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Israeli Arabs mark 32nd Land Day with Jaffa, Wadi Ara, Negev protests By Yoav Stern Some 1,000 Israeli Arabs, most of them from Jaffa, marked the 32nd annual Land Day in a procession in Jaffa on Friday, which hosted the event for the first time. "We'll redeem you, Jaffa, with spirit and blood," protesters called, some of them holding up Palestinian flags. Advertisement The main Land Day procession will be held in the village of Arabeh, in the western Galilee, this afternoon. On Saturday, a protest convoy departed from Umm al-Fahm and headed toward Kalansua, where demonstrators gathered at a home facing demolition orders. In the Negev, Israeli Arab political parties and movements held events in several unrecognized Bedouin villages. The first Land Day protests were held on March 30, 1976, to protest government expropriations of Galilee land for "security and settlement purposes." Those protests deteriorated into violent clashes with security forces, leaving six Arab protesters dead. The heads of the popular Jaffa committee said that in the past two years, the Israel Lands Administration and the Amidar municipal housing company issued eviction orders to some 500 Arab families, mainly in the Ajami neighborhood. The authorities cited squatting and illegal construction as the reasons for the eviction. In Friday's procession, Balad Chairman Jamal Zahalka said that the Israeli Arab community would not permit what he termed another expulsion from Jaffa. "Sixty years ago there was a mass expulsion from Jaffa," he told the procession, the first to be held in the mixed Arab and Jewish town. "We won't let the expulsion happen again," he said, referring to the state and Tel Aviv municipality's plan to demolish 500 homes in Jaffa. "If the government and municipality are interested in expulsion, they are imposing on us a conflict that we do not want, but one we will face and realize our right to defend our homes," he said. Higher Arab Monitoring Committee chair Shawki Khatib said, "We have a message for the brave residents of Jaffa: you are not alone. What happens to you here hurts every child in the Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev." He said the committee decided to hold the procession in Jaffa for the first time, due to a request by a residents organization, which said the procession was especially important due to the lack of housing options for Arab residents. Organizers have defined the Jaffa procession as a Arab-Jewish protest march. Bookmark to del.icio.us   My land, my country Israeli Arabs mark 32nd Land Day in demonstrations across the country. One voice on Israel It's hard to find differences in U.S. candidates' promises on peace process.

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