Joint List MKs Visit Palestinian Towns in Occupied Territories

Joint List lawmakers participated in a pair of dueling solidarity visits on Sunday to the Palestinian towns of Beita and Burqah in the northern West Bank, which are become a flashpoint of struggle against Israeli occupation in recent months.

Joint List MKs pay a solidarity visit on January 2, 2022, to the Palestinian village of Beita in the northern West Bank where residents have been engaged in regular protests for months, often clashing with the occupation army over the establishment of the illegal Evyatar outpost nearby (Photo: Joint List)

The members of the Joint List visited Beita and posed for pictures with the town’s leadership as well as some of the teens who have been injured in the weekly protests. The MKs condemned the occupation army’s crackdown on the protests and called for the razing of the illegal Israeli outposts in the area.

The protests have often been violent and responding Israeli troops have used live fire against the demonstrators, killing at least 10 in recent months. The protests have galvanized the support of Palestinians throughout the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority as well.

For nearly seven months, Palestinians from Beita and neighboring villages have been holding almost daily protests against Israel’s construction of an illegal settlement outpost, Evaytar, on Jabal Sabih mount which is adjacent to the village. In July, Israeli settlers evacuated the illegal outpost under an agreement with the Israeli government that will allow for the outpost to remain intact and under permanent supervision of the Israeli occupation army, despite its unauthorized construction. Before leaving, dozens of settlers erected a 13-meter-high iron Star of David facing the nearby village of Beita with the phrase “We will return”.

On last Friday, at least six Palestinian were injured by the occupation army and many others suffocated from teargas during the weekly clashes in the villages of Beita, Beit Dajan and Kafr Qaddum in the north of the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa Palestinian news agency.

In Kafr Qaddum, five Palestinian civilians were injured, including a 14-year-old child, by rubber-coated rounds as Israeli occupation soldiers attacked the weekly protest in the village against colonial Israeli settlement activities. The child was reportedly hit in the chest, and was rushed to a hospital where his condition was described as stable. In Beita, Israeli occupation soldiers fired live bullets, rubber-coated rounds, stun grenades and teargas at the anti-colonization protesters, injuring one protester and causing seven suffocation cases.

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