Palestinian activists set up protest camp
Palestinian activists have set up a camp on a hill top on the outskirts of Jerusalem to protest against the route of a planned new stretch of Israel's separation barrier, which villagers say will cut them off from fertile farmland.
Palestinian activists walk past
a flag and tents in the West Bank village of Beit Iksa Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty
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5:27PM GMT 20 Jan 2013
Residents from the village of Beit Iksa established the camp, called Qaryet
al-Karameh [Village of Dignity] just days after Israeli security forces
dismantled a similar encampment in an area of the West Bank called E1, where
Benjamin Netanyahu's government has announced plans to build a settlement.
Around 80 activists are staying in four tents pitched on a spot near Beit
Iksa that is flanked by two Jewish settlements, Ramot and Mevaseret Zion.
Bricklayers had started work on a makeshift mosque but later told Palestinian
media that the Israeli army had ordered them to stop.
Mohammed al-Aloul, a central committee member of the Palestinian Fatah party,
said the camp had the blessing of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, and
Salam Fayyad, his prime minister who have called for "popular resistance"
against Israel's occupation of the West Bank.
"For sure, our brothers are aware of this and popular resistance has been
adopted as a strategy by the Palestinian leadership. This is part of Abu Mazen's
[Mr Abbas] strategy," he said.
Protesters said the Israeli army planned to confiscate around 115 acres of
land near Beit Iksa, on the north western outskirts of Jerusalem, to build the
latest section of the barrier, which Israel says is intended to stop the
infiltration of suicide bombers. Once built, the barrier would separate
villagers from another 300 acres, they said.
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