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Two years after the ICJ decision: Protests throughout West Bank against Apartheid Wall and Occupation war crimes in Gaza
Latest News, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, July 8th, 2006

Resistance against the Apartheid Wall continued two years after the ICJ ruled the structure illegal, as the popular Anti-Apartheid Wall committees organized a series of demonstrations across the West Bank. Palestinians challenged the Occupation, and denounced its onslaught against people besieged in Gaza, as the struggle against the racist Wall and Israeli Apartheid continued.

Protests in Beit Ummar and Halhool villages, located in the north of Hebron district, held a demonstration marking the anger of the Palestinian people against the Apartheid Wall project. Converging at midday on Friday July 7, the march began from Beit Ummar mosque towards village lands confiscated to the west of the village, close to the Karme Tzur Settlement.

Demonstrators chanted slogans to tear down the Apartheid Wall and called for an end to the Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people. A huge number of Occupation Forces and settlers tried to block the demonstrators from reaching their lands. They were challenged by the determination of protestors. Clashes erupted as Palestinians refused to submit to the Occupation and continued until the people marched as planned onto their confiscated lands.

Demonstrators held Friday prayers and speeches on the land. Meanwhile, Zionist settlers began attacking the people who were forced to defend themselves. Clashes broke out again and Occupation Forces used teargas, rubber bullets and sound bombs in renewed attacks against the villagers to end the protest.

In Al-Khader, west Bethlehem, tens of people marched against the uprooting and destruction of their village lands that commenced 3 weeks ago. The march organized by the local Anti-Apartheid Wall committee raised banners calling for an immediate halt to the Wall project and destruction of Palestinian land, as well as an end to the Occupation’s war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. They also called upon the international community to fulfill their obligations to stop the Wall and the daily killings of Palestinians. The march ended with speeches by different district representatives of the national parties insisting on the importance of unity to strengthen the popular determination to confront the Zionist crimes.

Bili’n continued its weekly activities against the Apartheid Wall, as hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the Wall gate which blocks villagers from their lands. They confronted the Occupation Forces who fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowds. Tens were injured but the demonstration managed to break through the gate. This gate had been closed for several days since Palestinian youth broke it and entered one of the houses in the nearby settlement of Modi’in Illit. They planted a Palestinian flag on its roof and held a sit-in in protest against ongoing settlement expansion on lands stolen from Bili’n village and now isolated behind the Apartheid Wall.

The people in Nablus, Dhahriya (South Hebron) and Bethlehem also led demonstrations against the Occupation war crimes and massacres in Gaza. The demonstrations marched through the cities and called upon the world to force an immediate end to the latest attacks by the Occupation and the need to bring criminals in front of international courts.

In the second memorial of the ICJ decision against the Apartheid Wall, and in protest against the siege on our people in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian grassroots organizations as well as the National and Islamic forces call for a sit-in that will be held in front of the United Nations OCHA office in Ramallah on Monday the 10th of July.

Above: Nablus Demonstration