Posted on 07/29/2003 8:06:25 AM PDT by yonif
Soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets against Israeli, Palestinian, and foreign activists affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement who tore down a section of the West Bank security fence and forced open a locked gate on Monday. Five foreign ISM volunteers were reported wounded.
Soldiers deployed at the site watched as more than 200 demonstrators marched toward the fence near Anin, northwest of Jenin, to allow villagers to tend to their fields on the other side of the fence. Troops were forced to intervene when the demonstrators began tearing down the fence. One of the group, a US citizen, sustained a rubber bullet wound to the thigh and was taken to a hospital in Jenin, said Yonatan Pollack, an Israeli activist, who walked with others to the site from Jenin.
Pollack said he has been actively opposed the building of the security fence since construction began two years ago, calling it a "a war crime, a violation of international law" that "must be removed."
The protest, he said, was initiated by the local villagers who were unable to tend to their fields. "The gate was locked and surrounded by barbed wire, despite promises, and that's why we began to break it open. The soldiers began firing tear gas and rubber bullets at us," he said.
IDF officers said that at that part of the security fence, which was constructed six months ago, villagers must coordinate a time with the local district coordinating office in order to tend to their fields.
Andrew, a 28-year-old Scotsman who arrived in Israel a little under a month ago, has since been dwelling in "Palestine" assisting in removing roadblocks and witnessing events on the ground in order to inform organizations back home, he said. It was the first time he had participated in a protest that focused on the "apartheid wall," he said.
"The focus of the march was to open the gate and protest the existence of the fence," he said. "I am part of a nonviolent campaign."
Despite the soldiers' actions, demonstrators remained at the site for a further hour and a half. They succeeded in opening the gate and opening a small section of the fence before leaving the site, he said.
Andrew, who refused to divulge his full name, said he is active in British pro-Palestinian movements that protest the ongoing "occupation" and the building of the wall. Israel's claims that the wall will enhance the security of its citizens is not an excuse, he said.
"If you want to protect your property, build a wall on your own land. If Israel insists it is necessary, then it should be built along the 1967 borders instead of confiscating Palestinian land," he said.
Andrew said many foreign volunteers are willing to risk their lives to see the Israeli "occupation" of Palestinian land firsthand and return home to inform people of what it's really like. Both Pollack and Andrew vowed there will be more such protests in the future.
A statement released by the ISM said, "In 1989, a wall came crashing down in Berlin, destroyed by the powerful desire for peace. Around the world, we felt the injustice of imprisoning a city with a concrete barricade, barbed wire, and guards instructed to shoot to kill. Fifteen years later, another wall is going up. The power of peace will take this wall down, too."
Meanwhile, in the West Bank on Monday night, shots were fired at an Israeli motorist as they drove from Baka a-Sharkia toward Hermesh, west of Jenin. No one was wounded in the attack, but bullets damaged the car.
IDF sappers safely detonated three pipe bombs, and a bomb containing several kilograms of explosives found in the morning by security forces near Jelaboun, east of Jenin.
Soldiers arrested seven Palestinian terrorism suspects in Beit Furik, south of Nablus, and shots were fired at an IDF patrol in Nablus. No one was wounded, but bullets damaged the soldiers' vehicle.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians fired two mortar shells early Monday morning. IDF officers said the shells landed in an area under Palestinian Authority control, not far from the settlement of Netzarim in the north.
Meanwhile, police sappers safely neutralized three bombs that were discovered near Kibbutz Merav on Mount Gilboa on Monday morning. Police from the Ammakim District found one medium-sized device and later discovered two smaller ones in subsequent searches. It is believed they were planted in the area by Palestinian terrorist's with the aim of detonating them alongside Border Police patrols or local residents travelling in the area.
The media has been reporting Israel repressing "Palestinians" protesting the fence and hurting them, when it was actually an ISM led inteference with IDF activities, and ISM volunteers who were injured by rubber bullets and tear gas, not "Palestinians" as the headlines put forward.
No. That wall came crashing down because people were fed up with living a life enslaved by an oppressive regime that shared an ideaology with groups like the ISM...
'Peace' didn't tear down that wall. a desire for FREEDOM tore down that wall.
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