The weekly march began at the village school and moved towards the Wall and the lands isolated behind the Apartheid Wall. There the participants rallied for a cultural festival. The people set up three tents as a symbol for the thousands of tents the Palestinian refugees were forced to live in after they had been driven out of their homes. These tents were a symbolic representation of the Palestinianâs right of return.
***image2***The cultural festival was organized on occasion of the Nakba, the day upon which Palestinians throughout the world commemorate the violent dispossession of Palestinians from their lands and home which resulted in the establishment of the State of Israel. The festival was organised to revive Palestinian cultural heritage in the face of a 62 year occupation that has not only dispossessed the Palestinian people from their land but has had a marked impact on the ability of Palestinians to continue to practice their Arab heritage and traditions.
The PNA Minister of Culture, Siham Barghouti, participated in the festival and delivered a speech stressing the need to protect the heritage and culture of the Palestinian people and the need to revive this heritage in the occasion of the Nakba. The Stop the Wall coordinator for Bethlehem district, Mohammad Brijiyeh, also took to the stage and pledged that the Palestinian people will stay steadfast on their land will not become refugees for a second time. He underlined that the right of return is an inalienable and non- negotiable right. Brijiyeh further called on the Palestinian National Authority to halt the indirect talks with Israel in the light of continued Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.
Then a Dabka group from Artas, a neighbouring village, performed the traditional Palestinian folk dance and Reem Banna, a Palestinian singer from inside the Green Line, sang a few songs.
After the festival people tried to reach their land isolated behind the Wall. However, the occupation forces were stationed behind the trees and immediately started firing tear gas at the demonstrators to prevent them from moving forward. The youth responded to this aggression by throwing stones. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.