Marking The Fall of Berlin Wall, Palestinians Down Section Of the illegal Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall In Bil’in

Monday November 09, 2009 21:37 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Dozens of protesters reenacted the 20the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by downing part of the illegal Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall built on local Palestinian lands near the Qalandia Airport, north of Jerusalem. The army rushed to the area firing tear gas at the protesters.

This is the second time Palestinians down a section of the wall this week.

On Monday, hundreds of Palestinian activists, waving Palestinian flags and wearing florescent jackets downed a section of the Wall and chanted “To Jerusalem we are going, Martyrs in Millions”, referring to the Palestinian right in Jerusalem.

The chant itself became very famous in Palestine as the late President, Yasser Arafat, used to say it very often in his speeches.

Abdullah Abu Rahma of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in, said that this is the first step towards a series of activities planned to be held in coming days to express the Palestinian steadfastness and rejection to the Apartheid Wall on their lands.

“Today we commemorate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall," said Abdullah Abu Rahma, leader of the People's Campaign to Fight the Wall. "This is the first step in a series of activities we will be holding in the coming days to express our firm attachment to our land and our rejection of this wall."

In 2004, the International Court at the Hague issued a nonbinding ruling stating that the Wall is illegal and that it should be removed as it is built deep into the Palestinian territories separating the residents from each other and from their orchards and farmlands.

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Statement issued by Bil’in residents who tore down a section of the illegal Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall

On 9 November 1989 the world witnessed the moment of the demolition of the Berlin Wall. Similarly, at this moment, twenty years later, a group of Palestinians have demolished part of the illegal Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall around Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, that bleeds every day... Jerusalem who's children are homeless under the rain. These young boys and girls who were promised by the martyr president Yasser Arafat that they would raise the Palestinian flag on the churches and mosques of Jerusalem.

Mosques and churches who's sanctity is defiled while we passively wait for salvation unaware that the responsibility lies on us. Rebuilding popular resistance is essential for Jerusalem and Palestine.

In this event we are calling for a return to the achievements of the popular uprising that began on 9 December 1987. This year, on 9 December, we are calling on people to move en masse towards Jerusalem.

We are calling for the formation of a unified national leadership to lead a mass popular uprising of which all the Palestinian people, groups and political factions are a part of.

This popular uprising will be pro-active and innovative with a strategy to mobilize international support for the justice of our cause, as a way out of the current political impasse.

We will use this support to create international pressure to end the occupation, and establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and to restore unity amongst our people, from the West Bank to Gaza.

Marking Berlin anniversary, Palestinians breach Israel's wall

Published yesterday (updated) 09/11/2009 20:51

Ramallah – Ma'an –

Marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Palestinian demonstrators breached Israel's concrete barrier near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday.

Reporting from the scene, Ma'an's correspondent said the protesters, once they reached the other side, set fire to tires. Israeli forces also opened fire, the reporter said.

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 – as well as the Fatah movement.

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 Nation’s 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'

One of the main proponents of popular nonviolent action, Mustafa Barghouthi applauded the breach of the separation wall, stating that it was the natural outcome of failed negotiations to bring down the wall.

“This is just the beginning of a popular decision taken by Palestinians to demolish the apartheid wall because they refuse to live like slaves and be imprisoned in cages like what happened in South Africa, and maybe what is happening with Palestinians is more harmful,” Barghouthi said in an interview.

Barghouthi, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, stressed that the decision to breach the wall was a normal response to the failure to negotiations and all efforts will be continued to bring down the wall, adding that more resolutions are required to challenge Israel, such as establishing Palestinian institutions over areas B and C of the West Bank, because they are considered Palestinian lands.

He added that is necessary to violate Israeli orders, stressing at the same time the importance of working to put an end to the separation wall.

Mushir Ghazzal, an organizer with the popular struggle coordination committee, said in a statement after the demonstration, "Today's events prove that we must not wait for Israel to end its occupation on its own – we Palestinians should do it with our own two hands. Like the Berlin Wall at the time, Israel's wall seems to us an undefiable reality, but twice this week it has caved in to the pressure of ordinary people fighting for their rights."

Barghouthi calls for popular resistance against Zionist schemes

[ 09/11/2009 - 08:01 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

MP Mustafa Al-Barghouthi, the secretary general of the Palestinian national initiative party, has called for planning a national strategy that would merge popular resistance with national steadfastness in addition to rallying international support for the Palestine cause.

Barghouthi in a press statement on Monday said that the Israeli government does not want peace and was planning to prolong a kind of Palestinian self-rule under the guise of a Palestinian state.

He said that young men in Ni'lin managed to knock down a small part of the wall cutting their village into two halves, noting that the event took place as the world was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The MP charged Israel with turning the longest occupation in modern history into an apartheid regime that is the worst in the history of mankind.

Barghouthi appealed to the world community to impose sanctions on Israel to force it to halt crimes in the Palestinian lands and to end the racist occupation and its arbitrary measures in Jerusalem and other occupied lands.