Clashes mark Palestinian protest

Brief clashes broke out during a protest in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, one of several planned to mark four years since the world court called for partial demolition of Israel’s separation barrier. Israeli soldiers fired teargas at teenagers who stoned their vehicles before the situation calmed down again within minutes as one of the protest organisers, Salah al-Khawaja, waved an olive branch and a Palestinian flag. About 200 Palestinians and international activists marched from the West Bank town of Nilin towards the site where the barrier is being built. Israeli troops in four jeeps rushed to the scene and fired teargas as teenagers climbed aboard a bulldozer and hurled stones at the vehicles. Other protests were planned to mark four years since the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding resolution that calls for parts of the barrier built inside the West Bank to be torn down, and construction to be halted along the planned route inside the territory. ‘Our goal is to stop the bulldozers,’ said Khawaja, who is also one of the organisers of weekly protests staged at the construction site, demonstrations which often lead to clashes between troops and protesters. ‘The goal of the protests is peaceful,’ he added, while admitting that there had been incidents of rock-throwing. ‘What do they expect from farmers who see their trees are being uprooted? They want to live, they want to send their children to university.’ Palestinian schoolteacher Hassan Musa, 33, who attended the protest with his seven-year-old son, said ‘the building of the wall affects everyone’s life. They want to expel us from our land.’ Israeli authorities says the barrier is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating Israel and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but Palestinians denounce it as an ‘apartheid’ wall aimed at grabbing their land and undermining the viability of their promised state. Israel has pressed ahead with construction of the barrier and completed about 200 kilometres since the ICJ issued its order. To date Israel has built 57 per cent of the projected 723 kilometres of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire, according to UN figures.