Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Manhattan, New York City – Every March 30, Palestinians commemorate Land Day, in honor of the Indigenous Palestinian resistance.
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Palestinians and allies of Palestine gathered in front of the office of “Friends of the IDF” on 60 East 42 Street in Manhattan. After the rally, they marched to different Zionist organizations in Manhattan.
Activists say, “This year’s Land Day builds off the unity built by the Unity Intifada in Spring 2021, as Palestinians continue to resist zionist attempts to colonize Palestine. Once again, we see the displacement in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and al-Naqab met with massive collective action across all Palestine.”
On March 30, 1976, Israeli police murdered six Palestinian civilians, injured 96 and arrested 300 while they were protesting further expropriation of Palestinian land. Since that date, March 30 has been commemorated as Land Day, in honor of Indigenous resilience.
Activists demand “to defund and shutdown tax-exempt zionist “charities” in New York that are funding settler organizations in Palestines.”
“No more tax breaks for settler colonialism, ethnic cleaning and genocide!,” they say.
According to the organization Within Our Lifetime, “Palestinians commemorate Land Day in honor of the struggle against israeli violence and oppression and toward Palestinian liberation and self-determination.
Since 1948, Israel has confiscated more than 80% of the land within the Green Line, much of wich was stolen from Nakba refugees.
Since 1967, Israel has stolen over 750,000 acres of land in the West Bank and Gaza. Land theft is used to expand settlements and militarize Palestinian space.
Today Palestinian land theft continues on both sides of the Green Line, with settlement expansion in the Nagab, East Jerusalem, South Hebron, and the Jordan Valley.
Settler-colonialism is marked by an elimination of the native and an expropiation of land and resources. The state, organizations, and settlers work hand-on-glove to coordinate these efforts.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network says on samidoun.net, “We mark the 46th Palestinian Land Day on 30 March 2022. This day is an occasion to celebrate, intensify and uphold Palestinian resistance to Zionism, colonialism, apartheid and occupation, recalling those whose lives have been stolen in defense of the land and people of Palestine, and to organize and struggle for return and liberation, from the river to the sea. As the Palestinian people continue to rise up and take action in resistance to defend their people and liberate their land, the Day of the Land is not only an anniversary but a day of living struggle to uproot colonialism from Palestine.”
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Some chants were:
- “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! If we don’t get it? Shut it down!”
- “Judaism YES! Zionism NO! The State of Israel Must GO!”
- “Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want Zionists here.”
- “It is right to rebel, Israel go to hell!”
- “Not another nickel! Not another dime! No more money for israel’s crimes!” (Democrat and republican politicians in the United States of America give Israel around 4 billion dollars a year).”
- “Settlers, settlers go back home, Palestine is ours alone!”
- “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”
- “Resistance is justified, when people are occupied!”
- “From New York to Gaza, Globalize the intifada!”
- “We will free Palestine within Our Lifetime!”
- “Whose streets? Our streets!” “Whose land? Our land!”
- “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!”
- “Intifada, intifada, long live the intifada!”
Press release by Within Our Lifetime
“Yesterday, March 30th, hundreds of people took to the streets of Manhattan to commemorate Land Day and protest against tax-exempt zionist “charities” in NYC that are actively funding settler organizations in Palestine.
Starting outside the “Friends of the IDF” HQ on 42nd St., we marched through midtown Manhattan on a walking tour of some these zionist “charities” including the “Central Fund of Israel” and “Friends of Ateret Cohanim,” with speakers from WOL, @samidoun_nynj and @palestinianyouthmovement highlighting how these organizations are directly complicit in the daily colonization, ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians from al-Quds to Masafer Yatta to al-Naqab.
As part of the #DefundRacism campaign, WOL mobilized with Samidoun and PYM and was joined by @existenceisresistance, @decolonizethisplace, @cunylawsjp @cunylaw_nlg @bc_sjp @nyboricuaresistance, Neturei Karta and youth from across the city.
Beyond calling for the dismantling of these tax-exempt zionist organizations, the #DefundRacism demands include ending ALL US military aid to the zionist entity and upholding the right of return for all Palestinian refugees.
Outside of NYC, Land Day protests were also held in recent days in Vancouver, Albuquerque, San Francisco, South Florida, Paris and São Paulo, with demonstrations and commemorations also taking place across Palestine.
To learn more about how you can take action and get involved in the campaign to #DefundRacism, visit defundracism.org“
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network said on Facebook, “Land Day in New York City! Hundreds march in Manhattan on Palestinian Land Day to challenge settler-funding Zionist organizations. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea!”
Jews of the organization Neturei Karta attended the demonstration.
In an interview, Rabbi Dovid Feldman said: “Today is Land Day, commemorated by the Palestinian people because of one of the incidents which happened to the Palestinian people throughout the history of these decades of this Zionist occupation in Palestine.
We are standing here in front of the offices of the Friends of the IDF because we are upset as people from the United States, from New York, and myself and my group here as Jewish people – we are upset about what is happening in Palestine already for decades. We are so upset about what the IDF is doing, about what the Friends of the IDF are funding. Because we realize that what is happening is wrong. Because we realize that this is criminal. And on top of this it is against our religion, because this whole concept of Jewish nationalism happens to be in total contradiction to Jewish teachings. This was never accepted for the past 2000 years, among serious Jewish people. This is a new concept which has violated the Jewish religion and at the same time oppressed so many people.
And as Jewish people let me say, in the name of so many other Jewish people behind me here at this rally and in the United States and worldwide: we are embarrassed that all of this is happening supposedly in our name, in the name of the Jewish people. The state of Israel is not a Jewish state, should never be considered a Jewish state, and should never be legitimized in any way because they call it “the Jewish state”.
It is a criminal state. It’s an anti-Jewish state. It’s against Judaism, against humanity. The Jewish leaders from the very beginning opposed it, masses of Jewish people and their leadership still oppose it to the present day. Sadly, all of this is happening supposedly in my name and in the name of my people.
I am standing here in public making this statement saying, no, this is not Judaism. This is not the representation of Judaism. One of our banners says, “The state of Israel does not represent world Jewry”. And that’s an important point. But I want to make very clear it’s not only Land Day that is the issue.
It’s not only a part of the occupation that is the issue. It is the entire occupation is totally wrong. It’s wrong according to international law. It’s a wrong being done to the Palestinian people. And it’s a violation of Judaism”.
In a speech addressing the public, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss said: “Zionism is a transformation of Judaism from subservience to God, from the acceptance of the Jewish religion to a simple material, political selfish movement. There is no other translation of this movement of Zionism and the Zionist state of Israel. There is no other meaning to it. We will not accept it.”
“Zionism is a move, a creation of a political, selfish movement that started a little over a hundred years ago. And they are using and abusing God’s people and our religion to intimidate and to stifle and silence the voice of the human rights activists and people who will not accept the occupation of innocent people – that is why they are using my identity, and we will not be silent.”
“There’s no question about coexistence. Many of these young Jewish people here are children and grandchildren of the people who lived in Palestine. And we have many people who can attest, both from the Jewish community and the Palestinian community, the Arab Palestinian community, who can attest to this coexistence before there was a concept of human rights activists to watch human rights, because it was never necessary. It was the simple coexistence of God’s creations together.”
“In the occupied lands of Palestine, the Jewish brothers and sisters are beaten daily and they are arrested and they are treated like animals. That’s what they do with my brothers and sisters because they refuse to accept the occupation and they simply stand on the street. You can’t accuse them of being terrorists.
They don’t have guns, yet they beat them. They arrest them. They refuse to accept the Zionist control of Palestine. We, the people of the Torah, our religion, because we are Jews, refuse to accept the occupation over even one inch of that Holy Land.”
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Updated on 4/2/2022.
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