A group of Palestinian youths allegedly managed to bring down an iron gate that was set up by Israeli forces as part of Israel’s illegal separation wall, running through the village of Anata in the central occupied West Bank district of Jerusalem.
Spokesperson of the Fatah movement in the nearby Shufat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem, Thaer Fasfous, told Ma’an that several youths used hand tools to bring down the gate on Friday as an act of protest against Israel’s separation wall.
Fasfous pointed out that the gate is located in the middle of the separation wall that runs through Anata, and separates it from the nearby illegal settlement of Pisgat Zeev.
The separation wall that keeps shoafat refugee camp & Anata town inside the wall , although they are both in Jerlm pic.twitter.com/RskyALfRbq
— Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) November 7, 2014
Fasfous said that as the youth were taking down the gate, an Israeli army patrol raided the village, sparking clashes between soldiers and youths. Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber-coated steel bullets at locals.
Israel’s separation wall, expected to reach 708 kilometers upon its completion – 88 percent of which is planned inside occupied Palestinian territory, is a common sight in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli-installed cement walls and barrier fences zigzag throughout the landscape.
The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion in 2004 stating that the wall was illegal under international law and its construction must stop immediately, adding that reparations should be paid to Palestinians whose properties were damaged as a result of the construction.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
