The Silwan Popular Committee* invites the general public—Palestinian and Israeli—to participate in a protest march against house demolitions and land confiscations, and in commemoration of the 33rd Land Day (30 March) on Saturday, 28 March at 6.00 pm.
Enough of transfer! Enough to demolitions! Enough of settlements!
No to Jerusalem of occupation and discrimination, yes to Jerusalem as the capital of two peoples!
On 30 March 1976, 28 years after the deportation of a majority of the Palestinians from their homeland, and ten years after the annulment of the Israeli military government, which was imposed on Palestinian areas from 1948-1966, the Palestinian public in Israel declared “Land Day” as a day of general strike, and as protest of the Israeli policies of confiscations of Arab land in general (a policy resulting in a reduction of private ownership of land by Palestinians from 96% in 1948 to 20% in 1976 and to approximately 4% today) and the confiscation of the “Almal land” (area 9)—almost 21,000 dunam from Palestinian villages including of Arabe, Sahknin and Deir Hanna in order to create Jewish areas (mitzpehs) as part of the plan to “Judaise the Galilee”.
Various Israeli security forces attempted to prevent the strike, utilizing threats of being fired from places of employment, preventative detentions and during the night prior to the strike, attacking demonstrators and passers-by in various Galilee towns, killing six Palestinians, wounding tens and detaining hundreds.
The 33rd Land Day will occur at a time when the Israeli policies of land confiscation and house demolitions are increasing. Each week, tens of homes in the “unrecognized” Palestinian-Bedouin villages of the Naqab are destroyed; approximately 500 homes of Palestinian families in Jaffa are under threat with the excuse of “illegal construction”.
Since the election of Nir Barkat as Jerusalem mayor, the Jerusalem Municipality has increased its demolition of homes in occupied East Jerusalem. This, and in accordance with plans of settler associations Elad and Ateret Hacohenim, Barkat is now attempting to bring about the total destruction of the Bustan neighborhood of the Silwan village, where 1,500 residents live in approximately 88 homes, and to establish in their stead an “archaeological park”. As the Bustan neighborhood, like all neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, has no master plan, its residents requested to submit a detailed alternative plan for development of the area, but the Jerusalem Municipality and its Planning Committee rejected this proposal outright, refusing to even discuss it. With this plan, the Jerusalem Municipality is attempting to implement the largest deportation of Palestinians from the city since the 1967 occupation.
On 28 Marc 2009, on the eve of the 33rd Land Day commemoration, we will join hands in solidarity with the residents of East Jerusalem in general and the neighborhood of Bustan in general, and will participate in a demonstration organized by the Silwan Popular Committee, in protest and opposition to the Jerusalem Municipality plans to destroy Bustan.
*The event is held in cooperation with the Alternative Information Center, Bat Shalom, Combatants for Peace, Communist Party of Israel, Hadash, Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, and the Women’s Coalition for Peace.
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