Tens of citizens, foreigners hurt in IOF quelling of peaceful marches

[ 13/11/2010 - 08:43 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Tens of Palestinian citizens and foreign activists were treated for gas inhalation after Israeli occupation forces (IOF) used teargas canisters and stun grenades to disperse peaceful anti wall rallies in a number of West Bank villages on Friday.

The IOF soldiers fired gas and sonic bombs at participants in the weekly Ma'sara village march, south of Bethlehem, causing breathing problems to tens of local and foreign participants.

Dozens others were treated for similar breathing difficulties in Bilin, Ramallah district, as activists hoisted Palestinian flags and chanted anti occupation slogans.

In Nilin, another Ramallah village, IOF troops fired rubber-coated bullets at the demonstrators in addition to the gas canisters.

The IOF troops sealed off the Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah, and installed military roadblocks between it and surrounding villages in a bid to obstruct similar marches.

Meanwhile, the popular anti wall committee in Al-Khalil denounced the IOF and Jewish settlers' daily aggressions on Palestinian farmers and lands, charging that such practice aimed at evicting Palestinians from their own land.

In a statement on Friday, the committee urged the Fatah-controlled authority in Ramallah to support farmers whose lands are threatened with confiscation on the part of the Israeli occupation authority in Beit Ola west of Al-Khalil.

In a related context, the British Guardian newspaper accused Israel of pushing the Palestinians of the 1948 occupied lands into direct confrontation with it through the arbitrary measures it takes against them.

The newspaper on Thursday stated some of the unjust measures Israel takes against the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem as well as the inhumane situation which the Palestinians of Negev are suffering from because Israel does not recognize their villages and thus deprives them of any development services or projects.

It said the Palestinian natives of Jerusalem cannot get construction licenses and rarely some of them can, which forces them to build homes without permits, but later the Israeli municipal council issues demolition orders against them.

In return, the Israeli settlers are left to build structures in Jerusalem or the West Bank as they like, and they are not asked for construction permits, the newspaper added.

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