Last Saturday, the Stop the Wall Campaign in Qalqiliya governorate organized a sit-in at the gate of Wadi al-Rasha. A large number of farmers from the village participated in this demonstration. They chanted slogans denouncing the wall and the Israeli Occupation Forces who stop these farmers from reaching their land by refusing to open the gate. This land has an area of more than 2500 dunums and it is owned by approximately 450 farmers from Wadi al-Rasha, Ras Tira and Mughara al-Dabaa.
Two months ago, the IOF changed the path of the Wall shifting it away from some residential areas closer to the Green Line. The path was changed after an Israeli court decision ordered a re-routing of the Wall in order to include a group of residents that would have been isolated outside the ghetto created by the Wall. The change in the route of the Wall has resulted in farmers being barred from reaching their land, which has been cut-off by the new path of the Wall. The thousands of dunums of agricultural land that are owned by the farmers of the area are the only source of subsistence for them and their families.
The Coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign in Qalqiliya governorate, Naâil Salmi, stated that the sit-in is one part of a campaign aimed at assisting farmers who are harvesting their olives on land close to the settlements and the Apartheid Wall.
The farmers participating to the sit-in represented the Stop the Wall Campaign, the Palestinian Popular Party, the Popular Front, the National Initiative, the Farmers Union, the Agricultural Work Committees and the Medical Relief.