In opposition to the Wall and the ever-tightening system of Occupation closures, a group of Palestinian youth tore down a section of the Apartheid Wall in the village of Zububa on September 16th. Villagers destroyed around 4 meters of the Wall on the eastern side of the village which is located to the northwest of Jenin. Subsequently, Occupation Forces have imposed a curfew in the area, and threatened to uproot and destroy olive trees and lands belonging to the village.
The Wall was constructed in this area during June 2002. Since that date, it has been a source of continual resentment amongst Palestinians already struggling against regular invasions, harassment and closures. In September 2004 villagers were unable to reach their lands isolated by the Wall to harvest fruit and olives. Occupation Forces deliberately complicated the procedures for permits to reach the lands in order to suffocate the village. Severe economic and social problems ensued as Palestinians lost the produce of their farming lands.
The Apartheid Wall in Zububa village confiscated 85 dunums of land for the footprint. Around a further 60 dunums, owned by 9 families, was left isolated behind the Wall. In 1948 the village lost 14,000 dunums of land. Of the remaining 1329 dunums of land, over half is taken up by the houses and roads of the village. The Wall surrounds Zububa to the north moving out to the east and west. The population of 2025 is now left with one exit to the south of the village.
With the ever-deteriorating conditions of military Occupation and the institutionalization of the Wall and the land theft it brings, villagers have vowed to implement international law with their own hands. While the UN and the international community remain idle and complicit in the Occupation, actions such as the Wall destruction ensure Palestinian rights are asserted through peoples own grassroots resistance.
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