Arabs in Israel marked on Wednesday the 29th anniversary of Land Day. Land Day commemorates events of 1976 when armed Israeli forces shot and killed six Arab citizens in Israel who were protesting expropriation of their lands to build new Jewish settlements and expand existing Jewish cities.
Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights, BADIL, said that Land Day symbolizes resistance to ongoing land expropriation, unresolved claims to housing and property restitution and the 38-year Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In a press release, on Wednesday, BADIL said that Israel is under an obligation to return the land, orchards, olive groves and other immovable property seized from any natural or legal person for purposes of construction of the Apartheid Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
"The UN draft principles on restitution for refugees and displaced persons likewise affirms that all refugees and displaced persons have the right to have restored to their housing and property of which they were deprived during the course of displacement, or to be compensated for any property that cannot be restored to them," BADIL said.
