TEL AVIV, Israel, March 30 (UPI) -- The Arab community in Israel marked the 31st "Palestine Land Day" Friday with demonstrations in Arab towns and villages across the country.
Thousands of Palestinians who carry Israeli nationality took to the streets to commemorate six Arabs killed by the Israeli security forces on March 30, 1976, during demonstrations protesting the Israeli expropriation of lands owned by Arabs.
The marches and rallies on Friday, organized by Arab political groups and Knesset members, took place in four towns where the six were killed 31 years ago on the first "Palestine Land Day." Protesters raised the Palestinian flag and chanted slogans denouncing Israel's "racist, war, settlement and occupation policies."
The Arab minority in Israel are among the few Palestinian families who refused to flee during the bloody 1948 Middle East war when the state of Israel was established. Most of the Palestinians had become refugees scattered in camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Mohammad Bashir, the mayor of Sakhnin, where the largest demonstration was held Friday, told thousands of protesters at a rally that the gathering constitutes "a clear statement that our people cannot stop the battle for land and existence. For the policy of expropriation of Arab lands continues in different forms, and we must exert more effort for additional unity to confront it."
