Bil'in residents and peace activists achieve rerouting of the Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall through Israeli High Court 

Date: 04 / 09 / 2007 Time: 15:40

Bethlehem – Ma'an – 

The Israeli occupation government High Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday to reroute the path of the land-annexation wall near the central West Bank village of Bil'in.

Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the court ordered the redrawing, partial dismantling and rebuilding of a 1.7 kilometre section of the Wall.

Bil'in has been the location of a weekly popular, non-violent demonstration against the wall, which was to confiscate almost 60% of land belonging to the village. The event has been named 'Work-Site of Shame', in reference to the area where the wall is under construction.

Palestinian, Israeli and international activists flock to Bil'in each Friday to peacefully demonstrate against the construction of the Wall. Israeli forces regularly meet the demonstrators with a disproportionate use of violence and several protestors have been injured since the first demonstration, as a result of rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas.

The three-judge panel of the hearing accepted a petition presented by head of the Bil'in local council against the route of the wall and its annexation of Palestinian land.

The judges ordered the planners to reroute the Wall in order to reduce the devastating impact on local villagers.

Villagers appealed to the court to change the route of the Wall, which cut them off from their farmland, olive trees and livelihoods.

In order to implement the court ruling, the Wall must be demolished in certain areas and rebuilt, further towards the local Israeli settlement of Modi'in Illit.

The organisers of the Bil'in demonstration were overjoyed by the court ruling and expressed hope that the decision will be implemented immediately.

Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member, Mustafa Barghouthi, commended the struggle of Bil'in residents and the efforts of foreign activists.

Barghouthi said that the perseverance of everyone involved forced the Israeli High Court to relocate the separation Wall. "The struggle must continue until the Wall falls completely," he said.

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Note to Readers:

The Israeli settlements as well as the Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall in the Palestinian occupied territories have been built illegally on confiscated Palestinian lands. These represent a major violation of international law, Geneva Conventions, and they obstruct reaching a peaceful resolution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Israeli occupation forces abduct and kidnap Palestinians from their homes and at checkpoints, on daily basis. Most media refer to these abductions and kidnappings as arrests, which is inaccurate and not true as the Israeli occupation government has no jurisdiction over Palestinian citizens inside their own territories.

Further, when Israeli occupation forces kill Palestinian civilians, particularly when the victims are women and children, this should be referred to as an act of terrorism, and perpetrators should be described as terrorists.

Since the end of the second intifadha in 2005, not a single Israeli civilian was killed by Palestinian resistance organizations. However, Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces, almost on daily basis.

Note to Journalists:

Any journalist who does not describe this as terrorism is biased, unfair, not objective, and a participant in terrorizing the Palestinian people, so the Israeli occupation of Palestine can continue endlessly.

Note to Translators:

The Arabic definite article, Al (or its variant, El) should be written with a hyphen separating it from the noun it is associated with, for example Al-Aqsa. If a hyphen is not used, as in Al Aqsa, it confuses non-Arabic readers. They may think that it is an abbreviation of the name Albert, as many Americans do.

The Arabic definite article Al (or El) should be written as such, whether it is Shamsiyah or Qamariyah in pronunciation, simply because we are dealing with the written form of the language, not the spoken one. Using the Shamsiyah so many forms in writing is inaccurate and confusing to non-Arabic readers, to say the least.

Only standard (fasih) pronunciation of Arabic names should be used. Non-standard ('ammi)  should be avoided avoided. Example: Names like Abu Sunainah, Abu Rudainah, and Abu Shebak are written by some translators in the non-standard forms of Abu Snainah, Abu Rdainah, and Abu Shbak.

The standard pronunciation of the vowel at the end of names is (a), not (e), particularly if it is followed by (h), like in the cases of Haniyah and Rudainah, not Haniyeh and Rudaineh.

The standard pronunciation of vowels in the following names is (ai), not (ei) as written by  some translators: Hussain, not Hussein and Hassanain, not Hassanein. This is the same long vowel pronounced in the English words "rain" and "brain."

 

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