50th anniversary of Land Day: Israel is reshaping land realities for Palestinians
A protest marking Land Day at Saa’wa Al-Atrash village in the Naqab, 26 March 2022
Adalah reports on 3o March 2026:
Today, 30 March 2026, Palestinians mark the 50th anniversary of Land Day, commemorating the violent and deadly suppression of protests in 1976 that followed Israel’s confiscation of thousands of dunams of land belonging to Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI).
Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, Israel has greatly accelerated actions to erase entire Palestinian communities, expand Jewish settlements, and fragment the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), fundamentally altering realities on the ground. In Gaza, the Israeli military has reshaped geography through repeated forced transfers of nearly the entire population, widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, and the creation and expansion of military corridors and buffer zones. In the West Bank, land registration, settler violence, the destruction of Palestinian refugee camps, and forced displacement are being used to alter the land regime and facilitate settlement expansion. In Israel, the state has ramped up home demolitions, evacuations and forced displacement, particularly in the Naqab (Negev), removing Bedouins from lands on which they have lived for generations.
Forced Displacement of Bedouins in the Naqab
For decades, Israel has implemented policies of land grab and dispossession against PCI. The current government has accelerated large-scale forced displacement of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Naqab through mass eviction orders and home demolitions.
Adalah represents around 1,500 residents of three villages under imminent threat of uprooting—Ras Jrabah, Al-Bqeaa, and Umm Badoun. In November 2025, after years of struggle before land planning committees and courts, the Israeli Supreme Court (SCT) approved the eviction of the 500 residents of Ras Jrabah within 90 days, despite a lower court decision to cancel the “Dimona East Plan,” the project cited to justify the displacement. The far-reaching ruling grants state authorities the power to evict residents even without a legitimate planning purpose or demonstrated necessity. After Adalah filed a request for a second hearing and a motion to stay the eviction order, on 29 March 2026 a panel of three SCT justices ordered a temporary freeze on the decision to displace Ras Jrabah, pending further review. The Court also instructed the state to submit its response to the motion by 6 May 2025. In January 2026, Adalah also sent a letter to the Israel Land Authority (ILA) regarding the lack of available alternative housing in Qasr al-Sir—the site designated for relocating the residents of Ras Jrabah—contradicting representations made by the ILA to the SCT.