Land Day
يوم الأرض
30 March 1976 — the general strike against land confiscation in the Galilee in which six Palestinians were killed, and the day Palestinians have marked every year since.
On 29 February 1976 the Israeli government decided to confiscate some 20,000 dunums of land in the Galilee under a plan called “Develop Galilee.” The National Committee for the Defense of the Land met in Nazareth on 6 March and called on the Arab population to hold a general strike on 30 March — and to declare that day Land Day, “the day on which the Arab masses will raise their voices to demand an end to the official policy.”
The strike held. It was, by the account of the Institute for Palestine Studies’ interactive encyclopedia, near-total across Arab towns and villages, despite raids at dawn by troops, police and border guards on Sakhnin, Arraba, Deir Hanna, Nazareth, Tamra, al-Taybeh, Baqa al-Gharbiyya, al-Tira and Nahf, among others. Six people were killed that day: Raja Abu Rayya, Khidr Khalayleh and Khadija Shawahna of Sakhnin; Khayr Yassin of Arraba; Muhsin Taha, killed at Kafr Kanna; and Ra’fat Zuheiri of Nur Shams refugee camp, killed in the clashes at al-Taybeh. About fifty people were injured and around three hundred detained.
Land Day was a turning point for Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship, who after 1976 organised as a national group rather than village by village. It was also the first occasion, apart from the commemoration of the Nakba, around which Palestinians everywhere could gather: on 30 March 1976 the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the refugee camps in Lebanon struck in solidarity. Every year since, in Palestine and across the diaspora, the day is marked — with strikes and demonstrations, and with dabke danced in the fields whose confiscation the day is about.
Sources
Connected in the archive
21 connected records21 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
set here — 2 records
- Nazarethالناصرة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: places: "Nazareth" → Nazareth
- Sakhninسخنين
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: places: "Sakhnin" → Sakhnin
names this record — 7 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Here We Will Stay
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Written for the Palestinians who remained inside Israel after 1948, it became the defining anthem of sumud — steadfastness on the land — and is still recited at Land Day commemorations and protests.
- Judaization
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: In 1975 the plan to expropriate a further tranche of land around Sakhnin, Arraba and Deir Hanna produced the mobilisation that culminated in the general strike of 30 March 1976 — Land Day — in which six Palestinian citizens of Israel were shot dead.
- Tawfiq Ziyadتوفيق زيّاد
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: A communist organizer, he was elected to the Knesset in 1973 and became mayor of Nazareth in 1975 — a post he held until his death — leading the city through Land Day in 1976 and decades of struggle over land, budgets, and equality.
- The Great March of Return
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: On 30 March 2018 — Land Day — tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza began a series of weekly demonstrations along the fence separating the territory from Israel.
- The Villages of the Galilee
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Land Day closes the walk because it is where the Galilee answered.
- Umm al-Fahmأم الفحم
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: That policy — the "Judaization" of the Galilee — is what brought Palestinians inside Israel into the streets on 30 March 1976, the first Land Day, and it is the frame within which Umm al-Fahm's politics have been conducted ever since.
- and 1 more
named in this record — 5 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Dabke
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Every year since, in Palestine and across the diaspora, the day is marked — with strikes and demonstrations, and with dabke danced in the fields whose confiscation the day is about.
- Dunum
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: …On 29 February 1976 the Israeli government decided to confiscate some 20,000 dunums of land in the Galilee under a plan called "Develop Galilee." The National Committee for the Defense of the Land met in Nazareth on 6 March and called on the Arab population to hold a general strike…
- Land Day
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: …for the Defense of the Land met in Nazareth on 6 March and called on the Arab population to hold a general strike on 30 March — and to declare that day Land Day, "the day on which the Arab masses will raise their voices to demand an end to the official policy."…
- Nakba
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: It was also the first occasion, apart from the commemoration of the Nakba, around which Palestinians everywhere could gather: on 30 March 1976 the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the refugee camps in Lebanon struck in solidarity.
- The Nakba
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: It was also the first occasion, apart from the commemoration of the Nakba, around which Palestinians everywhere could gather: on 30 March 1976 the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the refugee camps in Lebanon struck in solidarity.
on a related subject — 7 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Baladi Seeds
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "land".
- Nahr el-Bared Campمخيّم نهر البارد
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "galilee".
- Nakba Day
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "commemoration".
- Sumud
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "land".
- The Olive Harvest
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "land".
- The Sabr
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "land".
- and 1 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Land Day.” Culture, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/culture/land-day.- MLA
“Land Day.” Culture, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/culture/land-day. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-land-day, title = {Land Day}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/culture/land-day}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }