Arab organization condemns Israel's building of new towns in northern and southern Israel, calling it an "escalation against the Arab lands"
Headline: “The High Follow-Up Committee [for Arab Citizens of Israel] calls for participation as wide as possible in the Land Day march and the Deir Hanna rally”
“The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens [of Israel] (i.e., an extra-parliamentary umbrella organization that represents Arab citizens of Israel)… said that Land Day (see note below -Ed.) is arriving this year [2022] in the shadow of a wild escalation by the [Israeli] government against the Arab lands in the Negev. This is in order to impose a tighter blockade on the unrecognized Palestinian towns, at a time when the Israeli government has decided to establish 12 settlements on the lands that were stolen (sic., refers to recently announced towns in the Negev in southern Israel), including a city [named Kasif] for ultra-Orthodox Jews that will be able to absorb 120,000 people…
The committee noted that the Israeli government is continuing the plan of uprooting, and is attempting to impose a plan of alleged recognition for a small number of villages on condition that more than 70% of the villages’ lands will be taken by force, not including the villages that will be completely uprooted (refers to illegal Arab villages in the Negev -Ed.)…
It explained that… the Israeli government is continuing on a number of plans, the most prominent of which is the settlement of Harish (i.e., Israeli town near Caesarea), whose goal is to surround Umm Al-Fahm and the villages of the northern Triangle (i.e., a concentration of Israeli-Arab towns and villages in northern Israel).”
Land Day – annual commemoration of the general strike and demonstrations organized by Israeli Arab residents of the Galilee on March 30, 1976 to protest the Israeli government's decision to expropriate land in the Galilee for security and building purposes, which it later implemented. During the protests, demonstrators burnt tires, blocked roads, and threw rocks and firebombs. Six demonstrators were shot and killed by the Israeli army and police. Israeli Arabs and Palestinians consider Land Day a national day.