30/03/2010 A Palestinian teenager was killed and 12 people were wounded, including children, as Israeli occupation troops opened fire at "Land Day" demonstrators near the Gaza border on Tuesday, Palestinian medics said.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the border, east of the town of Khan Yunis, to mark Land Day, an annual commemoration of Israel's killing of six people during a 1976 protest by Israeli Arabs against land confiscations. Witnesses said that protesters hurled stones at occupation troops along the border, who responded with live fire.
Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, said 11 people, including children, were wounded. One of them, nine-year-old Raid Abu Namus, was in serious condition, medics at a nearby hospital said.Israeli occupation troops earlier shot dead 15-year-old Mohammed al-Faramawi in an incident near the southern Gaza town of Rafah, Hassanein said. Witnesses said he had arrived near the border just ahead of a similar march.
Another Palestinian, 14, was shot and wounded during a Land Day demonstration in the Maghazi refugee camp of central Gaza, Hassanein said.
Thousands of people also attended a ceremony in Sakhnin marking the 34th anniversary of 'Land Day' and participants waved black flags and Palestinian flags and called, "Barak, Barak, defense minister, how many children have you killed today?"
Mosques throughout the northern city called on worshippers to participate in the rally and churches rang bells of mourning for the deaths of the six activists.
"Land Day has long ceased to be a day of ashes – it expresses the battle for existence and life," Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh told Ynet. "After they took and are still taking our lands, the current government also wants to take our IDs," he added.
Chairman of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee Mohammad Zeidan told Ynet that policies had not changed since 1976. "Today we are also dealing with the razing of homes and confiscation of land," he said. "We witness it in the Negev, in the center, and in the Galilee."
MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) stressed that land was still the prime source of dispute between the Israeli government and the Arab sector.
"The general atmosphere, the feeling of despoilment, and the master-slave attitude towards the Arab citizen existed in '76 and still exist profusely today. In the past there was regional dialogue and more elements of apathy. Then there were a few scattered racists in the street, whereas today they are deputy prime ministers and ministers," he said.
'Land Day' ceremonies took place worldwide in recent days. On Monday Balad Chairman Jamal Zahalka returned from one such rally in Paris. "I said there and I say today that Israel used democracy in order to rob us of our lands," he said. "Israel is a school for land confiscation, and since '76 it has only gotten worse. The bond between a man and land taken away from him never goes away, and we will continue to demand the land taken from us."
Another protest took place in Budrus village, west of Ramallah, where protestors say 300 people were dispersed by the Israeli occupation army. Three of them were reportedly injured because they tried to plant olive trees where the separation fence is being constructed.
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee has planned another rally for the evening, to take place in the Negev.
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