FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Joined by international and Israeli activists, the Palestinians of Abud village, north west of Ramallah will hold a non-violent demonstration tomorrow, Friday the 18th of November to stop the construction of the apartheid barrier on 5330 dunams of land seized from them by the Israeli state. The demonstration will start at 10am in front of the local council building. From there the villagers will walk to the site of construction and pray in the land.
The DCO has recently given maps to the head of the village council that show a planned route in which 3887 dunams will be de-facto annexed to Israel behind the apartheid barrier. A further 1443 dunams of land being destroyed to build the barrier there, totalling 5330 altogether. According to the maps, the wall there will amount to some 12 km in length. Like most Palestinian villages, the confiscation of agricultural land there will devastate the rural economy of the village, which is renowned for it’s olive oil.
The whole of the water supplies of Abud will fall under direct Israeli control should the construction succeed. The village is known for it’s underground springs which supply 20% of the West Bank with their water source. An ancient church in the village is also under threat. The Christian community in the village believes that Jesus himself brought the faith there.
An Israeli court had previously given an order for 262 dunams of land near the illegal Israeli settlements of Bet Arye and Ofarim to be confiscated for use as a “Special Security Arragement Area”. Military installations are expected to be built there.
Abud is a half Muslim, half Christian village of 2500, some 7 km inside the Green Line. The illegal Israeli settlements of Bet Arye and Ofarim nearby have been slowly growing since the early 1980s. More than 3500 olive tree have been uprooted by the Israelis in Abud since the beginning of the intifada.
For more information:
ISM Media Office 02 297 18 24