Protests mount as West Bank wall is completed

Qalqilya, West Bank - As Israel completed the first section of its "security barrier" along the West Bank on Thursday, Israeli, Palestinian and foreign activists gathered to protest against what they called a form of ethnic cleansing.

Israeli officials had been due to hold a ceremony marking the landmark in the year-old project, but the celebrations were cancelled in a bid to appease Washington, which has voiced displeasure over the fence.

Instead, foreign activists staged a demonstration in Qalqilya and hurled paint balls to the colours of the Palestinian flag against the wall, covering it with slogans in different languages.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=123&art_id=qw1059688621731B253&set_id=1

Do they see this wall as something to be proud of?

that those government officials intending to celebrate wanted to celebrate the new "security" gained from the "fence."

I wonder what happens when Jordan, Syria, Lebannon and Egypt put up security fences? The whole Israeli/Palestinian affair has a distinctly racist stench to it.

Yes, it's so horribly racist to want to set up security to keep out suicide bombers.

something your statement conveniently overlooks. Also overlooked is a fact that the wall is not built on Israeli soil, which is a defacto annexation to compound an illegal occupation. The slow motion ethnic cleansing proceeds apace.

There has got to be a way to prevent my taxes from paying for this barbarism.

about this. Seeing it is heart-breaking. (They also have a new flash presentation about the wall/borders in general http://www.gush-shalom.org/media/seperationmap_eng.swf that was an interesting improvement to their static presentation). There are no walls of peace. This is so sad... Peace


Qualqiliya
This map shows the dramatic case of Qalqiliya, which will become a huge prison.
the wall will encompass Qalqiliya completely, leaving one opening guarded by two checkpoints.
the city, once a flourishing centre of commerce, will suffocate and die.
More Facts and figures
All in all, the wall is expected to have a devastating impact on the lives of some 210,000 Palestinians, living in 67 towns or villages.
11,700 people in 13 villages will be imprisoned between the wall and the green line.
At the demand of the Israeli settlers, the wall is planned to move far further to the east, to include the settlements of Ariel, Emanuel and Kedumim. This will increase dramatically the number of Palestinians who will be affected by the wall.

http://www.gush-shalom.org/thewall/index.html

this is no "security barrier" at all - to even use the term is to buy into Israel's propaganda. It's a racist Apartheid wall, and news items which discuss the issue should start calling it as exactly that.

On that note, I think the demonstration is a great idea - paint balls the colors of the Palestinian flag. Excellent: it's not violent, and gets the point across. Of course, the reports show that the Israelis have been shooting at the protestors. I guess the activists should be thankful they aren't getting bulldozed to death like Rachel Corrie, or sniped in the head, as was the fate of Tom Hurndall and Brian Avery.

Wow, guys with guns are being shot at. Somehow I doubt the Israeli soldiers are going to walk over to the "protestors" and ask if they are carrying Kalishnikovs or paintball guns.

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hoping they can somehow justify Israel's aggression reach new heights (or lows) every day.

I've seen a bunch. Some look very realistic, some look amazingly silly. Depends. Either way. I think a lot depends on how the user is carrying, holding and using it.

There have been cases of police officers shooting people with toy guns and paintball guns. If cops think they are real, I think soldiers can make the same mistake. Especially since, when in combat, you are making split-second decisions that involve life and death. If you see someone start to point what looks like a gun at you, most people wouldn't wait to find out if it were real or not.

like the murder of the little boy recently, was just a "mistake" that the Israeli soldier squeezed the trigger, which just happened to be pointed at the kid.

Or the murder of peace activist Rachel Corrie, just a "mistake" that the bulldozer driver ran right over her, crushing her to death, and then backed up and crushed her again, as four eyewitnesses to the killing have stated.

Or the bombing of the USS Liberty, just a "mistake" that for 2 hours an unarmed US intelligence vessel flying an American Flag in international waters on a clear day was assaulted and bombed, killing 34 American servicemen.

Yeah, Muddle, sure. Just more "mistakes".

Had to look twice - could have sworn it was an AK-47.

I don't know how the poor IDF copes! :crazy:

Though I basically agree with your description of it, it is very biased to make such assumptions. The job of a news article is to get out the facts, not make assumptions about them and distort them.