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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org for Wednesday April 21st, 2010.
Fifth annual conference on Popular resistance starts in Bilin, while the army detains civilians from the West Bank. These stories and more are coming up, stay tuned.
The News Cast
Hundreds of Palestinians along with international and Israeli delegates started on Wednesday the fifth annual conference on popular resistance in the village of Bil’in near the central west Bank city of Ramallah.
In addition to Palestinian ministers, European Union, and United States officials joined the opening of the conference. Bil’in has been site of weekly nonviolent protest against the wall and settlements for the past five years.
In September 2007, following lengthy legal proceedings and non-stop resistance by the villagers and their supporters, the Israeli high court ruled to shift the wall from its planned route in a manner that will retrieve half of the land confiscated by the Israeli military.
Bil’in’s conference will end on Friday with the regular weekly protest, last year the military killed Bassem Abu Rahma, a local activist during one of those protests.
Abu Rahma was killed when a gas canister fired by an Israeli soldier hit him directly in the chest at a short range.
Elsewhere in the West Bank the Israeli military detained three Palestinian youth during invasions targeting areas in Jerusalem, Hebron in the south and Nablus in the north.
In the town of Beit Ummar, near Hebron, Israeli settlers destroyed around 20 acres of vineyards that belong to Palestinian farmers. Eyewitnesses reported that settlers switched the waste water pipes to the vineyards causing a serious damage to the grapes.
In other news two Palestinian fishermen were injured when Israeli naval vessels opened fire at them near Rafah city, southern Gaza Strip. Earlier this week the army attacked fishermen at deferent locations in the Gaza strip damaging boats but causing no injuries.
Conclusion
Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org, this report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi.
