Sunday of the Passion-Mark 14: Riots Among the People!

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday – Mark
Mark 14.1-15.47

Riots Among the People!

The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’ (Mk 14.2)

Today, March 30, is Land Day—commemorating the day in 1976 when Palestinians launched a mass strike to protest Israel’s plan to confiscate Palestinians’ lands for the expansion of Israeli settlements. Israel’s announcement stated that the land would be expropriated for "security and settlement purposes," to create a Jewish majority in the northern Galilee.

The Palestinians who remained inside Israel after the armistice in 1949, became citizens of Israel. They were mostly involved in agriculture and their lands were important to their identity and their livelihood. In 1950 Israel had passed the Absentees’ Property Law, which transferred the property rights of absentee owners to a government-appointed Custodian of Absentee Property, effectively legalizing the confiscation of lands belonging to the Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel in 1948. It also provided for the seizure of lands owned by Palestinians who were internally displaced—those who were forced from their homes and villages, and found refuge within Israel, but were never allowed to return to their homes.

On March 29, 1976, when they heard about the strike, Israel imposed a nighttime curfew on several Palestinian villages and sent 4000 soldiers with tanks into the villages.

The general strike marked a moment of pride for Palestinians. Palestinians protested in villages from the Galilee in the north to the Negev in the south. Solidarity protests were organized in the West Bank, Gaza and in refugee camps in Lebanon. On that day six unarmed demonstrators were killed, including three women. About 100 were injured and many more arrested.

Read more about Land Day in an editorial in today’s Haaretz newspaper by two Palestinians (one I met with on a Sabeel delegation in 2008).

Today in countries surrounding Israel, tens of thousands of protesters from all over the world are assembling to march to Jerusalem, to speak out against Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine. Boulder resident Michael Rabb, founder of the CU-divest movement to pressure the University of Colorado to divest funds from businesses benefiting from Israel’s occupation, is entering Israel from Amman. Follow Michael on Twitter: @mrabb

Michael writes: “Inspired by the sit-ins and freedom rides of the civil rights movement, in the USA in the ‘60s, and the Freedom Flotilla that attempted sail to Gaza last year, we intend to exercise our right to travel to Palestine.

Our delegation is responding to the Global March to Jerusalem organizers and Palestinian civil society organizations and peace and human rights activists who have called on civil society organizations and people of conscience around the world to come to Palestine March 30 for a week of fellowship and peace-building.”

If you want to encourage CU to divest, sign the petition: https://sites.google.com/site/cudivest/

God of exiles and freedom movements, give us courage to stand with those who are engaged in non-violent resistance to oppressive governments everywhere. Protect them from harm. Amen.