Israeli occupation forces evacuated a protest tent set up earlier on Saturday by Palestinian activists in Nablus, leading to clashes which injured at least 20 people. According to Ma’an News Agency earlier, around 200 people from across the West Bank set up the “Al-Manatir neighborhood” encampment in an area of Burin village that activists say is slated for confiscation by a neighboring settlement.
According to Katie W. from the International Solidarity Movement, “the residents of Burin, a village near Nablus in Occupied Palestine, joined by activists from across Palestine as well as a handful of internationals, established the village of Al-Manatir on a hill outside Burin. This is the fourth village in a series of protest encampments, following the establishment of Bab Al-Shams, Bab Al-Karama and Al-Asra last month. The people of Burin have lost much of their land to the nearby illegal Israeli settlements Har Brakha and Yitzhar. Many villagers have lost access to their fields and olive trees and thus their means of livelihood. For years, they have been facing harassment, intimidation and violence by both the settlers and the Israeli army.”
“Earlier this week, the UN Human Rights Council released its harshest report on Israeli settlements to date, condemning them as ‘leading to a creeping annexation that prevents the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state and undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.’ The report also harshly criticises the Israeli authorities for deliberately choosing to ignore rather than punishing settlers’ acts of violence, which it describes as ‘institutionalized discrimination against the Palestinian people’ with the aim of driving them from their land and expanding settlements.”
Burin is squeezed between the Har Bracha and Yitzhar settlements, Israeli forces raided the area and forcibly removed all activists from the site. Soldiers fired multiple on Saturday tear gas canisters at the protest village, injuring at least 20 Palestinians, witnesses said. Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Daghlas told Ma’an that during the clashes, settlers attacked Burin with fire-bombs and rocks, damaging homes, cars and setting fire to olive trees. Earlier on Saturday, 16-year-old Zakariya Al-Najjar was hit in his thigh by a bullet fired by settlers in Burin, a Ma’an reporter said. Groups of settlers also gathered near Yizhar settlement and threw stones at passing Palestinian cars.
A Palestinian activist runs from teargas after Israeli occupation forces evacuate a protest camp in the West Bank village of Burin, south of Nablus, Feb. 2, 2013 (Photo: Ma’an)
Palestinians Diyaa Bani Audah, Ashraf Abu Rahmah from Bilin, Wahib Qadus, Barakat al-Najjar, Bakir al-Najjar, Ibrahim al-Najjar and Udayy Ahmad from Burin were detained by Israel’s military during the clashes. Fatah official Mahmoud al-Aloul told Ma’an that Palestinians will continue to confront settlers and illegal settlement expansion.”If they demolish a protest village, we will erect a new one, and we will continue until the Palestinian people retrieve all their rights,” he said.
The “Al-Manatir neighborhood” is the fourth such initiative in recent weeks. The Bab al-Shams village was set up in an area where Israel plans to build the “E1” settlement, severing the West Bank from Jerusalem. Then, locals established the al-Karamah (Dignity) village in Beit Iksa, northwest of Jerusalem, which is set to be tightly encircled by Israel’s separation wall. Last week, activists set up the Al-Asra, or prisoners, protest village in the village of Anin, northwest of Jenin. Israeli forces have moved to evacuate the camps and dismantle their structures.
