Israel resumes construction of illegal Separation Wall

Israeli authorities resumed construction of the illegal Separation Wall in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem after a three-year hiatus, official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Saturday.

Wafa quoted Hassan Brijiya, an activist with the Bethlehem-area Committee Against Israeli Settlements and the Separation Wall, as saying that Israeli authorities had placed a four-metre high barbed wire fence in the Ain Jweiza area northwest of the village of Al-Walaja.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz corroborated the information, adding that construction of the illegal Separation Wall had been frozen in the Al-Walaja area three years ago following legal battles and protests denouncing the move as causing huge damages to the landscape and archaeological heritage in the area.

#ApartheidOffCampus

However, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israeli authorities could proceed with construction of the wall in the area. It remained unclear, however, why the move was occurring now. A spokesperson for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency responsible for implementing Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, was not immediately available for comment on the case.

UNESCO: Israel is an ‘occupying power’

Residents of Al-Walaja have already lost over three-quarters of their lands since Israel was established in 1948, when most of the village’s residents became refugees. During Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967, 50 per cent of Al-Walaja’s lands were annexed to the Jerusalem municipality.

Israel’s separation wall encircles Al-Walaja, the hometown of slain Palestinian activist Basel Al-Araj. It’s land has been used to extend the illegal Israeli settlements of Gilo, Har Gilo and Givat Yael.