Palestine: Women Defend Their Land

Palestine: Women Defend Their Land

Women from the western Ramallah area will march with Israeli and international women on Sunday in protest of the destruction of their land for the illegal construction of the Wall and Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

The women will march from the mosque in the center of Bil'in at 10am to the site where Israel is building the Wall alongside new housing units for the planned Israeli settlement of Menura, as an extension of the Kiryat Sefer settlement.

Despite indications of reviving the `road map' which requires a freeze on Israeli settlement growth, the route of the Wall near Bil'in has been specifically designed to incorporate the planned and existing settlements in the area.

1,300 dunam of agricultural land used for regional crops were confiscated by the state of Israel for the construction of Kiryat Sefer settlement, but 200 dunam of olive trees remained in Palestinian hands. The state later claimed that the 200 unconfiscated dunam had been sold to the settlers by Bil'in resident Sami Bornat. The Bornat ownership papers were forged, a fact well known by the Israeli authorities because they had previously recognized the owners of the land in the court case for the confiscation. Despite this, the land was approved for building the settlement.

Now Bil'in will lose an additional 1,000 dunam behind the Wall. The planned route of the Wall comes four meters from the last house in the village, destroying a well that serves as the only source of water for two households.

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