ICSPR: Land Day is a true opportunity to restore national unity and face the Israeli settlement policies.

Ref: 37/2021
Date: 29 March 2021

Press release,

ICSPR: Land Day is a true opportunity to restore national unity and face the Israeli settlement policies.

The 30th of March 2021 matches the 45th anniversary of Land Day, which the Palestinians celebrate annually to commemorate the 1976 events, in which the Palestinian masses marched from the Galilee to the Negev, to protest against the Israeli policies, procedures and decisions related to the confiscation of thousands of acres of Palestinian lands, and due to the excessive use of force by the Israeli army and police, 6 citizens were killed and dozens were injured.

The anniversary of Land Day passes this year while the Israeli military occupation continues and insists to implement the crimes of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people and their rights. These crimes that are deliberately practiced, are reinforced by racism, extremism, murder and theft of land from the Palestinian people, and denying them the right to political self-determination.

Over the years of its war occupation of Palestinian lands, especially the West Bank and Jerusalem, the Israeli occupation authorities have consistently enshrined colonial settlement and pursued a policy of seizing and annexing land, and deliberately Judaizing the city of Jerusalem, demolishing homes, preventing construction and erecting the apartheid wall, establishing and expanding the construction of settlements, and separating cities and villages in the West Bank from each other. In addition to the continuation of racial discrimination policies against Palestinian citizens in the 48 regions, and the continuation of the siege on the Gaza Strip, benefiting from the state of international silence on one hand and from the successive US measures on the other.

The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) condemns the continuation of the Israeli military occupation in Palestine and the ongoing Israeli crimes based on the annexation and seizure of occupied territories, and reminds the international community of the tragedy and suffering that the Palestinian people have gone through since 1948 due to the crimes of the Israeli occupation, which caused the Palestinians to live in a state of asylum, dispersion and permanent violation of human rights. ICSPR reaffirms the right of Palestinians to confront and resist the Israeli occupation and its denial of Palestinians’ legitimate and inalienable, including the right to self-determination and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

ICSPR affirms that the gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people during the past years constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity that are imprescriptible. ICSPR demands the perpetrators to be held accountable, and:

ICSPR expresses its grave concern about the Israeli executive, judicial and legislative policies and practices, especially those related to the seizure of lands, the Judaization of Jerusalem, and the continued establishment and expansion of settlements, to change the demographic and geographic character of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 in a way that precludes the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
ICSPR strongly condemns the continued silence and complicity of the international community, and the continued impunity that the Israeli leaders and soldiers enjoy, which contributes to the continuation and exacerbation of the suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of depriving them of their right to determine their political and economic destiny.
ICSPR confirms that this occasion and the current circumstances constitute a unique opportunity to affirm the importance of the unity of the Palestinian people, and the need to consider the upcoming Palestinian general elections as a means of ending the division, rebuilding and activating all institutions of the political system to play their role in protecting the rights of the Palestinian people.
ICSPR calls on the international community not to sacrifice the principles of law and international intervention, and to work hard to implement the United Nations resolutions related to the Palestinian issue as an entry point to stop the crimes of colonial settlement, ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination and end the state of Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories.
ICSPR calls on the peoples of the world to strengthen their solidarity with the Palestinian people to enable them to exercise their legitimate rights in accordance with international law and the goals of humanity represented in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant international charters and agreements.

ICSPR