Summary

The March 1976 general strike and demonstrations organised jointly by Rakah and Abna’ al-Balad against discrimination and land confiscation, at which police killed six unarmed protesters, as recounted in Chapter 10 of Rethinking Statehood in Palestine (PDF p.277).

Details

  • The massive turnout and outrage over the killings led to greater politicisation among Palestinians inside the Green Line and made the communist-nationalist debates more visible (PDF p.277).

  • Land Day, with Nakba Day, is among the commemorations a more assertive generation spearheads (PDF p.284).

  • In Stateless Citizenship (2013), March 30, 1976 was the first-ever national general strike since 1948, in response to a government-approved expropriation plan affecting around 20,000 dunums of Palestinian-owned land in the Galilee between Sakhnin and Arrabah; army units, police and border guards were deployed, six Palestinian citizens were killed, around one hundred were injured and many more arrested, and March 30 has since been commemorated as Land Day by Palestinians everywhere (PDF p.30-31).

Rethinking Statehood in Palestine, Rakah, Abna’ al-Balad