On March 30th, 1976, thousands of Palestinians marched from the northern region of Galilee all the way down to Negev in the south, protesting the Israeli government’s decision to steal a massive amount of Palestinian owned land. Before the decision had been made to forcibly displace the remaining Palestinian population, Palestinians already faced discrimination and intimidation for taking up space that the Israeli government wanted to steal for settlements. During this fateful demonstration, six Palestinians were murdered by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). The anniversary of this demonstration is celebrated every year as Land Day, a reminder to Israel and the world that Palestinians are still fighting for their right to their ancestral home.

This past Friday, March 30th, 2018, over a thousand Palestinians returned and marched towards the illegal settlements occupying their land in a march of return. The day before the demonstration, the IDF set up barbed wire fences to lock the protesters in. Around 200 Israeli snipers shot live rounds into the crowed of marchers, shooting 400 people, many of which are in critical condition, and killing 16 people. The number of casualties will continue to grow as time passes and more people are discovered or pass away due to their wounds. The names available of those martyred are:

Wahid Nasrallah Abu Sammour, age 27

Mohammed Kamal Najjar, age 25

Mohammed Naim Abu Amro. Age 27

Amin Mansour Abu Moammar, age unconfirmed

Ibrahim Abu Sha’ar, age 22

Abdul-Fattah Bahjat Abdul-Nabi, age 18

Mahmoud Sa’adi Rohmi. Age 33

Sari Waleed Abu Odah, age unconfirmed

Hamdan Ismael Abu Amsha, age unconfirmed

Jihad Ahmad Freina, age 34

Ahmad Ibrahim Ashour Odah, age 16

Abdul-Qader Merdhi al-Hawarjri, age 42

Jihad Zoheir Abu Jamous, age 30

In Charlotte our supporters are involved in Palestinian solidarity organizing, engaging in education events about the incarceration of Ahed Tamimi, al-Nakba, the history of Zionism, and the history of Palestinian resistance. This is important to do on a campus where Zionism is rampant, and organizations recruit students to attend birthright trips to Israel. Currently, our solidarity with the Palestinian people is on an educational basis but their struggle deserves for our solidarity to be taken to stronger levels of concentration. Communists in the imperialist core need to be leading the active boycott against buying Israeli made goods funding the occupation, make distinct connections between the plight of Palestinians and all oppressed, colonized and displaced people around the world to awaken the masses for revolution in this country.

Every year since 1976, exiled Palestinians commemorate and remember the martyrs of their struggle for land and national liberation. Every Land Day demonstration Palestinians have been murdered and attacked by Israeli forces. Palestinians still come out in the thousands, knowing that their fight for return to ancestral lands can end in death. To many Palestinians, death is freedom; freedom to die on their land while fighting the occupation in a final act of resistance, to die for the struggle of your people’s liberation. The Palestinian people’s connection to their homeland is the driving force behind their national liberation struggle. Survivors of the first acts of occupation and al-Nakba are still fighting for a free Palestine. There are people who were born and raised by the dead sea, now barred from setting foot on the beach, not able to get close without risking being shot by the border or outside of check points. These are justifications of why the Land Day demonstrations have not and will not stop until every Palestinian refugee and descendent can enter their homeland as a free independent nation of Palestine.

FREE FREE PALESTINE!

FREE GAZA AND THE WEST BANK!

SUPPORT THE RIGHT TO RETURN!

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!

–Red Guards Charlotte, April 2018