Today, April 5, 2019, we want to commemorate Palestinian Land Day and the end of the demonstrations of the Great March for the Return of Palestinian Refugees and the World Days against Apartheid in Israel.
30 March: Palestine Land Day.
On March 30, 1976, Palestinian society called a general strike in protest of Israel’s continued theft of their land. The Zionist army killed seven young Palestinians with “Israeli citizenship,” who were demonstrating to stop the confiscation of 2,100 hectares of Palestinian land by Israel to build Jewish settlements and a military training camp.
Since then, every March 30 commemorates the struggle of the Palestinian people by planting an olive tree as a sign of the demand for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to the Palestinian Land and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
The process of colonization and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian Land has not ceased since then. 43 years later, Israel has expanded its illegal colonies to all the occupied Palestinian territories, using all kinds of military and civilian infrastructure, such as the horrendous Apartheid Wall, illegal colonies and racist laws.
It has deprived tens of thousands of Palestinian families, including East Jerusalem, of access to their land and forced them to abandon their homes.
In Israel, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are discriminated against. They have not been able to return to their villages and many of them still live in unrecognised villages, without public services of any kind. Bedouin families are harassed and forcibly displaced.
All these practices are contrary to international law and human rights and have been condemned by the United Nations. In the last year, more than 256 Palestinians have been killed, 35 children among them and more than 29,000 people injured, more than 6,000 with live ammunition shots, intentionally, by the Israeli Zionist army in demonstrations held on Fridays to demand their return.
U.S. imperialism, with Trump at its head, has broken the international consensus and the resolutions of the United Nations with the decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and in recent days, recognizing as belonging to Israel the Golan Heights stolen from Syria.
The United Nations does not recognise this and has condemned Israel’s military actions, based on the report of its international observers.
At the time of writing, the Israeli Army is bombing Gaza, destroying infrastructure and buildings in order to favour the re-election of Netanyahu, who has been discredited for corruption.
For all these reasons, in commemoration of Palestine Land Day and the end of the Great March of Return and against Apartheid, we want:
- To denounce that the colonization of Palestine, the demolitions of houses and infrastructures, the usurpation of land and the pillage of Palestinian resources, the murders, arbitrary detentions, tortures, and a long etcetera, have not only not ceased, but have increased. That US imperialism with Trump at its head, in contravention of the resolutions and mandates of the United Nations, legitimizes and encourages this outrage.
- Demand the Central, Autonomous and Local Governments and their parliamentarians to take all measures in their power to punish Israel for its crimes and its violation of international law, prohibiting access to products from occupied Palestinian territories and ceasing the arms trade and police and military cooperation with Israel. Also the active non-cooperation with the laundering of the Zionist regime of Israel, not receiving its authorities or not facilitating the economic and cultural exchange of events or artists who practice Zionism and contribute to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
- Call on social movements and organizations, trade unions and political parties, artists, academics, industrial and agricultural business to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns against Israel. In this sense, we salute the solidarity of the workers and the Basque railway construction company CAF for rejecting the tramway project that passed through occupied Palestinian lands.
PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE!
RETURN OF THE REFUGEES!
NO TO ZIONISM AND IMPERIALISM!
LONG LIVE A FREE PALESTINE!
Organised by BDS Murcia (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction)
Supported by:
- Collective of Organizations in Solidarity with the Palestinian People
- Internationalist Anti-imperialist Front (FAI) Region of Murcia