Israel will continue to usurp Palestinian lands: Knesset member

    Zoabi, who represents the Balad party in the Knesset (parliament), also stated that Israeli regime “expropriated 86% of the Arab’s land, who now live on 3% of their land.”
 
 
“They take what we have, and try to get rid of us and then push us into a small piece of land. Colonialism? - even worse,” she added.
 
The Arab member of Knesset went on to say that “Tel Aviv will continue to force out nearly 30,000 Palestinians from their villages in Naqab desert in a bid to usurp 200 acres of their lands."
 
The Knesset member made the remarks hours after Israeli forces attacked Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, injuring dozens of protesters.
 
Clashes broke out in the village of Jayyus after Israeli troops fired teargas canisters at hundreds of Palestinians who wanted to plant trees in agricultural lands in commemoration of Land Day. Several people were injured in the attack.
 
Similar scuffles erupted at Qalandiya checkpoint in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters. Several protesters were also wounded in the incident.
 
March 30 is commemorated every year because of a deadly incident on that day in 1976 in which Israeli troops killed six Palestinians during a protest against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands.
 
Palestinian activists also marched on the Israeli apartheid barrier. A similar rally was held in the town of Sakhnin.
 
During the 2012 Land Day protests one person was killed and more than two dozen others were wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on demonstrators in the northern Gaza Strip.
 
On the same day in the West Bank, Israeli forces beat up a crowd of peaceful demonstrators in al-Quds (Jerusalem) and arrested a number of protesters. Israeli police also fired rubber bullets, and teargas, and used stun grenades to disperse the protesters.