Monday, November 9, 2009

Video: Marking Berlin anniversary, Palestinians breach Israel's wall by haitham al katib



"Around 100 demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and wearing fluorescent jackets reading, "We are going to Jerusalem," broke through near the Qalandiya military checkpoint, onlookers said. A truck was used to pull down the concrete slabs making up the wall, an organizer said.

Early reports said the demonstration was planned by the "popular committees" local groups organized to oppose the construction of the wall.

Last Friday, protesters in the village of Ni'lin also managed to tear down a section of the wall. Residents of the village, like those in many towns along the route of the wall, participate in weekly demonstrations against the barrier and the associated annexation of their land.

Intended to be 709 kilometers in length, Israel had completed 413 kilometers of the wall by June 2009, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The barrier, in reality a network of walls, fences, watchtowers and checkpoints, snakes through the interior of the West Bank, looping around Israeli settlements and fragmenting Palestinian communities.

The International Court of Justice ruled that the wall is illegal under international law in 2004. Israel maintains the barrier is for its security.

'We refuse to be put in cages' "

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