According to media reports, the Occupationâs Prime Minister has approved an extension of the Apartheid Wallâs path in West Ramallah, taking it deeper into the West Bank and furthering the imprisonment of 20,000 Palestinians in a walled ghetto. The new modification will see the Wall extend a further 5 km eastwards from its original path. The decision has been taken in order to annex the two settlements of Nili and Naâale, both built on Palestinian land confiscated from the villages of Deir Qaddis and Shabteen. More of their land will be stolen by the expansion.
The Wallâs new path will further the ghettoization of 20,000 Palestinians in six other villages also stuck on the western side of the Wall: Midya, Niâilin, Budrus, Kibyia, Shuqba and Rantis. Life within these villages will become unbearable: As well as being surrounded by the Wall itself, a walled-in Apartheid road only for settlers has been built to complete the imprisonment of the villages.
This new extension is yet another example of the dual rationale behind the Apartheid Wall. While protecting the war crimes of 1,500 settlers who occupy Palestinian land, the Occupation creates intolerable living conditions that ensure the eventual ethnic cleansing of 20,000 Palestinians from villages they have inhabited for generations.
The only route connecting the ghetto with the rest of Ramallah district will be a small tunnel under the settler road at Deir Qaddis village, which will be surrounded on three sides by the Wall.
The new stretch will require a further 12kms of Wall, and will cost an extra 120 million NIS.
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