July 24th, 2007. We have received a call for activists to go this evening to Wadi Rahul, close to Artas in the Bethlehem region. They are expecting hundreds of Israeli Settlers from the nearby settlements of Efrata to go there tomorrow in an attempt to occupy the land. It is expected that Settlers will arrive early tomorrow morning with caravans to take over the land. It appears there is support and collusion with the army and we expect there to be a large number of soldiers tomorrow “protecting” the settlers from the Palestinians. It is also reported, that there were members of the Israeli authorities implementing a gate to restrict access to the land. The gate is designed to prevent Palestinians from accessing their own land in the interests of Settlers being able to take the place over instead.
Obviously, putting down caravans is the first step in establishing a permanent presence so it needs to be prevented. They are looking for as many internationals, Israeli’s and whoever will support them to go down, ideally tonight, to camp out as they believe the one and only road accessing the land will be closed by tomorrow, alternatively to come in the morning. However to make a serious attempt at preventing the settlers accessing the site, people need to go tonight if they are willing.
Anyone who is available, please make an effort to go there this evening so we can try and stop the Illegal expansion of settlements in the West Bank and the grotesque thieving of Palestinian land.
For more information please contact: Awad (059 890 7252) or Rose (054 224 9179).