Known as Land Day, March 30 marked 32 years since six Palestinians were killed while participating in a demonstration protesting land confiscations.
On March 29, more than 1,000 Palestinians living within the 1948 borders of Israel marched through Jaffa, chanting and carrying Palestinian flags to denounce plans to demolish over 500 homes.
In the last two years, eviction orders were issued to 500 Palestinian families in Jaffa. Jaffa, located inside the Israeli state, had never been the site of a major Land Day demonstration.
In a speech, Raed Salah, the head of a Palestinian Muslim organization inside the 1948 borders declared, “They asked me why we came here. We didn’t come—we’ve always been here. We’re staying here. … Every stone [of] every house was here and it’s ours. Every speck of dust belongs to us. We won’t go away. We’ve lived and [will] die here.”
