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The people in Zawiya continue their resistance to the Apartheid Wall, which is currently threatening and destroying their lands. For ten days, people in Zawiya of all ages have been demonstrating in an effort to reach their lands and stop Occupation bulldozers from destroying them. However, since the first days, there have been large numbers of Occupation Forces blocking all exits of the village, preventing the people from reaching their lands. Thus far, Occupation Forces have been using tear gas to stop the demonstrators, though people in the village speculate that they are, in fact, using some kind of nerve gas. People are reporting that the tear gas being used is not the white tear gas that Occupation Forces usually shoot, but that this kind has black smoke and is incredibly strong, causing people to faint, have convulsions and to experience decreases in their blood count. In addition, it takes days for people to recover from it. Occupation Forces have also been using batons to beat people as they try to save their lands.
Despite aggressive attempts by Occupation Forces to oppress the people in Zawiya, the people continued their resistance. Each day, women and men from the village, as well as from nearby villages (mainly Deir Ballut), go to the land to confront and stop the bulldozers. While Occupation Forces hide by the dozen behind the olive trees to shoot at the people and block the way to their land, the people do not give up their resistance. The people are ready to use their hands and bodies to confront armed Occupation Forces in order to defend and save their lands.
For the people in Zawiya, the Apartheid Wall targets the lands where either they or their ancestors planted the trees that Occupation Forces are now uprooting. The Wall will cut between Zawiya and Kufur Qassem village – a village Occupied in 1948 – which many women and men from Zawiya rely on for work. As well, the Wall isolates the people of Zawiya in a canton, separating them from the rest of Salfit district.
The people in Zawiya realize that the Wall around their village – as it is in the rest of the West Bank – is a colonial transfer project, and for them, resisting the Wall is a struggle for their existence on their lands.
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