On the one year anniversary of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling, Palestinians took to the streets united in their calls to âTear down this Wall NOW!â. Clashes ensued in Beit Liqya after the body of martyred youth Mahyoub Assi was laid to rest and villagers took to their lands in the area where the 15 year old was murdered.
Ramallah
Over a thousand Palestinians thronged in the streets of Ramallah in a vocal and defiant mood. The march followed a press conference of the National Committee To Resist The Apartheid Wall at 10 am. Members of the coalition outlined their support for the escalating grassroots resistance to the Wall, and came together around a platform of comprehensive boycott and sanctions initiatives, as a means of isolating Israeli Apartheid.
After the press conference demonstrators marched to the central mosque on Abdel Nasser Street which contained the body of the young martyr. After a special prayer session over 1000 Palestinians took the streets carrying the martyrâs body, calling for the Wall to be destroyed, and an end to the brutal Israeli Occupation.
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Beit Liqya
Beit Liqya was the scene of intense clashes on July 9th in the late afternoon, after the funeral service of Mahyoub Assi. Villagers marched to the area where he was assassinated on Friday the 8th of July, to be met by a massive contingent of Occupation Forces. They attacked the protesters with an array of rubber bullets and sound bombs and used large amounts of tear gas leaving many Palestinians choking.
Clashes ensued resulting in 2 injuries. Zahi Ragib â 13 years old and the witness to the murder of Mahyoub – was struck in the head by a rubber bullet and taken for treatment at a local clinic. Jihad Atiya â 17 years old â was injured in his hand from a rubber bullet. Beit Liqya villagers asserted their total rejection of the Apartheid Wall and Israeli Occupation, declaring their resistance would continue.
Mahyoub Assi was murdered by Occupation Forces on Friday the 8th of July. He was shot in the shoulder and chest by Occupation Forces in an area close to the Wall’s construction where the Assi family own land.
Kafr Thulth
Villagers marched to the Jubara area to remove a number of road blocks placed by the Occupation to halt their movement. Palestinians found a large number of Occupation Forces in the area who declared it to be a âclosed military zoneâ. After a brief stand-off Palestinians marched to the village of Kufr Thulth to face further confrontation from Occupation Forces who blocked their entry with barbed wire.
Batons were then used to beat back Palestinians from their lands, together with a flurry of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. Meanwhile, demonstrators already gathered in the village held an open meeting with speeches and calls emphasizing their opposition to the Occupationâs project of ghettoization, and vows to continue Palestinian steadfastness to the lands.
Despite the ongoing violence of the Occupation Forces which has left over 4,700 Palestinians dead â 10 of whom were resisting the Walls construction – communities are continuing their resistance. Last week in the village of Bilâin, sections of the Wall foundations were destroyed reflecting the Palestinian vow of implementing the ICJ decision with their own bare hands.
Moreover, while the ICJ ruling stressed “not to recognize the illegal situation created by the construction of the wall” and not to “render any aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by itâ, the World Bank and its political masters in the G8 have begun to devise a variety of schemes in order to make ghettoization permanent. Most recently the US has contributed $50 million in direct aid to finance checkpoints, gates and high tech terminals to control Palestinian movement in their own land.
The same governments that 16 years ago celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall as their victory are now complicit in the project of the Apartheid Wall and the Occupation which seeks to expel Palestinians from their lands. With resistance escalating it is clear that Palestinians will never accept the Apartheid Wall and colonization of their lands.
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