Arab Israelis, and the Israeli authorities are preparing for the Land Day on Friday, an occasion marked annually with demonstrations against the Israeli practices.
Land Day marks the deaths of six Arabs killed by the Israeli police in 1976 demonstrations against the confiscation of Arab-owned land.
According to The Jerusalem Post, leaders of the Arab community, about one million, have insisted that there is no intention to ferment disturbances tomorrow and that there is every hope the event would pass peacefully - provided there is no 'provocation' by the police.
This year’s Land Day, the 25th, comes after six months of the killing by the Israeli police of 13 Arabs, who were taking part in confrontations with the Israeli forces, in solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada. Arab Israeli refer to the bloody incidents as Black October.
In the West Bank and Gaza, Fridays are declared as “days of rage,” and have since the outbreak of the Intifada witnessed escalated uprising against the Israeli occupation.
'If there is no massive presence of police inside or near the entrances to Arab towns and villages, there should not be any trouble,' Abed Inbitawi, spokesman for the Monitoring Committee of the Israeli Arab Leadership and the forum of Arab Council Heads was quoted by the Post as saying – Albawaba.com
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