Map: Weekly West Bank protests

Weekly pro-Palestinian rallies at flash points such as Bilin and Sheikh Jarrah call attention to Israeli ‘land grabs’.

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Click the icons for more information on protest sites. Due to legal restrictions, Google Maps shows only low resolution imagery and limited place names in Israel and the Palestinian territories. View Weekly West Bank protests in a larger map [Source: Media reports]

Every Friday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest in several West Bank and Jerusalem locations, most notably Bilin, Ni’lin and Sheikh Jarrah.

The regular gatherings focus attention on the route of Israel’s separation barrier, ongoing land confiscation and Israeli settler attacks.

Israeli border police use tear gas and other often deadly methods – including rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition – to disperse Palestinian, Israeli and foreign protesters who gather together.

Weekly marches at Bilin scored a significant victory on June 24, as locals and foreign activists celebrated the Israeli army’s compliance with a high court order to reroute the fence. 

Israel began building the 680km barrier in 2002 and credits it with the decline in suicide bomb attacks. Palestinians say the wall, built mainly on the “Palestinian side” of the 1967 border, unjustly cuts through land belonging to their future state and informally annexes Palestinian farmland to Israeli settlements.

More than one hundred Israeli soldiers and border police have been wounded in demonstrations against the separation fence, while around two dozen Palestinians have been killed.

The Palestinian model of largely nonviolent protest, originally established in the West Bank village of Budrus, has been replicated across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Al Jazeera recently spoke with Julia Bacha, director of the documentary film Budrus, which profiled the town’s experience. Bacha is affiliated with Just Vision, an NGO which also provides a wealth of mapping resources.

Source: Al Jazeera