By Mohammed El-Kurd The Nation

Today is Land Day, an annual commemoration of those killed protesting Israeli theft of Palestinian lands 46 years ago. But even now, there is a Nakba everywhere you look.

Today is Land Day in Palestine—a day that commemorates the moment 46 years ago when Israeli forces shot and killed six Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who dared to protest the Israeli regime’s confiscation of tens of thousands of dunams of Palestinian land.

The murders took place during a moment of uprising—much like now—on the eve of a general strike that had been called by the Initiative for the Defense of Lands, a committee established in 1975 by Palestinian political activists, public intellectuals, lawyers, doctors, and journalists. The night before, Palestinians in various towns within the 1948 territories burned tires and closed streets to block the forces sent by Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin. At dawn, the army raided numerous Palestinian villages with military vehicles and tanks, wounding about 50 Palestinians, arresting 300, and killing six—Raja Abu Raya, Khader Khalaileh, Khadija Shawahna, Khair Yassin, Raafat Zuhairi, Mohsen Taha.

Despite the violent crackdown—or perhaps because of it—the strike was carried out successfully, and the repression meant to deter nationalist sentiment ignited an anti-colonial mood so magnetic it connected the fragmented realities of Palestinians in 1948 territories, Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, and the diaspora like never before.

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