Palestinians in Jerusalem protest against the Wall

Thursday July 10, 2008 05:49

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Marking the fourth anniversary of the advisory ruling of the International Court of Justice in which it ruled that the Israeli Annexation Wall is illegal, hundreds of Palestinians from the Jerusalem district organized a protest on Wednesday in Beit Hanina area in Jerusalem.

File - Image by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC

The residents carried Palestinian flags and marched in a peaceful protest against the Wall which swallows their land and isolates them.

They said that they have a legitimate right to preserve their Olive trees and the right to access their lands and plant them.

Hatim Abdul-Qader, Jerusalem Affairs advisor to Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salaam Fayyad, Abdullah Siyam, deputy to Jerusalem governor, Ali Amer, head of the Wall and Settlements unit at the Prime Ministers’ office and several other Fateh leaders along with Beit Hanina village council head, Ahmad Al Barsh, also participated in the protest.

The protesters marched along the Wall route in Beit Hanina and chanted slogans demanding the international community to implement the ruling of the International Court of Justice, and demanded Israel to remove its illegal Wall.

Sa’id Yaqeen, member of the National Committee Against the Wall, stated that Beit Hanina was chosen as the central location of the protest as Israeli bulldozers are still working there to install the wall and the Israeli authorities are still annexing Palestinians lands.

Yaqeen added that this Wall will fall, and stated that the Israeli apartheid system and illegal isolation of the Palestinians will fall as the apartheid regime in South Africa fell.

Israeli soldiers surrounded the protesters and demanded them to leave the area after the soldiers declared it as a “closed military zone”.