Al-Ma’sara Popular Committee Against the Wall
In today’s demonstration against the illegal construction of the Apartheid Wall that is designed to steal the agricultural lands of the villages of Southern Bethlehem, the people of al-Ma’sara celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany. In chants and speeches, the demonstrators insisted on the illegality of the Wall and of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, while international and Israeli activists showed support using percussion instruments.
Evoking the removal of the Wall, the children of the village succeeded in removing the barb wire and cross the arbitrary barrier which the Israeli army puts up every Friday to prevent the demonstrators from reaching the actual construction site of the Wall. Several children sustained cuts on their hands while stepping over the barb wire. The soldiers threatened the demonstrators with arrests and violently pushed the children back across the fence.
Meanwhile, one military vehicle entered the village from the back and parked on the main road, thus encircling the demonstrators from both sides. On their way back to the village, the demonstrators stopped at the vehicle and crowded in on the soldiers, singing, clapping, and playing drums. A female protestor from the village asked the soldiers why they insisted on penetrating deep into Palestine, always as aliens to this land.