OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation police used excessive force to disperse hundreds of foreign peace activists and Jerusalemite citizens who marched Friday towards the Palestinian homes seized by Israeli settlers in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
The protesters carried banners and chanted slogans condemning Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands and its policy of uprooting Palestinians from their homes and native city.
The policemen dispersed the protesters by force and physically assaulted them using their rifle butts and batons as some of them tried to break through the Israeli military checkpoint at the entrance to the neighborhood.
One of the citizens, whose homes were taken by settlers, said the policemen violently attacked the protesters and rounded up seven of them.
He added the protesters were interrogated before a decision was issued to exile them from the neighborhood for 15 days and fining them 5,000 shekels.
Meanwhile, the policemen also provoked the feelings of Sheikh Jarrah residents and allowed more than 50 settlers to enter the neighborhood to perform Talmudic prayers, but the residents clashed with the policemen and forced the settlers out.
A delegation of Belgian judges participated in the protest to express their rejection and condemnation of expelling the Palestinians from their homes and giving them to settlers.
In the West Bank, many marches were organized on Friday on the fifth anniversary of the decision issued by the international court of Justice in The Hague that criminalized Israel's building of the segregation wall.
Violent clashes broke out between Israeli troops and protesters in the villages of Masarah, Wadi Rahal and Walajeh in Bethlehem, and Ni'lin and Bil'in villages in Ramallah. Arrests and injuries reportedly happened among the protesters.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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