***image2***The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign today mourns the deaths of two martyred children from Beit Liqya, murdered by the Occupation as they protested against the Apartheid Wall. The village has pledged it will continue their resistance until the Wall is brought down.
Jamal Jaber, 15 years old, and Uday Mofeed, 14, were executed in cold blood from just ten metres.
The two martyrs were evacuated by ambulance but the journey to Ramallah hospital was held up at the permanent Occupation checkpoint at Qalandiya, the main entrance to Ramallah. By the time the ambulance was allowed through to the hospital, both boys had bled to death.
Earlier this evening, a group of youths were involved in a protest against the Occupation that is destroying the villageâs land for the construction of the Apartheid Wall. Demonstrations and confrontations with the Occupation have become a daily event in Beit Liqya in recent weeks. A group of protestors were chased by Occupation Forces for one kilometer, being shot at with live ammunition. Crowds of villagers swarmed onto the streets in an effort to protect them, but Occupation Forces followed and continued shooting. Jamal was shot in the chest, with the bullet passing through his body, while Uday was shot in the upper leg, severing an artery.
The murder of the two boys means that six martyrs have now been killed in the West Ramallah district while demonstrating against the Apartheid Wall. Last year several members of the popular committees resisting the Wall in Biddu and Beit Ijza were shot by Occupation Forces.
The violence of the Occupation in this district has been escalating in recent weeks as the Wall extends its grip over the villages. Around three dozen villagers have been injured by rubber bullets, tear gas and live ammunition in the last two weeks alone. But the violence has not quelled the villagersâ resistance and protests have gathered pace. Along with Beit Liqya, the villagers of Bilâin and Saffa have offered intense resistance to the Apartheid Wall, with daily demonstrations and marches involving hundreds of villagers.
Young boys such as Jamal and Uday have been at the forefront of the movement against the Wall and the process of ghettoization that steals the villages’ lands and future. As Abu Iyad, a relative of one of the martyrs, declared, âThis is the Israeli Occupation, this is what we expect from them. They can do what they want, they can steal the land, they can kill our children, but we are not going to leave. We are staying. This is our land. They want to uproot us but the future is ours and the Occupation is the one that will be uprooted.â
Beit Liqya, a village of some 8,000 people, has already seen much of its land destroyed by the Occupation bulldozers implementing the construction of the Apartheid Wall. An area which was until recently covered in lush olive groves is now razed and emptied. 2,350 dunums of the villageâs most fertile farmland will be annexed upon its completion.
The Wallâs route over Beit Liqyaâs land stretches for nine kilometers, jutting first west, and then south and then finally eastwards and thus encircling the village on three sides. The Wallâs path in this area will also destroy significant parts of the ruins of two historical Islamic sites at Khirbat Ganayem and Khirbat Bakr.
For Beit Laqya, the current ghettoization completes Israelâs policy of confiscation, colonization and expulsion. In 1948, 2,000 dunums of land was stolen from the village, and in 1967 a further 1,000 dunums was annexed for the building of the nearby settlement of Mevo Horon.
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