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Hundreds
Of Palestinians, Activists Protest Israel's Wall
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A
protester holding a sign reading "Occupation=Terror"
during the rally (AFP)
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JENIN,
West Bank, November 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As the
world marks the 14th
anniversary of
the fall of the Berlin Wall, hundreds of Palestinians joined by
Israeli and foreign peace activists demonstrated Sunday, November 9,
in several West Bank cities and villages against Israel's separation
wall, just one day after several thousand people marched through
central Rome to protest against the controversial barrier.
In
the village of Zabuba, at the northernmost tip of the West Bank, some
600 people staged a protest and a group of foreign activists from the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) cut a hole in the fence,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
An
AFP correspondent said one of the barrier's gates was torn down before
Israeli troops broke up the protestors by firing shots in the air as
well as teargas and sound bombs.
Some
200 people also marched in the streets of the northern West Bank city
of Tulkarem and continued their protest in the nearby village of
Jubara, but were prevented by the army from reaching the fence.
Jubara
is a tiny village which has been cut off from all shops and schools by
the barrier and now sits isolated between the fence and the Green Line
dividing Israel and the West Bank.
Around
300 people also held a protest in the northern town of Qalqilya, one
of the most affected by the barrier.
They
all shouted slogans against the "apartheid wall" and held
banners which read: "Stop the wall" and "Wall against
peace."
Several
hundred Israelis and Palestinians demonstrated Saturday, November 8,
in Sawaheh, a Palestinian town east of al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem),
against the wall.
The
protest was arranged by the peace groups Tayush and Gush Shalom.
Rome
March
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Palestinian
protestors write anti-Israeli slogans on the Israeli wall (AFP)
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Several
thousand people already marched through the streets of Rome on
Saturday, November 8, shouting slogans such as: "No to the
Apartheid Wall in Palestine!"
Organizers
said that more than 30,000 took part in the "Stop the Wall"
march and rally, whose speakers included Fadwa Barghuti, the wife of
jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghuti, and an Israeli peace
activist, Michal Schwarz, from the Israeli movement for democratic
action.
Many
of the demonstrators, who included members of the Italian Communist
Party, the Greens and labor unions, waved Palestinian flags as the
march wound through the centre of the city.
Some
symbolically tore down a cardboard wall as police moved in briefly to
remove a banner erected along the march route by Jewish youths which
said "With Israel for peace, now and always."
A
smaller demonstration involving Israeli and Palestinian peace groups
was held in the business capital Milan.
Also
represented were the parties of Italy's centre-left opposition and the
country's main labor unions.
In
Naples, police said around 100 people took part in a similar
demonstration which was followed by a concert.
The
600km-long wall will cut occupied Jerusalem off from the rest of the
West Bank.
It
will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles) along the West
Bank and leave even larger swathes of its fertile territory on the
Israeli side and could cost up to $2.2 million a kilometer or a total
of $1.8 billion.
The
first phase of the barrier was completed in July 2003 in the northern
West Bank, but further construction has been delayed by differences
between Israel and Washington over the wall's route.
The
Palestinian Authority fears the real aim of the wall is to dictate the
borders of its promised state.
Last
month, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution,
demanding Tel Aviv to "stop and
reserve" the construction of its separation wall.
Palestinians
Died
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Italians
symbolically push a cardboard for the wall (AFP)
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Meanwhile,
two Palestinians, one of them a young boy, who were wounded during
recent Israeli army operations in the West Bank, died of their wounds
on Sunday, Palestinian medical sources said.
Ahmad
Marai, seven, sustained serious head injuries in the northern West
Bank refugee camp of Jenin Saturday when Israeli soldiers clashed with
Palestinian fighters, the sources said.
Earlier,
24-year-old Samir Abu Assab, who suffered serious leg wounds Thursday,
November 6, during clashes in Balata refugee camp in the northern West
Bank city of Nablus, died in an occupied Jerusalem hospital, the
sources said.
A
Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli fire in the village of
Birkin Saturday morning in the second fatal clash of the day around
this northern West Bank town, Palestinian security sources and medics
said.
Mowataz
Amudi, 15, died and two other Palestinians were wounded as stones were
being hurled at Israeli troops, the sources said.
The
deaths bring to 3,605 the number of people killed since the September
2000 outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation,
including 2,690 Palestinians and 849 Israelis, according to an AFP
toll.
24-Member
Cabinet
On
the political landscape, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei
announced Sunday that negotiations on a new government had concluded
and that the 24-minister line-up would be submitted to parliament for
a confidence vote Wednesday, November 12.
"We
have now finalized a line-up for the next government and I will ask
the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council to hold a special vote
of confidence on Wednesday," Qorei told reporters here.
A
major hurdle to the much delayed formation of a new Palestinian
government was cleared Friday, November 7, when Qorei accepted
Arafat's choice for the key post of interior minister.
The
premier's preferred candidate, General Nasr Yussef, was dropped to
make way for close Arafat associate Hakam Balaawi.
It
had been suggested that Yussef might take one of four deputy prime
minister posts but Qorei announced that he had "declined to take
any position in this government".
Qorei,
who spoke after a meeting with the powerful Fatah central committee,
said the new line-up would be made up of 24 ministers, including the
seven members of his outgoing "emergency cabinet".
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