Israeli Arabs hold protest ahead of Land Day

Protests show solidarity for prisoners, commemorate deaths of six Arabs in 1976 demonstration against Israeli land confiscation.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Palestinian flag/protest good illustrative 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
Palestinian flag/protest good illustrative 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
Israeli Arabs held a protest in support of Palestinian security prisoners outside Megiddo Prison on Thursday.
They held banners showing solidarity with the prisoners and demanding their release. The Monitoring Committee of the Israeli Arab Leadership organized the rally.
Khaled an-Naftawi, a political activist involved in the prisoner issue, told the The Jerusalem Post three protests are being held this year in honor of Land Day, which is held on March 30 to commemorate the deaths of six Galilee Arabs in 1976 riots over a government decision to confiscate land.
The next protest will be on Friday in Taibe, in the Triangle region, and on Land Day on Saturday, there will be one in Sakhnin in the Western Galilee.
Awad Abderfattah, the secretary-general of the Balad Party who was at the demonstration at Megiddo Prison, told the Post the protests were meant to show solidarity for the prisoners, with emphasis on those on hunger strikes.
The goal, he said, was to “identify with our struggle for freedom and independence, and to show we are part of the Palestinian people.”
Abderfattah went on to add that the Palestinians “are subject to an apartheid regime.”
Land Day, explained Abderfattah, was also important because “the land confiscation continues and is even escalating and we feel threatened because eventually we will be kicked out of our land, which will probably lead to war and violence.”
Many of the Israeli Arab news websites reported on the protest at Megiddo Prison and posted pictures of Israeli Arab politicians and community leaders who attended them.