Land Day
Arab citizens of Israel strike against land expropriations in the Galilee, and six are killed by Israeli security forces.
- The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel — Ilan Pappé, Yale University Press (2011)
- The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood — Rashid Khalidi, Beacon Press (2006)
The roughly 150,000 Arabs who stayed in Israel in 1948 became citizens but lived under military government until 1966, and much of their land was taken by the state. In 1976 the government announced the expropriation of thousands more dunams in the Galilee as part of a plan to increase the Jewish population there. Arab leaders called a general strike for 30 March. In clashes with police and soldiers in Sakhnin, Arraba, Deir Hanna and other towns, six Arab citizens were killed and many wounded.
- The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel — Ilan Pappé, Yale University Press (2011)
- The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood — Rashid Khalidi, Beacon Press (2006)
The land was needed to develop the Galilee for all its residents, and the strike was illegal unrest.
- The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel — Ilan Pappé, Yale University Press (2011)
Why it matters today
Land Day was the moment Palestinian citizens of Israel, cut off from the rest of their people since 1948, asserted a shared identity. It is marked every 30 March by Palestinians everywhere.