***image2***Nine Palestinians were beaten and injured in the village Bilâin and the village of Al-Walaja put under closure as the Occupation attacked the villagesâ weekly demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall on Friday.
In Al-Walaja, West Bethlehem villagers held a sit-in on village lands which are being destroyed for the building of the Apartheid Wall. The Occupation attempted to limit the protests by enforcing military closure on the village, preventing anyone from passing in and out.
In spite of the restrictions, demonstrators marched to the site at the edge of the village where 1,800 trees are being uprooted for the Apartheid Wall. After holding Friday prayers in the open, the coordinators of the popular committee and national figures from the district gave speeches condemning the Apartheid Wall, colonization, and Zionist policies against the people and their land and property, urging ongoing grassroots resistance and confrontation until the Wall is torn down.
The march returned back to the village council building, and then to the northern entrance, carrying the Palestinian flag and chanting slogans against the Wall, colonisation and occupation. Tens of occupation military forces and vehicles surrounded the village and the sit-in area, monitoring the demonstrators. To see the photo-story, click here.
Meanwhile, in the village of Bilâin, West of Ramallah, nine Palestinians were injured during the weekly demonstration against the Wall. Occupation forces attacked the march using clubs and the butts of their guns, firing teargas and sound bombs in an attempt to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the Wall.
The injured were Mustafa Al-Khatir and his brother Mohammed al-Khatir; Adib Abu Rahmah and the coordinator of the committee in the village, Abdullah Abu Rahmah; Mohammed Ali Abu Sadi; Mohammed Khalil; Ibrahim Birnot; and Aisa Abu Rahmah. Tens of others were choked by teargas.
The demonstration in Bilâin comes in the wake of the Occupation courtâs decision to approve a license for an expansion of Modiâin settlement onto Bilâin land. The new neighbourhood of Mattityahu Mizrah is being built on lands owned by the Palestinian villagers that have been isolated behind the Wall. The courtâs decision to grant the license came one day after they had ruled that the Wall be rerouted to return some land to Bilâin, in a smokescreen for the expansion of the settlement.
To read analysis on the Occupation court’s decisions on re-routing of the Wall in Bil’in, click here.
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