Today, November 29 is the anniversary of Resolution 181 adopted by the United Nations that recommended the partition of Palestine. 73 years later continue Palestinians popular actions and everyday practices of sumud against the ongoing Nakba that started with the adoption of this resolution. The UN Partition Plan resulted in the large scale expulsion of the Palestinian people, rendering them a minority in their ancestral land. Marking the 73rd anniversary of the Partition Plan, we Palestinians call on the UN to recognize Israel as an apartheid state and hold it accountable for its crimes to righten the wrongs done to us by partitioning our country.
Last Friday, protests in different parts of the West Bank broke out against the de fact and de jure annexation plans, which would partition the remainder of Palestine leaving Palestinians with 12% of Historic Palestine. During the demonstrations, the outrageous protesters also marked the 73rd anniversary of the UN Partition Plan. They asserted that no plans or resolutions in favor of the colonizers would deter them from continuing to live steadfast on their land and demand the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes, which are now part of present-day Israel.
In the village of Kufr Qaddoum, Qalqilya district, hundreds of Palestinians rallied at the entrance of their village, which the Israeli occupation has been closing since 2002. As usual, armed Israel soldiers denied the humanity of Palestinians and started shooting live and rubber coated bullets at them. Four protesters were injured due to Israeli violence. Among the four injuries, an eighteen-year old protester is in a critical condition after he was hit with a rubber-coated bullet in the head. The inhabitants of Kufr Qaddoum have been weekly demonstrating the closure of the village’s main road and confiscation of their land to build the illegal settlement of Kedumim since over nine years.
In Beit Dajan, there was another demonstration and a heroic action by Palestinians trying to remove an illegal settler outpost built on their land despite the tremendous violence of Israeli soldiers protecting it. During the rally, Palestinians could reach the settler outpost and destroy a tent set by a settler in the area. Armed Israeli soldiers used excessive violence against the protesters who removed the tent, where ten of them were injured. Palestinians in Beit Dajan, have been weekly protesting the creation of a settler outpost on their lands since it was established few months ago.
Last month, Palestinians succeeded through their popular struggle actions to oust the settler outpost. Yet, as settlers are adamant about looting Palestinians’ lands, they reestablished another outpost in the area the next day after Palestinians removed it. Nonetheless, Palestinians are determined to continue their protests until they remove the outpost.
73 years of partition plans, ethnic cleansing actions embodied in the Nakba in 1948, the 1967 Naksa, the de facto, and planned de jure annexation plans of the remainder of Palestine and silence of the international community have passed while Palestinians refuse to give up on their ancestral land. Through rallying, carrying on hunger strikes in Israeli colonial dungeons, and everyday acts of sumud practices, we Palestinians assert that we are the only ones to determine our own destiny on our land.