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The wall had been earlier deemed by the U.N. as illegal
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CAIRO,
November 5 (IslamOnline.net) - A campaign against the Israeli
separation wall marked Saturday, November 9, as the international day
against the barrier, largely criticized across the world for snaking
through Palestinian territories.
Special
activities marking the day, the same marking the anniversary of the
fall of Berlin Wall in 1989, will be held in cities in Europe, Canada,
the United States, Latin America and Australia, the organizers of the
Grassroots Palestinian anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign said on its website
A
momentous week of activities will be held under the slogans of
"we will not become prisoners in our land", "the
apartheid wall = expulsion" and "relive our dispossession by
the hands of Israel".
Throughout
the West Bank districts including Qalqiliya, Tulkarem, Jenin, Salfit,
occupied Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem, there will be
demonstrations against the wall in city centers. Massive
demonstrations will be also witnessed in areas affected by the wall
building, such as Qalqilya, Jenin, occupied Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Communities
living along the wall’s path of devastation will protest at the
wall’s so-called gates and the Israeli attempts to expel them from
their land, the campaign’s website said.
Protest
and information tent will also be set up for the entire week where
publications, maps, a photo documentary exhibition, cultural
activities and lectures will take place, it added.
Local
media and T.V. channels will be featuring announcements about the week
of activities in Palestine as well as amplifying calls for
participation against the wall from the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.
World
Participation
Actions
of solidarity with the Palestinian mobilization on this day are being
organized globally in some 40 cities, as efforts are being made at
great length from all directions in Palestine to ensure that November
9th is not only "a day of action, but a spark for stronger
resistance to the Apartheid Wall", organizers said on the
campaign website.
The
organizers hope the events will act as "a trigger for getting
more support to the Palestinian position seeking an end to the wall
construction inside the Palestinian territories and abroad".
"They
will all declare their calls for destroying the barrier, which veers
into large donums of Palestinian territories," read the website.
The
campaign also seeks to link the issue of the wall and the Occupation
and therefore hopes to spark the interest of various people and
organizations nationally, regionally and internationally that call for
an end to Israel’s illegal occupation.
The
separation wall has been criticized by many world countries and
organizations, including U.S. President George W. Bush who slammed it
as a problem blocking the way of the peace process.
However,
the United States vetoed
in October 2003 a U.N. Security Council resolution, condemning Israel
for continuing the wall's construction.
Under
the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, the
destruction or seizure of property in occupied territories is
forbidden, as is collective punishment.
Also,
the Convention states in article 47 that "protected persons who
are in occupied territory shall not be deprived, in any case or in any
manner whatsoever, of the benefits of the present Convention by any
change introduced, as the result of the occupation of a territory,
into the institutions or government of the said territory".
The
campaign comes a few days after an E.U. poll revealed
that most of the Europeans believe Israel poses the biggest threat to
world peace, just ahead of North Korea, Iran and the United States.
