On June 21, 2011 , and four years after what is so-called “Israeli Supreme Court” decision to dismantle section from the Segregation Wall in Bil’in village west of Ramallah, which was considered Illegal according to the court decision issued in September 4, 2007, the Israeli Army started to dismantle the 2 km length electric fence- wall section in the western parts of the village where the village will regain 1200 out of 1968 dunums isolated behind the Wall path taking into account that the total area of the village is 4040 dunums. The new route which is set to replace the existing fence is 3.2 kilometers long where the Israeli Army supposed to finish dismantling the fence in the mid of July 2011.
It is worth mentioning that on September 4, 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court had issued an order to reroute 1.7 km section of the Segregation Wall in Bil’in village within a distance of 500 meters away fr0m the village’s built-up area, where the court decision came as a result of a wave of petitions filed to the court by the residents of Bil’in along with its village council in demanding to rebuild it of the Green Line or westward, in addition of the Palestinian objections about the desperate living conditions caused by the construction of the Wall on their lands.
Below is an interview with Dr. Rateb Abu Rahma, the media coordinator of the popular committee against the Wall and settlements in Bil’in village.
Bil’in is a Palestinian village located about 13 km northwest of the city of Ramallah and some 5 km east of the Green Line (Armistice Line of 1949). The village houses a population of 2238 residents (PCBS 2010) and occupies a built up area of 224 dunums, which constitutes only 5.5% from the total village area (4040 dunums). Bil’in is bordered by Kharbatha Bani Harith village to the north, Safa village to the south, Kufur Ni’meh form the east, Mod’in ‘Ellit (Kiryat Sefer) Illegal settlement the Apartheid Segregation Wall along all of its western parts.
Bil’in……. a Stricken Village by the Apartheid Wall
Bil’in village was one of the Palestinian villages and communities in the West Bank that had lost huge parts of its lands for the construction of the Apartheid Segregation Wall, where on April15, 2004, the Israeli Army issued the military order no. (40/04/T) for the confiscation of 384 dunums from Bil’in and the adjacent village of Safa lands for military purposes mainly for building the Segregation Wall.
The construction of the Segregation Wall in Bil’in village started in March 7, 2005 especially in the western parts of the village. In an analysis conducted by the GIS unit at the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), for the revised route of the Segregation Wall of April 2007, which was published at the website of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Bil’in village had lost 1968 dunums (49%) of its lands behind the Segregation Wall path which stretches 2 km through the village lands dividing it into two parts and separates it from its agriculture lands located at the western parts of the village.
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