Confrontations Between Palestinian Farmers Defending their Lands in Salamuna and Israeli Occupation Forces Grabbing Lands for the Apartheid Wall

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My mother gave birth to me here 80 years ago. I prefer death than to see the Wall eat this land

Twenty Israeli occupation military vehicles stormed Umm Salamuna Village south of Bethlehem to protect four military bulldozers. The bulldozers were massive and there to bulldoze Palestinian land for construction of the illegally-built Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall. What they needed protecting from was the nonviolent demonstration that farmers and residents began in order to save their land.

Hundreds of farmers rushed to the area, with people coming from surrounding villages to advocate for the citizens of Umm Salamuna in defending the land.

Village resident Mohammad Brijeh alerted the local media to what was happening at 11:00 am on Tuesday. Quickly, confrontations began as the people refused to allow Israeli occupation forces to destroy the Palestinian land. Fist fights and scrambling, rifle butts and fire were the Israeli responses to the farmers.

Six Palestinians were injured, including 70 year old farmer Moussa Mohammad. Israeli occupation soldiers beat him in the head with clubs. He was wrested away by fellow demonstrators and rushed to a neighboring village's medical center for treatment. Twenty seven year old Amer has bruises all over his body and internal injuries due to a violent beating with clubs and rifle butts.

President of the Umm Salamuna Village Council, Mahmoud Rashid, said that the Israelis intend to overtake 700 dunams of this area for the Wall. "The land is planted with trees, grapevines and olives, which is all for the families of the village, with a population of about 1,000 people.”

The Village Council President reiterated a sentiment becoming more common in international, and even in some Israeli, discourse. “Israeli forces aim to confiscate more Palestinian land with this Wall. Their claim that it has anything to do with security reasons is false.”

After half an hour of Palestinians putting their bodies in harms way to stop the land confiscation, the Israeli bulldozers did stop. A group of people created a human chain, holding hands and facing the bulldozers.

A woman raised her hands skyward and prayed for protection of the land “from these malicious plans. They want the land without the people, and we prefer to be buried in the mountains by the bulldozers than to see the land leave our hands and be overtaken by the settlers.”

Farmers were visibly ecstatic when the huge bulldozers halted the destruction. Eighty year old Mohammad Issa was wearing a coat and head cover to protect himself from the bitter cold. He leaned on a stick and cheered on the others to resist, encouraging citizens to not back down, to "move forward into the face of Israeli forces that aim only to destroy."

Elderly Mohammad said, “We are defending our land full of olive trees and grapevines. We will not allow for the Wall that eats our lands.”

When PNN approached him, he said that this is the land where his mother gave birth to him eight decades ago while collecting wood. “My birth and life is here, where the olive trees are planted. How could I leave? I prefer death than to see the Wall eat this land.”

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice against the Apartheid Wall path in the Alfei Menashe area.

In a statement, the association demanded that the ruling from a previous petition be applied and that building the Wall along its amended route be prevented.

"A route that continues to imprison residents of two of the enclave's villages on the Israeli side of the fence, and disconnecting the villages from parts of their land," the Association said.

In the petition it was stated that the amended route is not in line with the High Court ruling and still severely damages the Palestinian residents.

"In September, 2005, the High Court of Justice accepted the basic principals of the appeal filed by the Association for Civil Rights, and ruled out the existing route of the separation fence in the Alfei Menashe area, that caused an enclave which imprisoned five Palestinian villages with hard violations to the residents' rights who were isolated from the rest of the West Bank," the Association said.

The Association for Civil Rights further asserted that "the security establishment is shamelessly consolidating a population transfer solution, even if it is being presented as 'voluntary' or 'agreed upon'.

"In reality they are applying pressure on these weak villages and implementing a process of 'immoral and illegal transfer of civilians who were expelled from their land," it concluded.