Six Palestinians Killed as Israel Suppresses Land Day Protests
Israeli Arabs strike against land expropriations, marking first coordinated political action by Palestinians inside Israel since 1948.
NAZARETH - Israeli security forces killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel and wounded dozens today during widespread protests against government land expropriations, in what organizers called “Land Day”—the first coordinated political action by Palestinians within Israel since 1948.
The general strike and demonstrations, organized by Palestinian mayors and activists, protested the government’s plan to expropriate 20,000 dunams of Arab-owned land in the Galilee for Jewish settlement development.
The worst violence occurred in the villages of Sakhnin, Arraba, and Kafr Kanna, where Israeli police and army units used live ammunition against stone-throwing protesters. Among the dead were a 15-year-old boy and a woman killed inside her home by a stray bullet.
“They treat us as enemies in our own homeland,” said Tawfiq Zayyad, Communist mayor of Nazareth and protest organizer. “We are citizens paying taxes but receiving discrimination and bullets.”
The strike achieved near-total participation in Arab towns and villages, with schools, shops, and transportation shut down. This unprecedented unity among Israel’s 500,000 Palestinian citizens—20% of the population—signals their growing political consciousness.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin defended the harsh response: “We will not tolerate lawlessness. The development of the Galilee is a national priority that will proceed.”
The land expropriations are part of the “Judaization of the Galilee” policy aimed at increasing Jewish presence in the Arab-majority region. Palestinians see it as continuing the dispossession that began in 1948.
“We stayed on our land when others fled in 1948,” explained Sakhnin resident Ahmad Masalha. “Now they want to take what little remains. Where can we go?”
The events shatter illusions about Arab-Jewish coexistence within Israel. Palestinian citizens, formally equal under law, face systematic discrimination in land allocation, development budgets, and municipal services.
Land Day may mark a turning point, as Palestinians inside Israel increasingly identify with the broader Palestinian struggle while asserting their rights as citizens. The government’s violent response suggests deep anxieties about the demographic and political challenge they represent.
Tonight, as families mourn their dead, Palestinian communities across Israel are united in grief and anger, forging a collective identity that transcends village and clan loyalties.