Last Friday, in Kufr Malek a mass demonstration has protested the establishment of a new settlement outpost on the village lands. The mobilization comes after last year four settler outposts were stopped by popular resistance. One settlement at a time, we are challenging Israel's settlement project and apartheid regime.
A large coalition of popular committees, political parties and Muslim as well as Christian religious authorities had called to start the mass protests to stop the new settler outpost. Hundreds of people came together to fill the streets and fields.
Last week, settlers had set up a caravan – normally the first step in the construction of a settlement – on the lands of Kufr Malek, in the vicinity of an important well fo the village. This way the settlement would steal not only land but as well the vital water resources.
Israeli military has brutally dispersed the people shooting tear gas andflash granades indiscriminately at the people and in the surrounding lands, setting the nearby hills on fire.
Kurf Malek, is a small Palestinian village in the Ramallah district. Settler attacks on the village have noticeably increased since March 2017, when residents of al-Mughayyir began weekly peaceful marches against new homes for Israeli settlers being built on their lands. Israeli forces have responded violently to the demonstrations, including with live ammunition.
In January, a large group of armed Israeli settlers descended on the village and opened fire indiscriminately on the Palestinian residents, killing Hamdi Naasan, a 38-year-old father of four, with a bullet to his back. Thirty others were wounded.
The grassroots struggle against new settlement outposts has shown last year how successful it can be – and that it can make a difference where the international community has failed for decades. After an audacious action by Stop the Wall in June last year in Al Aqaba (Toubas area) was successful, other movements joined us for further action and we were able to prevent the establishment of settlement outposts as well in Jibiya, Bethlehem and Burin.
Palestinian movements are set to continue on this path and stop the Israeli settlement expansion with their own grassroots struggle.
One settlement at a time, we are challenging Israel's settlement project and apartheid regime.
