WEST BANK: Twenty wounded in a demonstration marking three years of struggle against separation barrier

Record ID: 560072

  • Title: WEST BANK: Twenty wounded in a demonstration marking three years of struggle against separation barrier
  • Date: 23rd February 2008
  • Summary: WIDE OF YOUTH RUNNING AWAY FROM AREA
  • Embargoed: 9th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAEH8K0ANHCBDSRCT5SQVALNUPO
  • Story Text: Around 2,000 people demonstrated on Friday (February 22) in the West Bank village of Beilin, marking three years of protests against the separation barrier built by Israel near the village. Shortly after the beginning of the protest, the Israeli army tried to disperse the crowd using rubber bullets and gas canisters.

    "Anarchists Against the Fence", one of the Israeli organisations who took part in the weekly protests against the fence in Beilin during the last three years, estimated on Friday that at least 20 people were wounded, among them an American tourist who was shot in the head by a rubber bullet and evacuated to a hospital in Ramallah. A Palestinian man was wounded by a rubber bullet in his leg and evacuated. Other wounded were treated on scene by the Red Crescent.
    Local newspapers reported that among the protesters were Israeli left wing groups and Palestinian political leaders, including former Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouthi. Israeli Member of Parliament Mohammed Barakeh suffered from tear gas inhalation and was treated at the scene.
    An Israeli army spokesperson said that thousands of Palestinians, Israelis and Foreign citizens violated a closed military zone while attempting to damage the security fence and threw rocks at Israeli forces.
    A mix of electronic fences and walls, the barrier has been under construction since 2002 and eventually will stretch 400 miles (670 km). Israel says it is building the barrier to keep out suicide bombers but Palestinians see the action as a land grab aimed at dashing their hopes for eventual statehood.
    The World Court said in a July 9, 2004, advisory opinion that the barrier was illegal because it cut into West Bank land to shield Israeli settlements built on territory seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East War.
    It said Israel was obliged to return to their rightful owners any land, orchards, olive groves or other immovable property seized as part of the barrier's construction. Should restitution prove impossible, the Jewish state should compensate those suffering losses or material damage due to its placement or construction, the court said.
    Beilin is one of the Palestinian villages which has suffered from Israeli confiscation of land to make way for the construction of the barrier.
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