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<div class="ViewDetails_Title"><big><b><big>Activists set up new
protest village northwest of Jerusalem</big></b></big></div>
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<div class="ViewDetails_Stamp">Published today (updated) 18/01/2013
18:06<br>
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<small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=557212">http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=557212</a></small><br>
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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian activists on Friday established a new
tented protest village northwest of Jerusalem, the second such
initiative against Israeli settlement building in as many weeks.<br>
<br>
Activists set up three tents and a small building in the area near Beit
Iksa, naming the village al-Karamah (Dignity).<br>
<br>
Locals said around 400 Palestinians performed Friday prayers in the
open area.<br>
<br>
Saed Yakrina, an activist from nearby village Beit Ijza, said the camp
was "a message to Israel and all democratic societies that we are
human, and we want peace."<br>
<br>
Activists from across the political spectrum, mainly from nearby
villages, have gathered and will sleep in the tents overnight, he told
Ma'an.<br>
<br>
Beit Iksa, surrounded by Israeli settlements, is set to be entirely
encircled by Israel's separation wall, cutting it off from Jerusalem.<br>
<br>
Israeli authorities ordered the confiscation of 500 dunams of the
village's land three weeks ago, and do not permit any new building in
the town, Yakrina said, noting that Israeli settlements were still
expanding.<br>
<br>
"We are looking for a life without checkpoints, walls and settlements,"
he said.<br>
<br>
Israeli forces immediately shut down the military checkpoint at the
entrance to Beit Iksa to prevent more activists and supporters from
accessing the protest site, witnesses said.<br>
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On Wednesday, Israeli forces tore down the tented village Bab al-Shams,
set up to protest Israel's plans to build the "E1" settlement on the
land, severing the West Bank from Jerusalem.<br>
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Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi on Friday said Bab al-Shams and
al-Karama were a new dimension in the Palestinian struggle and that
more protest villages would be established. <br>
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"The spirit of popular resistance which Bab al-Shams disseminated is
being strengthened today in other areas including Izbat al-Tabib and
Beit Iksa," the secretary-general of the Palestinian National
Initiative said in a statement. <br>
<br>
A rally was held in Izbat al-Tabib in the Qalqiliya district of the
northern West Bank on Friday to protest Israeli plans to demolish a
school in the village. <br>
<br>
The rally showed that popular resistance against Israel's occupation is
spreading, Barghouthi said.
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