March 30: Land Day

Israeli Arabs declared a general strike, “Land Day,” throughout Israel on this date in 1976 to protest the expropriation of land in the Galilee “for purposes of security and settlement.” According to Ori Nir in Ha’aretz, only a third of the land in question was Arab-owned, but the expropriation was accurately seen as part of a general “Judaization” of the Galilee and other regions of Israel. More than 4,000 Israeli police, as well as soldiers and helicopter units, were mobilized to contain the demonstrations, and six Israeli Arabs were shot dead in the course of rioting. Land Day has become an annual day of protest and commemoration throughout the Palestinian community; some observances have been peaceful, others have been violent or met with Israeli government violence during times of intifadah or periods of war. Among the Jewish responses to the original Land Day was a peacemaking trip to Israel by Rabbi Bruce M. Cohen of Mishkan Israel in New Haven, CT; Cohen joined forces with an Israeli Arab, Farhat Agbaria, to found Interns for Peace.

“[T]he Ministry of Agriculture openly declared that its primary purpose was to alter the demographic nature of Galilee in order to create a Jewish majority in the area.” —Nayef Hawatmen