On Wednesday, 30 March, Palestinians will commemorate the 46th Land Day. The annual commemoration of Land Day symbolizes the rootedness of Palestinians in their land. 30 March 1976 was a moment of unprecedented protest against expropriations of Palestinian land in the Galilee, in occupied Palestine ’48. Palestinian citizens of the Israeli state organized nationally to put up fierce resistance to the plan, following years of political and civil organizing against land confiscation. During these protests, six unarmed Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces and dozens more were injured. Since then, the Day of the Land has been commemorated every year by Palestinians around the world.
Land Day is a day of struggle and resistance against the continuing Nakba, land confiscations and ethnic cleansing. But as much as the Israeli regime persists in carrying out its attempt to empty Palestine of its original population and control its land, the Palestinian people are only increasingly determined to resist this settler colonial project.
This is the message that the Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine brought forward on Saturday 26 March at its “Elle s’appelle Palestine” (The name is Palestine) stand in Charleroi, Belgium.
Distribution of flyers, lots of discussions around the stand, the pleasure of seeing long-time friends, meeting young people who are mobilizing, people who have their pictures taken with the poster for Land Day, many others who leave us their contact details, selling dates exported by Palestinian farmers, playing Palestinian music and a small action with the large Palestinian flag… in short, our awareness campaign was a real success.
Free Georges Abdallah and Salah Hamouri
We also took the opportunity to, once again, draw attention to the longest-held political prisoner in Europe, Georges Abdallah, unjustly imprisoned for more than 37 years in Lannemezan prison in France. This action also took place within the framework of the international day for his release which takes place on 2 April.
Further, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, recently dissolved in France by Emmanuel Macron alongside the Comite Action Palestine, has been a major part of the campaign for the release of Georges Abdallah. Indeed, the participation of Collectif Palestine Vaincra in the campaign for the release of Georges Abdallah was one of the reasons given by the government to justify its decision. Despite this attack on organizing for Georges Abdallah and his freedom, this campaign is growing and is supported by hundreds of organizations in France. As a former member of the Collective said in an interview:The dissolution will not end this struggle!
At our stand we also highlighted the case of Salah Hamouri, a French-Palestinian lawyer who has been consistently targeted by the occupation authorities for arrest, imprisonment and expulsion from his homeland, and who was arrested again on 7 March. He is now being held in administrative detention without charge or trial.
We have many upcoming actions and events planned in Belgium. Do you want to be informed of the actions of the Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine? Write to us at charleroi.palestine@gmail.com and follow us on FB on the Pour la Palestine page.
