Hundreds of villagers from Arab Ramadin brought Occupation bulldozers to a standstill on Tuesday 7th of June, as they stormed their confiscated lands currently being destroyed for the Apartheid Wall. Occupation Forces responded by opening fire on the demonstrators with rubber bullets and attacked them with tear gas and sound bombs. Two Palestinians were arrested, and three injured, as Arab Ramadin villagers stepped up their resistance to the Apartheid Wall which has already confiscated 2339 dunums of their land.
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Villagers gathered in the centre of the village in the early morning and marched to the Sidreh area to the south of the village where construction is beginning on the path of the Apartheid Wall. Occupation bulldozers have begun razing land for the Wall’s construction here over the last week. Their destruction was brought to a standstill as hundreds of villagers stormed the area, blocking the bulldozers and taking back their land. Occupation Forces responded by firing rubber bullets into the crowd, injuring three Palestinian youth who were shot in the legs. Using a combination of tear gas, sounds bombs and bullets, Occupation Forces spent several hours beating back the Palestinians from their lands.
Palestinians resisted Occupation brutality and gathered to hold a symbolic prayer session on the confiscated land. So far 2339 dunums of the village’s land has been confiscated in the southern area. Some of these lands are used for grain (839 dunums) and the rest (1500 dunums) are pasture lands used for grazing animals. They provide the main source of living for the village and the project of the Apartheid Wall will cripple the livelihoods of Palestinians. Moreover, the village will be effectively ghettoized by the Wall and by a series of settler-only bypass roads to the north.
The demonstration, organized by the Popular Committee to Resist the Apartheid Wall, marks the beginning of a new stage of resistance in Arab Ramadin. Further protests are planned for the coming week with villagers defiant in their refusal to ever accept the Occupation and its project of the Wall, ghettoization and apartheid.
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