Worldwide Activism
9th-16th November 2004 - 2nd International Week against the Apartheid Wall Press Release
Press Release, PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, November 9th, 2004

**For Immediate Release**

November 8, 2004

9^th-16^th November 2004 - 2^nd International Week against the Apartheid Wall:

Massive Mobilization in over 20 Countries Worldwide!

Contact:        Jamal Juma’: +972-52-285-610;

Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign: +972-265-65-890;

mobilize@stopthewall.org  --  www.stopthewall.org

  
The 9th – 16th of November 2004 marks the 2^nd International Week against the Apartheid Wall called for by the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and since then endorsed by various movements, groups, networks, and international civil society conferences, following last year’s Palestinian and worldwide mobilization during the 1^st International Week against the Apartheid Wall (November 9-16, 2003) that brought the Wall to the top of the Palestinian and international political agenda with the participation of social movements around the globe.

This year, some 70 events, protests and demonstrations in over 20 countries have already joined the call of the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign for the 2nd International Week against the Apartheid Wall!

See http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/795.shtml for a full list of activities.

In Palestine, during the 2^nd International Week Against the Apartheid Wall farmers will continue to find themselves unable to access their lands in the isolated areas “behind” the Wall and near settlements during this olive harvest season, where Israel has ensured in countless ways that people’s lands and livelihoods are out of reach. It is during this week that the Campaign will continue its activities in supporting farmers to harvest their lands, put together an intensive media campaign on local television stations, as well as coordinate a central march from the Tulkarem city center to the Wall entrapping the city.

This year’s call for mobilization to tear down the Apartheid Wall and end Israeli Occupation is part of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and Palestinian demand for immediate and concrete action on all levels – boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli Apartheid –to bring an end to Israeli Apartheid and Occupation.

What does this week mean in Palestine?  It is for the Palestinian People and its supporters worldwide a clear international rejection for the longstanding Israeli Apartheid System is becoming daily more unbearable in the Occupied West Bank. It means, in the face of mass mobilization worldwide, that we have strong partners in the struggle against oppression and this brutal occupation.

This past year, the destruction caused by this Crime has carried on incessantly: entire villages are closed in open-air prisons, families have lost their livelihoods and access to the most fundamental services, lands are razed and trees uprooted. While the devastation along the Wall’s “first phase” in the northwest of the West Bank continues, the Wall is now in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and in Hebron.

This July, the International Court of Justice issued its advisory opinion declaring the Wall illegal along with its “associated regime”, demanding the dismantling of the Wall and compensation for the damages incurred. Yet, the international community has yet to go beyond the level of verbal condemnation of Israel’s Apartheid policies, and even the decision of the UN highest judicial body risks being trivialized if words are not turned into real, concrete change.