Press Release, 6th November
For immediate release
For more information contact  palestine@cusu.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge joins global protests against Israeli Apartheid Wall

On Sunday 9th November between 2-3pm local residents will assemble outside the Guildhall in Cambridge Market Square to protest the “Separation Wall” the Israeli government is illegally contructing in the West Bank.

At least 50 people are expected to express their concern about the construction of a 700km long wall through the West Bank, which will cut off 50% of the land designated for a future Palestinian state. The protestors will be holding banners and distributing leaflets informing by-passers about the wall.

Thousands of Palestinians have been separated from their farmland by the Wall, which has turned towns and cities into ghettos and leaves villages without access to water. 11,000 Palestinians have been left trapped in ‘no-man’s land’ between Israel and the first stage of the Wall.

The Cambridge vigil organized by the Cambridge University Palestine Society (CUPAL) is part of a day of international protest against the Separation Wall which will cover six continents and will unite people from places as diverse as the West Bank itself, Bangladesh, USA, South Africa and Australia.

Samira Barakat of CUPAL said:
“The 9th of November is the day the Berlin Wall fell, and we are coming together to show that this wall must also fall, because it is an insurmountable obstacle to any peaceful solution to the conflict.”

The vigil is open to all and organised by the Cambridge University Palestine Society, supported by a coalition of local groups: Cambridge Palestine Solidarity Campaign (CPSC), Cambridge Women in Black (WiB), Cambridge Students against the War (CamSaW).

Notes for editors

1) The vigil, on Sunday 9th November, will run from 2-3pm, and will take place outside the Guildhall in the Market Square, at least 50 people are expected.

2) The Cambridge event is part of an International Day of Action called by the grassroots organisation Stop the Wall (www.stopthewall.org) and protests will be taking place on six continents in solidarity with a week of actions taking place in the West Bank itself.

3) 127 British MPs signed Early Day Motion 1689 which “calls on Israel to cease immediately the building of its security fence” and notes that “whilst Israel needs security, the wall does not follow the internationally recognized border”. The United Nations General Assembly is also demanding “Israel stop and reverse the construction of the wall”.

5) The Wall is being built by Israel in the Occupied West Bank. So far the route for the wall is at least 360km long; if extension proposals are implemented the Wall could reach a total of 700km.

6) When finished in its entirety the Wall would confiscate around 50% of the West Bank – land internationally recognized as a future Palestinian state. In some places the Wall is a concrete structure 8 metres high with a ‘buffer zone’ 30-100 metres wide. In other places the Wall features razor wire, patrol roads, sand paths, ditches and an electric fence.

7) For maps and further information see:  http://stopthewall.org