On Saturday, 2 April, the Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement) organized a demonstration marking Palestinian Land Day at the Puerta del Sol in downtown Madrid, Spain, with the involvement of Samidoun Spain, Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization and Al-Yudur Palestinian Youth Mobilization. The demonstration included strong chants and speeches in support of the Palestinian people and their resistance to defend their land, from the river to the sea.
Speakers addressed the over 74 years of Palestinian struggle to defend land from Zionist colonization and urged action and solidarity to support the Palestinian people. They denounced the complicity of European governments in the ongoing crimes of colonialism, occupation and apartheid perpetrated against the Palestinian people and called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the Israeli regime.
Land Day is commemorated on 30 March each year after the 1976 general strike and uprising in occupied Palestine ’48 against land confiscation, when Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians as they marched in a popular demonstration. The day also represents the unity of the Palestinian people from the river to the sea, inside and outside Palestine, and affirms the unity of all of Palestine. Demonstrators in Madrid emphasized that Zionist colonialism must be fully dismantled to gain justice for Palestine.
Participants in the demonstration also denounced France’s ongoing suppression of Palestine solidarity activism, including the attempts to criminalize boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns and the dissolution — state banning — of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and other organizations, including the Antifascist Group of Lyon Area (GALE) and the Comite Action Palestine.
They visited the French embassy after the mobilization, calling for an end to the dissolutions and freedom for Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for over 37 years. These calls also came as part of the international day of action to free Georges Abdallah, coinciding with his 71st birthday.
Samidoun Spain is organizing to free Palestinian prisoners and for the liberation of Palestine. To get involved, please reach out at our social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) to become a part of our work.
