Feature: Palestinians stick to confiscated lands as they mark Land Day

As the Palestinians are marking the Land Day, Mohamed Abu Rahma, 52-year-old Palestinian farmer, sneaked into his land, as he used to do, to show his children their confiscated property, while attempting to avoid being arrested by Israeli soldiers.

It has been almost 15 years since Israel confiscated Abu Rahma's land which became part of an Israeli settlement at the outskirts of the village of Na'lin near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"My land was a farm of three dunums (1 dunum = 1,000 square meters), and I never lost the hope to gain it back one day. Today is the Land Day, and I already took my children to the area to show them the farm," Abu Rahma told Xinhua, adding that "although the land is on a mountain area, but I used to plant it."

Abu Rahma, who seemed to be sad and disappointed, said that he used to grow various kinds of vegetables and fruits at his three-dunum farm, adding that "the farm was a bread winner to my family. They simply deprived us from even going to see our land."

The village of Na'lin is the hometown of Abu Rahma. The village has been so popular in the media and became a symbol for the Palestinian peaceful resistance against the construction of the isolation wall that Israel has been building over the confiscated Palestinian lands.

Several residents of the village had succeeded within the past four years to gain back 1,300 dunums of the village's confiscated lands, while Palestinian officials say that more than 1,000 dunums of the village's lands are still under confiscation.

Every Friday, several villages, including Na'lin, Bel'in and Nabi Salleh witness large protests and violent clashes between Israeli soldiers and the Palestinians, who rally against the construction of the wall and the expansion of settlements.

In 1976, Israel announced that it decided to confiscate thousands of dunums of lands owned by Palestinians living in Israel. On March 30 of the year, the Palestinians held large violent protests that saw six people killed by the Israeli police gunfire.

The day was significant for the Palestinians, and was considered as the official Land Day. Every year, the Palestinians all over the world mark the anniversary to stress their right of gaining the confiscated lands back.

Naji Tamimi, in his early 60s, was not different from Abu Rahma. And he said, "30 years ago, the Israelis confiscated 30 dunums of my land, which were used for the settlement expansion," adding that "although all these years had passed, I'm still sticking to gain back my confiscated land."

"The current conflict with Israel is basically based on land and the control of it, therefore I would never accept less than gaining all my confiscated land back," said Tamimi, adding "this is because I'm certain that this confiscation was completely illegal and gaining my land back is my legal right."

Jamal al-O'mla, director of the West Bank-based Palestinian Lands Center which is specialized in settlement issues, said that Oslo Accords, signed with Israel in 1993, and the manner of talks "had failed to prevent Israel from keeping its policy of expanding settlements and confiscating lands."

"Before the signing of the accords, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank was 150,000, and after signing the so-called peace accords, this numbers grew to 600,000," said O'mla, adding that "expansion of settlements grew by 40 percent."

The expansion of settlements and the confiscation of Palestinian lands had turned the West Bank populated areas into cantons isolated from each other by settlements and roadblocks of the Israeli army. Israel still controls around 60 percent of the West Bank area.

Abdul Hadi Hantash, a specialist in settlement affairs, told Xinhua that the number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank climbed to 255 besides having dozens of illegal outposts that are prepared to be legalized by the Israeli governments and wait to be expanded.

"The Israeli policies of settlements expansion and land confiscation are basically aiming at blocking and preventing any future chance for executing the U.S.-backed principle of the two states," said Hantash, adding "the settlements cut the future state of Palestine into pieces and block the establishment (of the state)."

The Palestinians expressed deep despair after the international community failed to put pressure on Israel to stop its settlement activities and land confiscation. They decided to sign on to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to sue Israel there. Endit