Within Our Lifetime calls for global action today, March 30th, to commemorate Yom Al-Ard (Land Day), elevate the Palestinian Right of Return and honor the martyrs of the Great Return March.
- Take a photo of yourself holding our posters of the martyrs of the #GreatReturnMarch or write out your own sign with the names of martyrs.
- Include a caption on why you support the right of Palestinians to return home, and use any of these hashtags: #PalestineLandDay #GreatReturnMarch #ReturnWithinOurLifetime
- Post it on social media tagging @wolpalestine and 3 people to do the same.
For Palestinians, March 30th embodies the history of our peoples struggle in defense of our land, and our struggle to return to it. From 1976, when six Palestinians were shot and killed by occupation forces in ‘48 Palestine while resisting the illegal theft of Palestinian lands in the Galilee, to 2018, when tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza marched on the eastern border with the occupation demanding their Right to Return, and the Great Return March was born.
On March 30, 2018, when the Great Return March (GRM) was launched, israeli forces responded by raining down tear gas and toxic chemicals on the protesters, and israeli snipers murdered fifteen Palestinians in cold blood on the first day alone. Initially planned to last for six weeks from Land Day (March 30), until Nakba Day (May 15), the GRM ended up lasting for 637 days, just under two years. During this time nearly three hundred Palestinians were martyred by occupation forces, including medics, journalists, disabled people, women, and children.
While the GRM was put on pause at the beginning of 2020, and the world then went into quarantine, the call for return has only gotten stronger. Today we honor and echo the call to commemorate the anniversary of #LandDay and the #GreatReturnMarch by honoring those who were martyred while trying to return and by re-committing ourselves to prioritizing the implementation of the basic right of Palestinians to return- safely and immediately – to their original homes and land, within our lifetime.
