***image2***Occupation bulldozers have continued uprooting the uprooting of hundreds of forest trees in al Walaja, West Bethlehem, in preparation for the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the north-east of the village, close to Har Gilo settlement.
According to the village councilâs estimates 1,400 trees have been uprooted so far, of a total 1,800 slated for destruction on a strip of land 100 meters wide and 800 meters long.
Last Friday, dozens of people demonstrated on the land where the bulldozers are working. Speakers addressing the crowd condemned the Wall, the settlements and land confiscation, and encouraged the villagers to maintain the popular struggle against the wall until its removal. They held Friday prayers on the land as a statement of their intention to hold fast to their property, and to refuse to cooperate with the Occupationâs plans to confiscate their land for the settlement project.
Occupation forces concentrated a large number of Israeli soldiers and jeeps in the area, monitoring the activity of the demonstrators.