Today at 7:00 am Occupation bulldozers arrived on the lands of Deir Qaddis, east of Ramallah and started clearing land for the Wallâs path. The bulldozers arrived from the Kiryat Sefer settlement built to the South on village lands. Initially villagers attempting to reach the bulldozers were blocked from doing so by troops of Occupation forces. Eventually though the villagers were able to reach their lands, with women from the village taking front line positions, standing in front of the bulldozers, preventing them from destroying the lands. The villagers succeeded in forcing the bulldozers to retreat, however, as they returned to the village the work began again In response the villager of Deir Qaddis once again rallied, and the bulldozers retreated once again not to return as villagers gathered and began heading back to the lands.
In the past 60% of the villageâs lands were confiscated for settlements like Kiryat Sefer and Mattityahu which confiscated 3000 dunums of village land for expansion, while two other settlements confiscated another 3000 dunums for a bypass road. The construction of the Apartheid Wall will confiscate 381 dunums of village lands and will isolate a further 1500 dunums behind it. This will leave villagers with almost no agricultural lands, and will physically isolate many of the villagers, some 65% of the inhabitants, from reaching jobs within the green line, economically crippling the village.