Five Arrested as Construction of the Wall Disrupted in alWalaja

Four Palestinians and a Canadian solidarity activist were arrested in the in the village of alWalaja south of Jerusalem after protesters blocked bulldozers clearing path for Israel's wall. Six were injured.

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A few dozen people - Palestinians, Israelis and internationals – managed to reach the construction site of the Wall in alWalaja, and despite heightened presence of Israeli forces succeeded in blocking the bulldozers.

Border Police officers gauging a demonstrator's eye during his arrest. Picture Credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills
Border Police officers gauging a demonstrator's eye during his arrest.
Picture Credit: Oren Ziv/ActiveStills

The protesters, who remained completely nonviolent, were assaulted with billy clubs in an attempt to remove them from their lands and allow construction to resume. Five demonstrators, four Palestinians and a Canadian, were violently arrested by Israeli Border Police officers, who used large amounts of pepper-spray in their apprehension. One of the arrestees, whose house is adjacent to the construction site, was arrested after the demonstration had already finished when he was posting Palestinian flags on the path of the wall, near his house.

Six demonstrators were injured as a result of Border Police baton charges, including an Israeli photographer who was evacuated to the hospital after receiving a blow to the head.

Background:
Al-Walaja is an agrarian village of about 2,000 people, located south of Jerusalem and West of Bethlehem. Following the 1967 Occupation of the West Bank and the redrawing of the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, roughly half the village was annexed by Israel and included in the Jerusalem municipal area. The village's residents, however did not receive Israeli residency or citizenship, and are considered illegal in their own homes.

Once completed, the path of the Wall is designed to encircle the village's built-up area entirely, separating the residents from Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and almost all their lands - roughly 5,000 dunams. Previously, Israeli authorities have already confiscated approximately half of the village's lands for the building of the Har Gilo and Gilo settlements, and closed off areas to the south and west of it. The town's inhabitants have also experienced the cutting down of fruit orchards and house demolition due to the absence of building permits in Area C.

According to a military confiscation order handed to the villagers, the path of the Wall will stretch over 4890 meters between Beit Jala and alWallaja, affecting 35 families, whose homes may be slated for demolition.