Weekly protest in al-Ma’sara marches towards Efrat settlement
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Weekly protest in al-Ma’sara marches towards Efrat settlement

On June 25th, 2010, three demonstrators were injured in the weekly march in the village al-Ma’sara (Bethlehem District) as a result of the clashes between the demonstrators and the Israeli Occupation Forces at the entrance of the Efrat settlement. The demonstrators managed to go through the barbed wire set up by the Occupation Forces at the entrance of the village and walk in the direction of the settlement.

As usual, this weekly protest began in front of the al-Zawahra school. International solidarity activists accompanied the villagers in the protest which moved towards the entrance of the village where the
Occupation Forces were stationed with 6 military vehicles. The Occupation Forces tried to stop the demonstrators from reaching the Efrat settlement by assaulting the protestors, leading to the wounding of three activists.

The Bethlehem popular committee coordinator Muhammad Brijiyeh stated that this weekly protest was in solidarity with the member of the Legislative Council, Abu Teir, who the Israeli authorities had stripped of his residency rights and and expelled from Jerusalem with an order exectuive from today. He further stated that Israel’s policy of Judaization of Jerusalem and the expulsion of its native population will never be accepted. However, Brijiyeh ensured that these repressive practices would not affect the Palestinians in their struggle to liberate Palestinian land.

This demonstration sought to shed light upon how settlement growth is just as threatening to the Palestinian territories as the Wall is. Like the Apartheid Wall, the construction of settlements has required the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian lands. Moreover, the settlements are changing the facts on the ground with the intentions of removing any feasibility of Palestinian self-determination in the West Bank.

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