The Zemla Intifada (Intifada means uprising) is the name for the disturbances of June 17, 1970, which culminated in a massacre by Spanish forces in the Zemla quarters of El-Aaiun, Western Sahara (then Spanish Sahara). June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Laâyoune Laâyoune, also El Aaiún, in Arabic alayuun, is the unofficial capital of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony now mostly controlled and occupied by Morocco. ... Spanish Sahara was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was ruled by Spain, created from the Spanish territories of Rio de Oro and La Aguera in 1924. ...

Leaders of the hitherto secret organization Harakat Tahrir, among them its founder Muhammad Bassiri, called a demonstration to hand a petition calling for independence and fair treatment for Sahrawis to the Spanish governor-general of the colony, General José María Pérez de Lema y Tejero. They were allowed to read out the petition, but as the demonstration was dispersing, police moved in to arrest its leaders. Demonstrators responded by pushing the policemen away and when the police charged with batons, stone-throwing erupted. The Spanish authorities called in the Spanish Foreign Legion who opened fire on the demonstrators, killing at least eleven and wounding scores. Hundreds of people were arrested. Sahrawi movement for the independence of Western Sahara. ... Muhammad Sidi Brahim Bassiri (b. ... Sahrawi (also Saharawi, Arabic SaHrāwÄ«) is a term used for the indigenous people of Western Sahara, but there are also Sahrawi communities in other countries. ... The Spanish Foreign Legion was founded by General Milian Astry in February 1920 as the Spanish equivelent to the French Foreign Legion. ...

In the days following the massacre, Harakat Tahrir activists, Bassiri among them, were hunted down by Spanish security forces. Bassiri disappeared in jail. ...

The suppression of the Zemla demonstration pushed the Sahrawi anticolonial movement into embracing armed struggle. The militant nationalist organization Front Polisario was formed three years later. ...

June 17th is now commemorated by the Sahrawis in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria, and has been used as a day of protest by Sahrawis under Moroccan rule in Western Sahara. A refugee camp is a camp built up by governments or NGOs (such as the ICRC) to receive refugees. ... Tindouf, also written Tinduf, (Arabic: تندوف) is a city and wilaya in the west of Algeria, population 30,000. ...