Military rule: 1946 - 1966
From the state's inception, the Jewish majority viewed the Palestinians who remained within the state suspiciously and frequently with hostility - as part of the Arab world, as a potential fifth column, and oftentimes simply as enemies of the state. From 1948 to 1966, the Palestinians in Israel lived under military rule applied only to them, despite the fact that they were formally declared citizens of the state in 1948.
Military rule placed tight controls on all aspects of life for the Palestinian minority. These measures of control included severe restrictions on movement, prohibitions on political organization, limitations on job opportunities, and censorship of publications. For example, in 1956, the Israeli army killed 49 Palestinian farmers in Kufr Kasem for "violating" the curfew imposed on their village. Unaware that a curfew had been ordered, the farmers were returning home from working their agricultural lands when they were killed. Substantial demonstrations on the anniversary of the massacre in 1957 marked the first time that Palestinians in Israel had organized on a large scale to protest the state's repressive policies. Up to 1965, attempts by the Palestinian community in Israel to form political parties to run for the Knesset, such as the El Ard (The Land) Movement, were forcibly stopped and their associations outlawed.
The Israeli authorities also confiscated massive amounts of Palestinian-owned lands. As the majority of the Palestinian community traditionally relied on agriculture as their main source of income, state expropriation of lands forced Palestinians to seek work as wage-labors in Israeli-Jewish market and thus become primarily dependent on the Israeli economy. Prior to 1948, the Jewish community owned just up to 7% of the land. During the next four decades, 80% of lands owned by Palestinians living in Israel were confiscated and placed at the exclusive disposal of Jewish citizens. Today, 93% of all land in Israel is under direct state control.
Officially, military rule was lifted in 1966. However, Israeli’s political regime is intertwined with military and was never separated. Israel was almost always ruled by military generals.
One year later, following the war in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Jerusalem. As a result Palestinians in Israel regained contacts with Palestinians in these areas. From this time and throughout the first Intifada (1987-1993), Palestinian citizens of Israel confined their struggle to a civic one and restricted their national effort to events in the Occupied Territories.
Other struggles throughout the 1970s and 1980s included long strikes organized by mayors of Arab municipalities to protest paltry budget allocations for basic services and demonstrations over land confiscations. Of particular importance was the call for a general strike in 1976, following a wave of land expropriations in the Galilee area. These expropriations were part of the governmental plan to expand the existing Jewish settlements and to establish new ones in order to reach a "demographic balance" in areas where Palestinians constituted a majority. Protests erupted in the Galilee, during which Israeli security forces killed six Palestinian citizens and wounded hundreds more. Every year on 30 March, Land Day, Palestinians in Israel commemorate their collective struggle against land confiscation and dispossession.