlements. It was one of a number of protests that day against the taking of land for settlements, including those in 5 other villages in Galilee.
Israeli police attacked the protesters in Sakhnin and shot and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel, injuring hundreds of others. Since then March 30th has been known as Land Day and commemorated as showing the collective steadfast Palestinian resistance to colonisation by Israel.
Palestinians in London hold protests on Land Day calling for freedom, justice and equality for all Palestinians, usually on Land Day itself or close to it. Often these protests have also been linked with other events taking place in Palestine and sometimes those elsewhere. Back in 2002, Palestinians took part in the CND and Stop the War demonstration against the invasion of Iraq and a US military ‘Star Wars’ programme
Land Day in 2018 came at the start of a six week period of regular peaceful protests demanding the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes and villages, ‘The Great March of Return’, and the world was horrified as videos showed Israel Defence Force snipers in position on the wall firing on unarmed protesters several hundred yards using live ammunition – and Israeli citizens who had came to watch the slaughter. On Land Day itself 17 Civilians were killed in the massacre and over 750 seriously injured by live fire, with others injured by rubber bullets and tear gas.
As well as some protests on Land Day itself, this prompted a larger emergency protest close to the Israeli embassy condemning the cold-blooded shooting by the Israeli army of peaceful protesters near the separation wall in Gaza on the following day.
A larger protest took place on the first anniversary of the 2018 massacre and the continuing shootings during the six weeks of the Great Return March, in which Israeli soldiers killed over 250 unarmed protesters and severely injured thousands.
As often at protests calling for justice in Palestine a small group of Zionists came to shout insults and mock the Palestinians and their demands for freedom.
They were always outnumbered by Jewish campaigners who came in support of the Palestinian cause, and the protests are often joined by a small but very photogenic group of ultra-orthodox Neturei Karta Jews who reject Zionism and walk down from Stamford Hill to show their support for the Palestinian cause.
On My London Diary for 2018 and 2019:
Against Israeli Land Day massacre 2018
Land Day protest against Israeli state 2018
Freedom, justice & equality for Palestinians 2019
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.