Israeli forces destroyed the Palestinian protest village of Canaan on Saturday for the third time, a local committee said.
Yousef Abu Maria, spokesman for Beit Ummar’s committee against the wall, told Ma’an that Palestinian and international activists rebuilt the village after it had been destroyed months earlier by Israeli military forces.
A fire broke out in the area as Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs to disperse activists, who vowed to continue building the village and fight against Israeli plans to confiscate Palestinian land, Abu Maria said.
The village is built on land belonging to the village of al-Jaba, which is slated to be confiscated to expand surrounding illegal settlements in the Gush Etzion bloc.
Palestinian activists first set-up a village called Canaan in the south Hebron hills in February, before Israeli forces destroyed the structures and arrested several people.
In January, 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.
A week later, activists set up the Al-Asra, or prisoners, protest village in the village of Anin, northwest of Jenin and activists then established the “Al-Manatir neighborhood” encampment in an area of Burin village that is slated for confiscation by a neighboring settlement.
Israeli forces have moved to evacuate each of the camps and dismantle their structures.
(Maannews.net)
Theodore Herzel and David Ben Gurion both said in almost the same words that they would take what they could get, incrementally, but that Israel would eventually have all of Palestine. Nothing the Israeli government has done since Ben Gurion spoke has indicated that policy has changed. The destruction of the village is one more “increment” in the plan to have it all.
THIS SORT OF ACTIVE resistance seems effective, better than firing rockets. Although a reflection of Israeli settlement building, by occupying their own landsin this way Palestinians make a clear statement difficult to ‘spin’ by Israel or the West (including BBC!). The latter’s silence about the destruction is, maybe, proof of the effectiveness of the Palestinians’ occupy and build movement.
Glad PC is reporting such events!