Today, 19th Sept 2004, villagers of Beit Awwa and Sikka (of the Dura region), members of the International Solidarity Movement and Israeli peace activists marched to Sikka and stopped construction of the illegal apartheid wall.



Whilst marching peacefully to the site, soldiers from the Israeli Defence forces fired tear gas and percussion grenades down onto the people from their position on top of the hill.



Nevertheless the marchers reached the construction site, upon reaching the construction site, a large line of soldiers met them.



Some Palestinians and activists tried to reach the bulldozer, the soldiers reacted to this with extreme violence, punching and kicking whilst dragging people along the ground in an attempt to arrest members of this group. They also threw tear gas and sound grenades into the protestors. Whilst doing this, the soldiers were making jokes and seeming to enjoy themselves.



After they moved the protesters back the Caterkiller bulldozers started again digging the ground for the foundations of the wall, at this point Israeli and International activists jumped down into the hole and stopped the construction.



Several soldiers tried to move the activist, after this failed they resorted to throwing tear gas and percussion grenades into the hole with the protesters in endangering the lives of the group in the hole.



The construction of the illegal apartheid wall was stopped for two and a half hours.



A very large presence of Israeli border police and special forces then arrived with the aim of arresting people. With advice from the Palestinians the protest ended.



Illegal construction continued..



This was the first demonstration made by the villagers, it was an important confidence-building event and when we left they were saying they were determined to continue with protests in order to halt the illegal construction of the wall.


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