Israeli Occupation Forces arrested international solidarity activists and wounded several demonstrators during the weekly march against the Wall and settlements in the village of Biâlin (Ramallah District).
As usual, the protest began after Friday prayers after which demonstrators marched in the streets calling for Palestinian national unity and confirmed the need for a resounding Palestinian resistance to the occupation. The march also demanded the release of all prisoners, and chanted slogans condemning the aggression against Jerusalem, Israelâs policy of exclusion and deportation, the end of the siege on the Gaza Strip, and a stop to the construction of the Wall and settlements.
Because this weekly protest fell on the sixth anniversary of the July 9th, 2004 International Court of Justice Hearing which condemned the construction of the Wall as illegal under international law, participants held Palestinian flags and banners commemorating the anniversary and demanding Israelâs application of the ICJ ruling.
Demonstrators chanted slogans condemning Israelâs perpetual disregard for the advisory opinion and demanding an end to the construction of the Wall and its associated regime.
The march also included a symbolic gesture, wherein protestors carried a big model of a balance. Israel sat on one side of the balance and international standards of law sat on the other, with the balance tipped towards Israel to reflect Israelâs disregard to international humanitarian law.
The demonstrators marched in the village and headed towards the Wall where the Israeli Occupation Forces were stationed behind the concrete blocks of the Wall. When the demonstrators tried to reach the confiscated lands, the Occupation Forces fired stun grenades, rubber-coated metal bullets, and tear gas at them from all directions.
As a result, Thaer Mohammad (25 years-old) and Muhammad Zahir (20 years-old) were injured when tear gas canisters hit them, several unidentified international activists were arrested, and dozens of demonstrators suffocated from the inhalation of tear gas. Moreover, portions of the villageâs agricultural land caught fire due to the dispersal of tear gas.
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