Israeli Army Charged Protesters In Beit Duqqu

Israeli Army Charged Protesters In Beit Duqqu

Despite Israeli Supreme Court decision, the Israeli Army has started working in Beit Duqqu this morning

[Beit Duqqu, Northwest Jerusalem] Sunday, March 7, 2004, the Israeli Army started to drill lands belonging to Beit Duqqu village, in Northwest Jerusalem. Over a hundred of villagers, mostly young men, have rushed to their land to protect their livelihood from destruction and currently refuse to leave the place despite Israeli soldiers repeated charges. Eyewitnesses reported use of excessive violence by the Israeli Army while trying to disperse the crowd. They reportedly fired sound grenades directly at the protesters and used batons to push them down the steep rocky hills where the work started this morning. ISM volunteer stated that the Israeli Army initiated the confrontation with the protesters, firing first sound grenades to peaceful crowd and beating some with batons.

The case of Beit Duqqu constitutes a loophole in the last Sunday Supreme Court decision as this portion of the lands of Beit Duqqu village is not concerned by the order to cease work for seven days, though Beit Duqqu was among the villages which took their case to Court. The next hearing, which was scheduled today, has been postponed to next Wednesday and work is not expected to re-start until then on all sites where bulldozers worked last week. According to the current planned path of the Wall, Beit Duqqu will lose 5.300 dunums of its land due to the construction of the Wall.

Villagers along with Internationals will continue their protest tomorrow in Beit Duqqu and attempt to stop the work around the Wall. The meeting point is outside the Municipality Council of Beit Duqqu at 7am.

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