GMJ Commemorating Land Day in Palestine Begins

Palestine Human Rights Campaign

www.palestine.org.nz

Media Release March 30th 2012

Global March to Jerusalem commemorating Land Day in Palestine begins in Aotearoa-New Zealand

March 30 is Land Day in Palestine and commemorates the events of 1976, when Israel seized massive quantities of Palestinian land and then killed and injured dozens of those who protested against the theft. This year on Land Day, March 30, people from around Palestine and the world will gather to form a Global March to Jerusalem to protest the theft in progress today: the isolation and ethnic cleansing taking place throughout occupied Palestine through illegal settlement activity.

Marches are planned from various points in the West Bank, Gaza, inside the Green Line, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria, as well as in Asia and the Pacific, North America, and Europe uniting the efforts of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and all citizens of conscience of the world to put an end to Israel’s disregard for international law through the continuing occupation and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem.

In Aotearoa-New Zealand there will be a picket by the Students for Justice on Palestine in solidarity with the Global March to Jerusalem outside the Israeli Embassy, 39 The Terrace, Wellington at 12 noon today.

According to many treaties and UN resolutions, Jerusalem (Al Quds ) is recognised as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Israel seized control of the city in 1967. It has long been the centre of religious, cultural, health, and commercial life for Palestinians, and an estimated 270,000 Christian and Muslim Palestinians reside in the eastern parts of the city.

The Global March is a peaceful, non-violent response to the systemic discrimination of Palestinians in Jerusalem. Since 1967, Israel has revoked the residency rights of almost 15,000 Palestinians and Palestinian Muslims and Christians from the West Bank and Gaza are frequently denied the right to practice their faith in the Holy City. In addition, human rights groups have calculated that Israel has demolished more than 24,000 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza since the occupation began.

PHRC spokesperson Palestinian-New Zealander Billy Hania says " there can never be a real Palestinian state as long as the Israeli government continues to steal land and water, control borders, and separate cities and villages of Palestine from each other in defiance of international laws and over 60 UN resolution".

Adding that "on this significant day the PHRC Auckland, New Zealand stands in solidarity with the dispossessed people of Palestine. The organisation supports other activists who are joining the Global March to Jerusalem to protest the Israeli occupation and its apartheid policies and who will continue to work to create one state in which the human rights of all people are respected and protected".

ENDS

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