At least ten Palestinian and Israeli peace activists were injured on Thursday at noon after the Israeli soldiers attacked a joint peaceful protest against the Separation Wall in Beit Siera village, west of Ramallah.Israeli soldiers were uprooting orchards in order to construct the Wall in a Palestinian area between Beit Siera and Maccabim settlement, located within the Green Line.
Troops attacked the procession as 200 residents of Beit Siera, and dozens of activists of Anarchists Against the Wall movement protested in the area while the military bulldozers were uprooting the land in order to pave the route of the Wall.
The Army fired rubber-coated bullets and tear gas bombs at the protesters who managed to delay the construction for several hours; at least ten protesters were injured.
Recently, B’Tselem and Bimkom Israeli human rights organizations published a report which revealed that the main consideration behind the construction of the Wall and is current route is to enable settlement expansion in the area.
The report, entitled "Under the Guise of Security”, revealed that Israel is constructing the Separation Wall in the West Bank under the pretence of security, while the routing of the Wall is made to enable Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank.
B’Tselem said that the fact that the Separation Wall cuts into the West Bank, and isolates the residents from each other and from their orchards, was and remains the main human rights violations of Palestinians living near the Wall.
The report looks at four areas where Israel is planning the Wall for settlement expansion; the settlements Tzofin and Alfei Menashe near Qalqilia, Modi’in Illit and the Separation Wall surrounding the Neveh Yaakov settlement in northern Jerusalem.
The conclusion of the report was that Israel is planning a direct link between the route already constructed in the area and future master plans to expand the settlements and link them after blocking all Palestinian access.
