West Bank villages protest in solidarity with Hebron

By Haggai Matar February 25, 2012 | Edit

Weekly demonstrations throughout the West Bank focused this week on the demand to open Shuhada St. in Hebron.

While hundreds of people took to the streets of Hebron in two mass demonstrations, hundreds more dedicated the weekly Friday demonstrations against the wall and the settlements to solidarity with residents of Hebron, joining the demand that Shuhada Street be opened to Palestinians.

For more on the Hebron protest and other West Bank demonstrations, one of which resulted in the killing of a Palestinian protester, click here.

In Ma’asara, several dozen demonstrators marched towards lands appropriated by the construction of the “separation fence” – which has recently been restarted after a halt that lasted roughly three years. Protestors carried signs and chanted slogans referring to the policy of segregation in Hebron. They were stopped at the entrance to the village by soldiers, and eventually returned into the village.

Protest at Ma'asara (Photo: Mahmoud Zwahre)

In Nabi Saleh as well, the demonstration focused on the Hebron struggle. According to the Popular Committees’ website:

Protesters were shortly met by a volley of tear-gas canisters and rubber coated bullets. Some clashes erupted near the entrance to the village and persisted for a while. At a certain point, an army brigade invaded the village, for the first time in months, to chase and arrest local youth. While not succeeding in making any arrests, the army remained in the village for over an hour, shooting massive amounts of tear-gas and rubber coated bullets inside a populated area.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUUDJglSF8c[/youtube]

Similar demonstrations also took place in Ni’lin, A-Dik, and Qadum, where some 200 Palestinian and Israeli demonstrators were met by army forces, who fired tear gas in order to stop them from reaching village lands near the settlement of Qdumim.

Qadum demonstration (Photo: Lior Ben Eliahu)

In Bil’in, demonstrators were successful in cutting a few meters out of the barbed wire protecting the wall built on their lands. On Saturday, dozens of protestors marched from the village of Beit-Umar, towards nearby settlements, and were dispersed by the army.

Cutting barbed wire in Bil'in (Photo: Rani Burnat)

The cut fence in Bil'in (Photo: Rani Burnat)

Earlier in the week, an unknown group named “Artists for Israel Tomorrow” distributed in Israeli cities hundreds of copies of a fake issue of the popular “Israel Hayom” (Israeli Today) newspaper, proclaiming an end to segregation in Hebron.

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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