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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – Commemorating the 37th anniversary of the Land Day, Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights carried out Friday a voluntary activity in al-Khader south of Bethlehem in association with the village’s municipal council and several grassroots organizations.

More than 100 Palestinians from Bethlehem and Hebron refugee camps along with international solidarity activists gathered in agricultural land called Khirbet Alya near the Israeli bypass road known as route 60 and planted 150 olive tree saplings. The lands in Khirbet Alya are close to an incomplete section of Israel’s separation wall south of Bethlehem, and the Palestinians fear Israeli plans to confiscate the lands to complete the wall around Bethlehem.

Local farmers and land owners joined the activity. The land, measuring more than 15,000 square meters, belongs to Riyad Abdul-Latif Salah from al-Khader.

The activity, under the slogan “let's unite in the face of forcible displacement of the Palestinians,” came to reiterate that the Palestinian people are deeply connected to their land, and that is what motivates them to tend the land and take good care of it so they can protect it from Israel, especially in areas classified as “C” zones according to the Oslo Accords.

The partner organizations which joined the activity were the YMCA’s Joint Advocacy Initiative, the Alternative Information Center based in Beit Sahour, Lajee Center and Ruwwad Center in Aydeh camp, Shurouq Foundation based in Duheisha camp, Child Education Center based in al-Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, and the Youth Center for Society Development based in Duheisha camp.