ISRAELI STATE
We came with people from the neighboring In a trailor hitched our host family's tractor we went on the field that was fought over 11 years ago. It was a dizzying ride past the beautiful hills with an overwhelming
THE REVIVAL of resistance on the West Bank in recent months has shown again in an increasingly dramatic way that in 20 years of occupation and repression, the Zionist rulers have not been able to definitively smash the Palestinian people. The occupation looks more and more like a time bomb for the international capitalist order, like apartheid in South Africa.
The Palestinian mass resistance has been focused around the question of defending the land. Eleven years ago, on March 30, 1976,
Palestinians successfully fought back against the expropriation of land by the Jewish state. That battle was seen as marking a turning point, when Palestinians refused to be pushed any further.
Since then, the anniversary of that struggle, March 30, the Day of the Land, has been the major political date in the Palestinian political calender. This year, in the context of the new rise of the resistance, it took on special importance as a test of the mood of the
Palestinian people.
It also coincided with a hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners
(see back page) for such demands as the establishing of an international comission to investigate the conditions of their confinement, removal of asbestos and metal plates from prison windows, freedom of movement between cells and prison blocs, an end to collective punishments, the making of provisions so that prisoners do not have to sleep on the floor, regular medical examinations, the right to books and newspapers, and an end to the confiscation of creative works by prisoners.
The following is an article by a correspondent who attended the
Day of the Land Commemoration.in the Galilee region of the Israeli state, the area of the strongest Palestinian population within the pre-
1967 Zionist borders.
KJELL OSTBERG
On March 30, 1976, five Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded when Israeli police and soldiers opened on unarmed protestors in the towns of Sakhnin, Abrava and Dein
Hanna a few miles north of Nasareth.
The Palestinians had been demonstrating for several days against confiscation of cultivated Palestinian land in the region by the Israeli military with the obvious aim of turning it over to a nearby kibbutz.
The unexpectedly strong opposition forced the military to retreat, and marked a renewal of the Palestinian struggle against Jewish land confiscations.
"They come like thieves in the night and steal our land. But the movement like the one that started up here in the towns around Sakhnin
11 years ago is of great importance for the Palestinian resistance.
It showed us and the entire world that the Palestinians are not going to let the Jewish settlements spread without putting up a hard fight."
The mayor of Nasareth, Tawfiq Zayyed got a standing ovation from 20,000 to 30,000 Palestinians who had come to the small town of Avraba to take part in the commemoration of the Day of the Land.
They came in tens of thousands from the nearby towns, in busses from Nasareth and Akko, from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem to honor the memory of those who were murdered 11 years ago and to show the continuing power of the resistance to the land thefts.
Music, flags and banners made the rally into a big people's festival. The speech by the popular mayor and poet, Tawfio Zayed was the high point of the demonstration.
Down in the fertile valleys, the wheat was already tall, while the big olive groves on hillsides were still awaiting their fruit. From mountain side across the valley the bedouins their goats down to the town pond to water them.
"People tried with the usual methods here," Karrams said and blocked off the 'for military use' They they usually cut down the olive trees and let the land go fallow again.
"Then the military suddenly find they do not need the land. Since the land is no longer cultivated, according to Israeli law it reverts to they naturally about giving it to the kibbutz up
Karram said, looking toward the bunker-like buildings strategically placed along the crown of the hill.
"We naturally had no intention of giving up the land voluntarily. It was not 1948, when many Palestinians became demoralized for a long time. In 1976, our fighting had come back, and it took the Israelis completely by surprise.
"The whole town went out to drive away the intruders. We had no weap. ons. We used stones and homemade Molotov cocktails.
"The soldiers opened fire and in our town alone more than 20 were wounded. My brother had a bullet and remained in a serious condition in the hospital
"But we did not give up. We got reinforcements when the people in the nearby town also took up the struggle. Finally, we won, and our struggle took on a great importance for the entire Palestinian people. We are not broken."
The big rally in Avraba had been going on for hours, but masses of people kept streaming in. When contingents came in from the occupied Golan Heights, there were no limits to the rejoicing.
Students from Bir Zeit University also got great applause. This "center of Palestinian intellectual resistance" has been closed for several month during the winter by the Israeli occu pation authorities.
What Karram and his neighbors did on March 30, 1976, the Day of the Land, will never be erased from Palestinian history. It made an impact that went far beyond these Galilean towns.
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