The '' New York Times '' reports that the killings were carried out by police during " riots in the Galilee region to protest over Israeli expropriation of Arab land . " In '' Arutz Sheva '' , Ezra HaLevi writes that the riots started the night before , " with Israeli-Arabs throwing rocks and firebombs at police and soldiers . The riots continued the next day and intensified , resulting in many wounded members of Israeli security forces and the death of the six Arab rioters . " Yosef Goell , writing in '' The Jerusalem Post '' , says that , " What actually set off the rioting that led to the deaths was a wild attack by hundreds of inflamed young Arabs on an unsuspecting IDF convoy driving on the road by the villages of Sakhnin , Arrabe and Deir Hanna . There was no prior provocation on the part of that IDF convoy , unless one insists on seeing a provocation in the very presence of an Israeli army unit in the heart of Israeli Galilee . " A 2003 Israeli government document notes that , " Arab public figures tried to limit the protests , but lost control over the events . The protestors burnt tires , blocked roads , and threw rocks and molotov cocktails . " Placing the six fatalities within the context of " severe clashes " between protestors and security forces , it is also noted that there were many injuries on both sides . Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal write that Land Day differed from the Kafr Qasim massacre in that the Palestinians in Israel exhibited a " ... daring confidence and political awareness totally lacking in 1956 ; this time Arab citizens were not passive and submissive . Instead they initiated and coordinated political activity at the national level , responding to police brutality with their own violence . " During the Land Day events , a new sense of national pride , together with anger toward the state and police and sorrow over the dead protesters , developed among the Arab community in Israel . A split erupted between the Arab political parties of Rakah and Abnaa al-Balad . Committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli – Palestinian conflict , Rakah held major reservations about the involvement of Palestinians from the West Bank . Conversely , Abnaa al-Balad 's commitment to the establishment a single democratic Palestine saw the issues of land , equality , the refugees and the occupation as " a comprehensive , integral and indivisible whole . " While Rakah remained committed to a two-state solution , it charted a delicate balance , expressing a Palestinian identity more clearly so as to be more in tune with community sentiment . For example , shortly after Land Day , Tawfiq Ziad declared that , " From now on there will be no communities and religious groups but only a single Arab minority , part of the Palestinian nation . " Land Day also resulted in the Arabs gaining a presence in Israeli politics in that they could no longer be ignored . Arab civil society in Israel began coordinating with one another more and protests against government policies became more frequent with a focus on three major issues : land and planning policies , socioeconomic conditions , and Palestinian national rights
Kafr Qasim massacre
Kafr Qasim massacre
Land Day