An early pilot · A community project
QADIYA is an independent, noncommercial community project: an archive of Palestine’s history, built for the cause and open to everyone.
This is an early pilot. Its records were gathered with AI help from cited sources and are still being checked, so don’t rely on them yet, and tell us if something is wrong.
We’re looking for people and organisations to build it with us: historians, archivists, translators, designers, developers, and partners who can support the work.
يوم الأرض
Exact day30 March 1976
Gathered from its sources, not yet reviewed
On 30 March 1976 Palestinians in Israel held a general strike against the confiscation of their land in the Galilee. Israeli troops and police raided their towns and villages; six people were killed, about fifty injured and some 300 detained. Palestinians everywhere have marked the day since.
In 1975 Israel stepped up its campaign to take Palestinian-owned land in Israel. On 29 February 1976 the government of Yitzhak Rabin decided to confiscate 20,000 dunams, about 4,900 acres, of land in the Galilee under a “Develop Galilee” plan. On 6 March the National Committee for the Defence of the Land, meeting in Nazareth with seventy delegates, called a general strike for 30 March and declared it Land Day.1
Link to this chapterAt dawn on the day of the strike, Israeli troops, police and border guards, with tracked vehicles and tanks, raided Arab towns and villages, among them Sakhnin, Arraba, Deir Hanna and Nazareth. The strike was total in most Arab towns and villages, and the fiercest confrontations were in Sakhnin, Arraba and Deir Hanna. Six people were killed: Raja Abu Rayya, Khidr Khalayleh and Khadija Shawahna of Sakhnin; Khayr Yassin of Arraba; Muhsin Taha, in Kafr Kanna; and Ra’fat Zuheiri, of Nur Shams refugee camp, in al-Taybeh. About fifty people were injured and some 300 detained.2
Link to this chapterPalestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the refugee camps of Lebanon struck in solidarity that day. Since 1976 Palestinians inside Israel, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and in exile have marked Land Day each year, to assert their bond with their land.3
Link to this chapterFrom the Knesset and as mayor of Nazareth, played a leading part in the strike
Attributed to Institute for Palestine Studies (Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, biography)
Linked context in the legacy record
Linked context in the legacy record
Linked context in the legacy record
Linked context in the legacy record
Evidence
PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · section: Highlight text (Nabih Bashir)
Editorial paraphrase · enThe 29 February 1976 decision to confiscate 20,000 dunams in the Galilee; the Nazareth meeting of 6 March called a general strike for 30 March and declared Land Day.
Link to this citationPalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · section: Highlight text (Nabih Bashir)
Editorial paraphrase · enRaids at dawn; the strike total in most towns; six killed, named by the source; about fifty injured and 300 detained.
Link to this citationPalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · section: Highlight text (Nabih Bashir)
Editorial paraphrase · enSolidarity strikes in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon’s camps; commemorated every year since 1976.
Link to this citationphotograph · Wikimedia Commons
The photograph shown with this event: The Land Day monument in Sakhnin.
Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/): shown with its credit.
article · United Nations
Supports the event summary and historical context. Consult the original record for detail and attribution.
Reference and original summary only. Original material remains with its publisher; no full-text reproduction permission is implied.
article · PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies
Overview by Nabih Bashir, Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (Institute for Palestine Studies).
Reference and original summary only. Original material remains with its publisher; no full-text reproduction permission is implied.
03-30 · occurrence
Anniversary of the documented date.