On Sunday early morning hours, Israeli soldiers, who are guarding the construction of the separation wall near the village of Belein, near Ramallah, found five human barrels blocking the construction route.
Organizers of the event were Palestinian, International and Israeli peace activists. The five activists barricaded themselves inside metal barrels placed on the route of the separation wall, while others demonstrated along the wall route.
Soldiers declared the area a closed military zone and used metal cutters to move the peace activists out of the barrels. Five Israeli peace activists and a Swede were arrested. ÂÂ
Prior to being arrested, Swedish citizen Johan Persson, explained why he placed himself inside a barrel:
‘It is the responsibility of the international community to enforce international law. Since our governments and the UN are allowing Israel to continue committing war crimes with impunity it has become the responsibility of citizens like myself to do what we can to stop them.’ He said.
Police source said Sunday that Johan has been handed over to the ministry of interior and is likely to be issued a deportation order. The arrested Israeli activists were released after several hours on the condition that they stay away from the village of Bil’in for seven days.
