UN-Truth

The Wall must fall

Posted on November 9th, 2009 by Marian Houk

Well it took a long time, but today Palestinian activists got together and pulled down a section of The Wall near the dreadful Qalandia checkpoint (or “border terminal” as Israel calls it) between Ramallah and Jerusalem.

A late breaking news flash on Ma’an News Agency said that two persons have been arrested at the site — we know that they had to have been arrested by Israeli forces, because Palestinian police are normally not allowed anywhere near Qalandia.

While the media here is dizzy with speculation about what is happening with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and whether or not he will resign, or change his mind and run for office again, or instead — like Samson in the Bible — pull the entire Palestinian Authority apparatus down with him, this is a bit of good political theater, and more.

The International Solidarity Movement has put out a press release about the event, saying “We are calling for the formation of a unified national leadership to lead a mass popular uprising of which all the Palestinian people, groups and political factions are a part of. This popular uprising will be pro-active and innovative with a strategy to mobilize international support for the justice of our cause, as a way out of the current political impasse. We will use this support to create international pressure to end the occupation, and establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and to restore unity amongst our people, from the West Bank to Gaza”.

The Stop the Wall campaign put out its own press release, saying “This afternoon, exactly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, popular committees struggling against the Apartheid Wall and the settlements destroyed part of the Wall near Qalandiya. Hundreds of people, with some 30 international supporters, used a truck to pull down part of the Wall in the area east of the Qalandiya refugee camp and beyond the UN Vocational College. They also destroyed iron gates and other pieces of concrete in the same area. After breaching the Wall, protestors approached the road on the other side where they burned car tires to slow the approach of Occupation forces, who quickly arrived in the area and began firing gas and rubber bullets. Protestors were wearing shirts upon which was written ‘Jerusalem we are coming’, the name of the planned action. Today is 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and marks the first day of a week of resistance to the Apartheid Wall in Palestine and around the globe”.

And, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee said that “In a symbolic reenactment of the event that changed the world 20 years ago, demonstrators from all over the West Bank managed to topple a section of Israel’s wall, 8 meters of reinforced concrete in hight, near the infamous Qalandiya Checkpoint. On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, hundreds of demonstrators from across the West Bank convened in Qalandiya to demand the immediate dismantling of Israel’s wall. In a dramatic turn of events, protesters managed to tip-over a a section of the wall, opening a passage in this strategic and symbolic location at the entrance to East-Jerusalem. Exactly twenty years ago today the Berlin Wall came crumbling down in two days that changed the world forever. Today, a wall twice as high and five times as long is being built by Israel in the West Bank, in blatant contempt of international law, to separate Palestinians from their lands.
Despite the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 2004, that pronounced Israel’s wall illegal, and called for its removal, no significant changes on the ground were made. After the demonstration ended, Mushir Ghazzal, an organizer with the popular struggle coordination committee, said that ‘Today’s events prove that we must not wait for Israel to end its occupation on its own – we Palestinians should do it with our own two hands. Like the Berlin Wall at the time, Israel’s wall seems to us an undefiable reality, but twice this week it has caved in to the pressure of ordinary people fighting for their rights’. The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been declared an international day of action against Israel’s barrier. Last Friday, mass demonstrations were staged simultaneously in three villages along the path of the wall, including in Ni’ilin where protesters managed, for the first time ever in the West Bank, to topple the 8 meter tall concrete wall there”.

Meanwhile, Ma’an News Agency has reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said Israel is “willing to make great concessions for peace but there is something I will never compromise on, and that is Israel’s security. We have to ensure that weapons do not flow into the West Bank – we cannot permit another Gaza in the heart of our country”. The Ma’an report added that Netanyahu’s speech “was reportedly briefly interrupted by a woman protester demanding an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip”. Netanyahu was speaking in Washington to the annual general meeting of the Jewish Federations of North America. The full story can be read on Ma’an here.