***image2***Occupation forces attacked the West Bank village of Budrus on Sunday, after they found a hole in the Apartheid Wall near the village.
A unit of Occupation forces arrived in the morning and began shooting rounds of live ammunition between the houses and firing teargas. One youth, Khalaf Sudqi Khalaf, was injured by flying shrapnel and had to be taken to hospital.
The attack is latest in a series designed to terrorise the village, collectively punishing the people for their resistance to the Apartheid Wall.
Since the start of construction in 2004, the village has been the site of frequent demonstrations and direct action, with villagers standing in front of diggers, halting work for up to three days at a time, putting back construction of the wall in area by a year and a half and forcing the Occupation authorities modify the Wallâs route. The path now confiscates 80 dunums of village land, rather than the planned 2,000 dunums. An Islamic holy site, a school and a cemetery slated for destruction have all been saved. Since the completion of the wall, resistance has continued with holes frequently being cut in the wall as the people assert the right to access their land.
The Occupation has tried various tactics to break the villagersâ will, sometimes rounding up all the men of the village and taking their finger prints and footprints, at other times picking out a single house and destroying the contents. Papers have been distributed to the houses, warning of further collective punishment if the damage to the wall continues.
But the spirit of defiance remains strong in Budrus. They will never accept the presence of the Apartheid Wall.
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