Land Day
What is land? It is a piece of the Earth to call home.
Today marks the 50th Commemoration of Land Day. It honors the six Palestinian citizens of Israel who were killed by Israeli soldiers and police in the Galilee on March 30, 1976, as they peacefully protested the confiscation of Palestinian land as part of the state’s effort to Judaize the area. For Palestinians, every day is Land Day, because every day Israel seizes more Palestinian land, takes more Palestinians lives.
For Palestinians, land is everything because Zionism as an ideology seeks to take their land, rename it, and claim it as their own. Zionists are determined to take not only Palestine, but parts of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia as I have outlined in my essay From the River to the Sea. Zionists have no intention of sharing the land. And as we are witnessing each and every day, in order to control the land, and the region for that matter, they are willing to destroy it.
Look at Gaza! Look at Lebanon! Look at Iran! We have already seen what happened to Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Iraq. Now we see how Zionism is dragging the US and its allies right along with it, coerced through the double-edged sword of self defense and antisemitism. This rampage is justified through a ‘unique entitlement’ as Chris Hedges so brilliantly laid out in his recent presentation at Princeton University entitled “Iran and Gaza are Only the Beginning.”
No one who loves the land could poison it, deface it, erase its history. Palestine is a special place that has supported people’s lives and livelihood for millennia as the Land of Canaan. It is a place to honor, cherish, celebrate. It is holy to the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and sacred to so many others. It is also the birthplace of agriculture and a crossroads of civilization. Palestinians are not only a reflection of that rich cultural diversity, they are the stewards of the land.
Notice how Palestinians can name every hill and valley, how they can point to their ancestors over generations, how they cannot imagine being anywhere else. Notice how they invite you to have tea and can tell you stories hundreds of years old passed down from generation to generation. Notice how they share their love for the land by treating you to a feast where every ingredient is grown in that landscape. Notice how their food nourishes the body, the soul. That is Palestine. That is what Palestinians offer the world. The continuity of our heritage as human beings.
Now look what has become of Palestine! Instead of one of the top destinations to share in that heritage, Palestine is under fire for over a century — since the birth of Zionism, elevated by the greed and arrogance of imperial powers who provide both weapons and diplomatic cover for their crimes. Those nations that have held up beacons of democracy, freedom, international law, and justice have fully embraced fascism, subjugation, suppression, and criminality in all its forms.
More and more people see through the lies, the manipulation, the abandonment of all principles of decency. More and more people are horrified, outraged, and disgusted by the behavior of world leaders. More and more people are calling them out, finding the courage and clarity to name this moment, demand accountability, even at great risk to themselves and their families. We know better. We demand dignity.
What can you do? Help Palestinians stay on their land and you protect our heritage. Even more important, you bring peace to the world. Ask yourself what Zionism has brought us. It has brought out the worst of what it means to be human. Death. Destruction. Torture. Maiming. The explicit intent is erasure. And with no regret. Actually with glee. From leaders to soldiers to most people in the street, there is no room in a theocratic ethno-nationalist Jewish supremest state for Palestinians.
That arrogance is playing out not only in Palestine, but around the world. It will come for you unless we stand together and push back on the absurdity of the moment. And before you call me an antisemite, know that more and more Jews are speaking out against this perverse conflation of Zionism with Judaism. “Not in our name” is their battle cry and the battle is over the narrative. They demand a stop to occupation, apartheid, and genocide. They demand the Right of Return for Palestinians. They uphold the right of Palestinians to live with dignity in their homeland. Anything less is weaponization of the Holocaust.