Israeli Arabs mark 32nd annual Land Day with Wadi Ara, Negev protests

Israeli Arabs marked the 32nd annual Land Day on Saturday in protests in Wadi Ara and the Negev, a day after Jaffa hosted the event's main procession for the first time.

On Saturday, a protest convoy departed from Umm al-Fahm and headed towards Qalansua, where demonstrators gathered at a home that has been ordered demolished.

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 protestors dead.

In Friday's procession, Balad Chairman Jamal Zahalka said Friday 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."

Zahalka's comments came as the government and the Tel Aviv municipality 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 which we will face and realize our right to defend our homes," he said.

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee decided to hold the procession in Jaffa for the first time, due to a request by an organization of the town's residents, who 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.

	Protestors carry Palestinian flags during the 32nd Land Day procession in Jaffa on Friday. (Dan Keinan)