Monday, September 20, 2004

Israel-Palestine, Another Media on: The construction of the WALL and the struggle that continues 20/09/04

Four anti-fence demonstrators and four soldiers were wounded Sunday following a confrontation between protesters and security forces south of Mt. Hebron. The IDF said demonstrators threw stones and bricks at the soldiers, lightly wounding four.
> Jonathan Pollak, of Anarchists Against the Wall said that "throughout the whole demonstration not one stone was thrown." Demonstrators were holding olive branches in their hands to symbolize the 1,000 trees lost during the fence's construction in the area of Beit Awwa, Sikka, Deir Aamut, said Pollak. Violence broke out when security forces tried to arrest the demonstrators. "They started kicking people and punching people," he said.

According to Pollak, some 250 Palestinians and 50 Israelis and international demonstrators headed in the direction of the construction near the settlement of Shekef around 10 a.m. "We managed to block the bulldozers for two hours or so," said Pollak. Additional security forces came "and it got pretty rough," he said. "One Palestinian demonstrator was beaten unconscious. They were stepping on his face and kicking his head. Another Israeli demonstrator got burn wounds from a stun grenade that was thrown at her. Two other Palestinians were lightly injured," said Pollak.

He said that the villages are losing some 1,200 dunams of land to the fence. Much of the arguments surrounding the fence have been reduced to the question of whether or not it is on the green line, said Pollak. He doesn't accept any wall, including on the green line. "We oppose the wall on any path," Pollak said. Construction of a wall in Gaza has turned it into one of the world's largest prisons. "We won't let that happen here," he said. "Not in our name," he added.

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