At the end of July 2003, the Israeli government misleadingly announced the completion of the "first phase"—145 km from some 600km—of the Wall that it began erecting inside the West Bank in June 2002. In fact, bulldozers continue to ravage the northern West Bank by building buffer zones and expanding sections of the Wall. The Wall—falsely declared a "security barrier" by the Israeli military—is the largest land grab since the Occupation began in 1967; when completed the Wall will de-facto annex nearly 50% of the West Bank by the Israeli government.
The Wall effectively annexes West Bank land on which Illegal Jewish-only settlements were built and confiscates prime resources, turning the West Bank into a series of cantons and enclaves in a bantustanization of the area. The Wall has already taken over the lands of dozens of Palestinian communities and stolen the livelihoods of thousands of families in the northern West Bank as well as in the Jerusalem and Bethlehem areas. The US Administration has yet to exert pressure on the Israeli government to stop building and start dismantling the Wall. It is up to US citizens to demand that the US Administration hold the Israeli Government accountable for international law, and to coordinate their actions to stop the Wall and promote freedom for the Palestinian people and peace and security for all.
www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=61
The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (www.stopthewall.org, worked on by Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON) ) is a NGO and grassroots Palestinian movement to stop the Apartheid Wall. As the only nationally coordinated effort of its kind, the Campaign works to both support communities affected by the Wall in defending their land and livelihoods as well as to generate international attention and mobilization against the Wall. They put out a call for International Day Against the Wall on November 9th, which was decided upon by communities affected by the Wall. This date coincides with the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as Kristallnacht. On this day, events and actions will take place worldwide against the Wall in solidarity with those in Palestine, further amplifying the international and Palestinian national call to Stop the Wall!
Here in Portland we will be gathering in opposition to the Aparthied Wall at 5 o'clock on Friday, November 7th in Pioneer Square. Join us in opposition to the wall for a rally, some street theater, and a march.
(picture: A portion of the separation wall along side Qalqiliya, The West Bank, 7 July, 2003. Photo: Reinhard Krause, Reuters; full map of separation barrier from www.btselem.org)
for more information see www.endtheoccupation.org, www.stopthewall.org, www.btselem.org
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