In response to the Israeli government’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams (acres) of land for state purposes, a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Negev on this day in 1976. In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six unarmed Arab citizens were killed, about one hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others arrested.
These events galvanized Palestinians inside Israel and gave impetus to a fight for equality that goes on to this day. Land Day puts the spotlight on this struggle, with scholarship on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict recognizing the day as a pivotal event in the struggle over land and in the relationship of Arab citizens to the Israeli state and body politic. It is significant in that it was the first time since 1948 that Arabs in Israel organized a response to Israeli policies as a Palestinian national collective. An important annual day of commemoration in the Palestinian national political calendar ever since, it is marked not only by Arab citizens of Israel, but also by Palestinians all over the world.
-Wikipedia