A group of Palestinian landowners
and activists have built a new protest village, in yet another effort to
raise awareness on Israel's settlement expansion projects which are
considered illegal under international law.
The tent village was set
up in Khalet al-Nahli, south of the occupied West Bank city of
Bethlehem. But, it was destroyed hours later, after the Israeli army
raided the area and dispersed all the protesters. One of the activists
present in the tent village told us that Israel's continuous evictions
of the Palestinian protest camps is illegal under international law.
Khalet al-Nahli protest camp was set up near another tent that had been
built by Israeli settlers weeks ago. Those settlers had threatened the
Palestinian landowners to seize their land in the area. Other protest
camps have been set up in the past, as part of the Palestinians' efforts
to raise international awareness on Israel's settlement projects, and
to help bring an end to the expansion activities. This new protest tent
village is reminiscent of one built in the E1 area in 2013, which was
violently demolished and evacuated by Israeli authorities. Protesters
here say they will continue to build on their own land to prevent the
expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the area which are planned
to divide the occupied west bank into two parts.