Those detained include Moussa Abu Maria, external relations officer for the local committee against the wall and settlements in Khirbet Safa, who was briefly detained by Palestinian Authority forces less than one week earlier.......
The organizers and activists were detained during a protest against land confiscation that begun on Saturday afternoon from Beit Ummar "where settlers had laid a foundation stone last week for a new outpost Gav'at Ires Shlomo," an area on top of a hill close to Khirbat Safa, the statement said. "Land in the area is owned by families from Beit Ummar."
The rally moved toward the land threatened with confiscation - an area of 1200 dunums belonging to the families of Qoukas, Adi and Khalil.....
Israeli forces deployed riot dispersal means commonly used at the weekly protests, he said, including firing rubber-coated bullets, tear-gas canisters and sound grenades, leading to four bullet injuries and dozens suffering from respiratory problems.
"The occupation forces finally arrested the five Palestinians and the five international anti-Wall activists. The international solidarity activists are already released and there is hope that one other Palestinian will be released as well soon.
"This is yet another proof of the racial discrimination, which is institutionalized in the Israeli legal system and which sees the international detainees released without charges, while the Palestinian prisoners will likely stay on in jail, without recourse to fair trial," the statement added.
The Israeli military representative described the incident as a "riot in which 60 Palestinians and foreign nationals began hurling rocks and set fire to fields [in the area]," adding that riot dispersal means were used when the protesters did not leave the area after Israeli forces issued a closed military order.
Jamal Juma, coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign, said: "Both the settlements and the Wall are internationally recognized as illegal, yet the international community has consistently failed to comply with its obligation to ensure that the grave violations of the IV Geneva Convention and various Human Rights Conventions that result from both the building of the Wall and settlement construction, are brought to an end." Full story
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