31st of March 2012 is what is known as “Land Day“, a day significant in the very full diary of Palestinian suffering. It is a day which recalls when, in the name of security, Israel decided to steal even more Palestinian land, something which they have continued doing until the present day.
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On Land Day, International Peace Activists will take part inThe Global March to Jerusalem and march towards Al Aqsa masjid in Occupied Jerusalem. They will be joined by humanitarians from around the globe, a host of mixed nationalities, religions and political persuasions all uniting to particpate in this historic event. Their aim is to highlight the illegal occupation and other Israeli injustices towards Palestinians.
After the two masajid in Mecca and Medina respectively, Al Aqsa masjid in Jerusalem is the third most important masjid to the world’s one and a half billion Muslims, . Despite Al Aqsa masjid being so important to Muslims, it is almost impossible to visit because of the Illegal Occupation by Israel. Palestinians who live in Israel or East Jerusalem are able to pray in Al Aqsa but others from the West Bank wishing to go and pray, are subject to age restrictions and military checkpoints. 
Palestinians from Gaza would not get permission to travel there at all. Muslims from the rest of the world might be able to visit Al Aqsa as part of a tour of the Holy Land, however everyone is subject to the whims of the Israelis issuing visas.Personally I would love to visit Al Aqsa but am highly unlikely to be issued a visa by the State of Israel due to a series of events I suffered as an unarmed civilian activist at the hands of the Occupation State.
Having been kidnapped from the Mavi Marmara in International waters of the Mediterranean in May 2010 by pirates a.k.a. Israeli Occupation Special Forces, taken to Hebrew speaking Palestine (Ashdod) against my will at gunpoint then imprisoned in Beer Sheba prison for allegedly entering the State of Israel illegally and breaking immigration laws!
Yes, really ! You just couldn’t make that sort of lunacy up! I am now subject to a ten year ban from entering the State of Israel. My personal belongings which were stolen from me such as camera, mobile phone, cash etc have never been returned to me by the pirates, I don’t like to complain about my missing belongings too much since there are 8 widows and 29 orphans in Turkey who lost so much more.It is alarming to follow the Meir Amit Institute reports about the “Global March to Jerusalem” and see their obvious attempt to portray the march as likely to become rowdy and violent. Given Israel’s tendency to respond to protests with violence, this is hopefully not a pretext for opening fire and murdering unarmed civilians.
This peaceful event is being seen by Israel as a threat to their legitimacy, and well they might because the publicity surrounding it will ultimately awaken more people in the world to the injustices that Israel perpretrates on Palestinians. But for some reason Israel is blind to the reality that it is its leaders and citizens such as the settlers, and their policies of ethnic cleansing, stealing land and apartheid that deligitimises the State in the eyes of the world.
Here below is the call from Palestinians to join the March
Join us as we intensify our struggle against forced exile and the system of Israeli apartheid on Land Day 2012.
We Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed and uprooted from our lands starting in the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) which resulted in the creation of the millions of refugees who are now living in the Diaspora. Nineteen years later, in 1967, Israel illegally annexed East-Jerusalem and the West Bank in a move which marked the Naksa (Setback), and subjected the remaining Palestinians to a brutal military occupation.We are now in 2012, and we are still living in exile or under the Israeli apartheid regime, the illegal construction of colonial settlements is confiscating the remaining parts of Palestine, the Separation Wall divides and separates villages and towns, and Palestinians in Jerusalem are threatened of being driven out of their homes and lands for the mere purpose of the Judaization of this sacred city.
But we will not leave. We will stand and be firm. We will not permit thousands of years of our attachment to our land and our Holy City to be broken. We therefore invite and call upon all persons of courage and good will around the world to stand up and walk, with your fellow human beings, regardless of religion, of political affiliation – to stand up as responsible human beings and walk peacefully towards Jerusalem on the 30th of March, 2012.We therefore ask all our brothers and sisters throughout the world to join Palestinians on Land Day, 30 March, 2011, in challenging the barriers, borders and procedures that separate Palestinians from Jerusalem and from their homes and lands in all of historic Palestine.
- Palestinian National and Islamic Organizations
- Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Centre, www.alrowwad-acts.ps
- Al-Walaja Popular Resistance Committee
- The Alternative Information Center – AIC – www.alternativenews.org
- BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights: www.badil.org/
- Beit Ummar Popular Resistance Committee
- Bil’in Popular Resistance Committee www.bilin-village.org
- Friends of Freedom and Justice, Bil’in www.bilin-ffj.org
- Handala Center – www.handalla-center.org
- Holy Land Trust www.holylandtrust.org
- International Solidarity Movement: www.palsolidarity.org
- Nebi Saleh Popular Resistance Committee
- Ni’lin Popular Resistance Committee
- Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People www.PCR.PS
- Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign www.stopthewall.org
- Palestine Justice Network www.palestinejn.org
- Palestine Solidarity Project WWW.palestinesolidarityproject.org
- Popular Struggle Coordinating Committee www.popularstruggle.org/
- Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies, www.sirajcenter.org
- Youth Against Settlements (Hebron)
- Youth Activity Center – Aida Camp (www.key1948.org)
- abdm@hotmail.com
Uprooted Palestinian 
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!
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