Demonstration In Solidarity With Rafah In Biddu

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 For Immediate Release

DEMONSTRATION IN SOLIDARITY WITH RAFAH IN BIDDU

[Biddu, NW Jerusalem] Tomorrow, Thursday, May 20, 2004, the community of Biddu and international activists will gather at 11am at the Biddu Municipal Council to show solidarity with the residents of Rafah and to protest the construction of the wall in their farmlands.

This demonstration will take place as the Israeli army has been conducting an aggressive operation in Rafah where up to 45 Palestinians were killed over the last days. Today, the army fired missiles at a crowd of demonstrators, killing 23 people, mostly youths, as they were nonviolently protesting the military incursion. This unprecedented death toll since the beginning of the Intifada represents a serious escalation and highlights the criminalization by the Israeli military of any form of resistance to the occupation.

The communities of the villages located in the northwestern area of Jerusalem have been protesting the construction of the wall in nonviolent ways over the last three months. Five young men were shot dead by the army during these protests, four with live bullets and one with a rubber-coated metal bullet in the head.

The people will take to the streets again tomorrow as another step in their struggle against the ghettoization of their community and against the unrestrained use of violence by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people.

DATE: Thursday, May 20, 2004 TIME: 11am PLACE: Gather at Biddu Municipality Council

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