The 30th of March of every year, Palestinians proudly express attachment and rightful entitlement to their land and national identity.
This event dates back to the year 1976 in Nazareth - Palestine, where six Palestinians were killed and 70 others were injured by Israeli forces during a protest led by hundreds of Arab citizens contesting Israel’s historical and unjustified expropriation of Palestinian lands. During the partition of Palestine in 1948, approximately 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced from their homes, and similarly in 1967 more than 300,000 Palestinians fled as their territories were captured by Israel.
Image by Hosny Salah from Pixabay
Hence, Land Day commemorates the long and turbulent struggle of the Palestinian people and provides a strong reminder of the flagrant historical and ongoing injustices of Israel.
However, despite the passing of forty-five years, much has remained the same, as Israel's restrictions and annexation policy has left hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced and unable to access hundreds of dunams of land rightfully belonging to their families.
As Israel continued to confiscate land within the occupied Palestinian territories and expand settlements aggressively, Palestinian ownership of the West Bank and East Jerusalem has fallen to under 13%.
The Geneva Institute for Human Rights affirms its stance on the right side of history, on the side of equality and justice. Within that context, the Institute appeals to the International community to play it’s part in ensuring the eradication of heinous and cruel manifestations of injustice and discrimination.
Moreover, the Institute urges States, humanitarian organizations, as well as international players to unify their voices with the Palestinian collective narrative in fighting against the brutal war crimes and land theft of Israel and ensuring compliance with the fundamental principles of international humanitarian and human rights law.
All peoples have the right to self-determination; Land Day presents an opportunity to produce resilient methods of resisting the persistent violations of human rights.
The continued war crimes are incompatible with a durable solution to conflict, hence, any political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be founded on the principles and provisions of international law.