Violence in al-Walaja as the weekly protest against the wall grows

Violence in al-Walaja as the weekly protest against the wall growsIsraeli violence is growing in al-Walaja as the village continues to grow its resistance to the building of the Separation Wall on its land. Yesterday, Israeli forces attacked non-violent demonstrators with stones, sound bombs and tear gas. Two Palestinians were arrested violently and the protest was repressed with unnecessary violence. The following video captures the demo better than words.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU8S0wYcS8A[/youtube]

Mazin Qumsiyeh PhD witnessed the events and wrote the following report of the demo:

On the first Friday of Ramadan, thousands of Palestinians tried to reach the Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem for prayers in Al-Aqsa mosque.  But only some men above 50 and some women above 45 year old were allowed to enter through the checkpoints in the apartheid wall. Some of those left behind participated in demonstrations.  Al-Walaja demonstration was particularly inspiring and faced the might of the apartheid system. The Apartheid wall here is being built to surround Al-Walaja on all sides.   We marched from the mosque towards the village entrance and along the main road; here the wall facing Al-Walaja village is ugly concrete and the side of it facing the illegal colony of HarGilo is decorated with Jerusalem stone.  We stopped at the village entrance as planned, beat drums and chanted things like “1234 Occupation no more… 5678 stop the stealing stop the hate”, several military and police vehicles and dozens of heavily armed apartheid warriers prepared to attack us.  Ali chanted in Arabic, I spoke in English, and then Ali spoke in Hebrew.  We addressed the gathering and the soldiers telling them this was a peaceful demonstration against land confiscation.  We explained that this village lost 80% of its land in 1948 and is now about to lose the rest.  The officers came and gave us five minutes to disperse but then started attacking us within five seconds with stun grenades and tear gas. They arrested Ali Al-Aaraj and then they ran into the nearby house and arrested his cousin Ma’moun (who was not participating in the demonstration) .  Some colonial racist settlers showed up with an Israeli flag and waved uit and cheered their storm troops on. They also violently attacked people injuring several (I personally saw them toss a man down against a concrete wall injuring him in the leg). Those abducted were released a few hours later thanks to good legal support.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnxkUD9LGJo[/youtube]