Today is Land Day!

Miftah has a good description of Land Day:

Land Day, known as ‘Youm al-Ard’ in Arabic, commemorates the bloody killing of six Palestinians in the Galilee on March 30, 1976 by Israeli troops during peaceful protests over the confiscation of Palestinian lands.
It has since become a painful reminder of Israeli injustice and oppression against the Palestinian people, and a day for demonstration linking all Palestinians in their struggle against occupation, self-determination and national liberation.

This is one of the highlights in the Palestinian national calendar, along with the 29th of November (Nakba Day), and September 13th (Sabra and Shatila anniversary). Land Day is special though; it's the unique contribution of Palestinians in Israel, sometimes called '48 Arabs, who suffered for years as the forgotten and marginalized Palestinians.

Some argued that they were guilty of remaining in Palestine, or that by remaining they had compromised their honor, or that the comprimises made just to survive as a minority in the Jewish state had made them less authentically Palestinian. In the 1970s, they gained much political freedom, as the military rule they lived under during the 60s was lifted, while at the same time they could have much more interaction with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

One result was a ferment among the younger generation, who grew up in the shadow of the Nakba, but were not of age themselves when it took place. By 1976 this ferment had taken the form of a widespread fightback against Israel's continued land expropriations of Arab land for the explicit purpose of building Jews-only towns and villages.

Of course, the struggle didn't begin in 1976, but it represented a major political and social achievement. The Communist Party of Israel had successfully peeled away enough of the Palestinian population into grassroots political coalitions that it emerged as the dominant force in Palestinian politics until the 90s. As the Communist Party (later part of Hadash, a coalition parliamentary faction) was in support of a two state solution, Israeli Palestinians can justly claim to being the leaders of the diplomatic effort.

After all, they stood firm for this solution when large majorities of both Israeli Jews and Palestinians outside of Israel rejected it. Even today, as efforts are underway to argue against the two state solution, all of the parties that Palestinians vote for in the Knesset are formally committed to it.

Here's a list of actions related to today.

I can say with pride that I've demonstrated a number of times to commemorate Land Day, in Taibeh, Nazareth, and Um al-Fahm (the heroes of Land Day in 1976). As the years went by, it was sad to see the unity of 1976 by open hostility between the Muslim Brotherhood followers and the Hadash folks. Not sure what it's been like recently though. If you have any links to good reporting about today from Israel or Palestine, put something in the comments section.