The campaign âStand up⦠and Break the Siegeâ continues in their popular activities to remove the military checkpoint, which isolates 17 villages north and north-east of Ramallah from the city. On June 18th, 2010, a mass demonstration started at the military checkpoint in front of the Beit El settlement which is built on the lands of the village of Bittin. Hundreds of demonstrators that participated in this initiative were from the eastern villages and were inhabitants and members of the local councils, women’s associations, youth clubs, popular committees, centers, and community-based organizations active in the Ramallah area.
The demonstrators gathered at the checkpoint in front of the occupation forces who tried to suppress their protest. They chanted several national slogans in condemnation of the occupation, settlement construction, checkpoint policies, and collective punishment that the occupation forces are carrying out in violation of Palestinian human rights. The demonstrators also called for national unity that was embodied in the activities of the campaign.
The Popular Committee and the demonstrators stressed their intention to continue the activities of the campaign and the popular resistance in order to break the checkpoint that continues to strangle all the villages in the east and north-east of Ramallah. The campaign is the first of its kind in demanding the opening of closed roads by the occupation forces. Its mission is to end the infringements on fundamental Palestinian human rights through the dismantling of checkpoints, like the one in Bittin, which severely restrict Palestiniansâ freedom of movement between their own communities.