- Over 100 Shops And 5 Homes Demolished In Nazlat
'Isa For the Building Of The Wall
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- OCCUPIED WEST BANK -- Marking
the single largest demolition of buildings in years, the entire commercial
area of Nazlat 'Isa was today razed to the ground as some 15 bulldozers,
accompanied by large numbers of military and border police, entered the
community at 5:00 AM and destroyed over 100 shops and 5 homes. The market,
which was previously targeted in January of this year with the destruction
of 82 or close to one half of its shops, has been the commercial center
for the entire region.
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- The bulldozers began the demolitions early in the morning
and continued unabated until the late hours of the night.
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- The commercial area, just east of the Green Line in the
Occupied West Bank, has been leveled for the building of an "isolation
barrier" - an extension or offshoot of the Wall - that will entrap
the community and the surrounding areas between it and the Wall to ensure
complete isolation. Commercial areas along the Green Line have been consistently
targeted with the building of the Wall in what assures that communities
trapped between the Wall and the Green Line (the Wall in this case is located
2 km inside the West Bank) will have no infrastructure for survival.
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- Today, Nazlat 'Isa saw countless tragic images of people
clearing their shops and hurriedly removing goods and produce to safeguard
their investments and livelihoods. Everyone interviewed in the area was
unaware of today's arrival of the military and demolitions. The aluminum
factory demolished, which was the largest distributor of aluminum for the
area and for clientele inside Israel, managed to have the immediate presence
of an attorney to postpone the demolition for a few hours in order to remove
its raw material prior to the total destruction.
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- In late January of this year, the demolition of 82 shops
of the same commercial area received worldwide media attention - and condemnation
- and was called by the foreign press "the biggest West Bank demolition
in years." Today's lack of media presence was profoundly noticeable,
as most media was dispersed in other areas of the West Bank covering an
extra-judicial assassination and aerial and land attacks by the Israeli
military in major West Bank cities.
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- Tens of villages in the area acknowledge that this is
a major step by Israel in sealing their fate and making survival on their
lands and in their homes impossible.
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- The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign emphatically reiterates
that this act is a crime and calls for the worldwide declaration to Stop
the Wall!
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- For more information or for high resolution images of
the demolitions and destruction, contact:
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- PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign +972-67-465350 +972-2-6565890
+972-52-285610
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