In Commemoration of the Anniversary of Land Day

"We Learn the Lessons from our Past and Design our Tools for the Struggle for a Better Future"

Statement issued by Ittijah, the Union of Palestinian NGOs in 1948 Palestine/Israel, March 2000 The 24th anniversary of the Land Day is the best occasion to contemplate the impact of this historical day in our people's history, our points of weakness and strength, our identity, our institutions, and our responsibility towards ourselves and towards our people.

This anniversary symbolizes and embodies a major station in our people's struggle. The 1976 Land Day is considered as a qualitative step toward the crystallization of the role of the Palestinian minority in Israel in the struggle, although it was neither the first nor the last day in our fight against the ruling Israeli establishment and its discriminatory, repressive policies in place since the 1948 Nakba. Our struggle is a struggle for the Palestinian national issues, and a struggle for the collective rights of a minority who wants to live with honor in its land. Land Day proves the power of our people, if they decide - as institutions and leadership - to opt for struggle in order to achieve our collective rights and the rights of the whole Palestinian people.

This year's anniversary comes at a time when the Palestinian people face one of the most difficult challenges since 1948, i.e. the final status negotiations in which Israel is trying to impose its domination in order to liquidate our just cause. Israel is engaged in an effort to dictate a solution, which is restricted to settling the issues created by the 1967 war. Ignoring the principles of justice,  srael acts as if the conflict started in 1967, and not in 1948 when Israel was established at the expense of our people, who were displaced and maderefugees either outside or inside the homeland.  Their towns and villages were destroyed, and their economic, social and institutional fabric was torn apart.
The final solution is important to all Palestinians. The right of return belongs to them collectively and individually, and no one has the right to present it for bargain. The right to self-determination is the right of all Palestinians. There will be no durable and accepted solution without the return of those who wish to return and fair compensation to all Palestinian refugees.

We call upon the Palestinian people inside Israel, institutions, individuals and groups, to do their best to achieve our rights. We must not limit our battle on Land Day to the demand for equality. Our battle is a battle for all our national rights, for institutional continuity and for the development of a collective perspective guided by  our national rights as defined by international law and natural justice. If we remain mere spectators to the final solution, we will not only fail to live up to our political and moral obligation and duty towards our people, but we will also not fulfill our role in preventing Israel from imposing unjust solutions.

Today, the land remaining in Arab hands is less than 3% of the Israeli "state land". t remains threatened by confiscation, either under the pretext of the need for a trans-Israel highway or as a part of longterm projects for the "development" of the Galilee and of efforts to deprive the Arab inhabitants of al-Naqab (Negev) of their land by re-settling them in restricted residential areas. Under the slogan of privatization, moreover, public land confiscated in 1948, including the Islamic Waqf land, is being transferred to private, individual and collective, Jewish property by means of discriminatory laws. The Israeli state seeks to keep these properties for the Jewish people and to prevent any possibility to raise them in the framework of a final status solution.

The phenomenon of "unrecognized" Palestinian communities are yet another example illustrating the role and purpose of the repressive Israeli establishment. We as Palestinian NGOs hold that the aims of our struggle will never be achieved, if the struggle is limited to parliamentary and legal work. We are convinced that popular struggle must remain the basic dimension. It is necessary to break the rules of the game which are imposed on us by the Israeli ruling establishment, and to work for the internationalization of the issues of the Palestinian minority, beyond past efforts at awarenessraising about the Palestinian national issues, efforts which have been partially successful in the past decade.

The current challenges require the development of our tools of struggle and a review of the structure of our representative institutions. We need to build new ones, and to reshape the old ones, in order to guarantee the transformation of our institutions into efficient and effective tools for the promotion of our collective struggle in defense of our land, our existence, as well as many other national rights.

Yes to the public strike and widest popular participation!
Yes to the empowerment of our Palestinian institutional identity!
Let's work on the occasion of this anniversary for the reconstruction of the struggle program of our people and institutions.