Berlin then, West Bank now
2009-11-09 19:22
Ramallah - Palestinians tore down a chunk of Israel's West Bank separation barrier on Monday in a protest staged to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall came down.
A truck was used to pull down the wall section to the cheers of an estimated 150 Palestinian activists and foreign supporters near the Qalandia refugee camp just outside Ramallah.
Israeli troops used teargas and stun grenades in a brief clash with stone-throwing Palestinians who then dispersed.
"Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and marks the first day of a week of resistance to the apartheid wall in Palestine and around the globe," the Stop the Wall campaign said in a statement.
Israel says the network of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire is needed for security. The Palestinians view it as a land grab that undermines their promised state.
To date, Israel has completed 413km of the planned 709km barrier, according to UN figures.
When completed, 85% of the wall will have been built inside the West Bank, leaving 9.5% of the territory and 35 000 Palestinians between the barrier and the Green Line that marks the 1967 border with Israel.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a non-binding resolution in 2004 calling for those parts of the barrier that are inside the West Bank to be torn down and for further construction in the territory to cease.
Israel has ignored the ruling.
