Sharif Omar, a Palestinian farmer from the West Bank, gave a presentation
in Leicester about the impact of the Israeli apartheid wall on his family and his farm. He described how the wall is
making his life impossible. The wall separates his house from his fields. He is the only one in his family to
have been issued a permit to visit his fields and to get to them he has to pass through Israeli checkpoints that cause delays
of at least one hour in each direction.
The wall cuts through many Palestinian communities,
blocking access to schools, shops and hospitals. Life is being made ever more intolerable for ordinary Palestinians
in the hope they will give up and emigrate elsewhere, leaving their homes and lands for settlement by foreign Jews.
This photo shows an Israeli armoured bulldozer clearing ground for the construction
of the Apartheid Wall. Much of the heavy plant used by the Israelis was manufactured by the US Caterpillar Tractor Company
which has a factory in Desford, not far from Leicester. Caterpillar tractors are widely used by the Israeli army to
demolish Palestinian homes and farms. A campaign calling on Caterpillar not to sell any more equipment or spare parts
to the Israelis has received widespread international support.
Symbolising
the unequal struggle between the Palestinians and the Israeli army equipped with the latest American military equipment and
technology. Here a Palestinian boy throws stones at a tank involved in one of the many destructive Israeli incursions
into Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed by the Israelis for just this sort of resistance.
A demonstration in London against Israeli occupation united
many strands of opinion in calling for justice for the Palestinians.
Many Jews both inside and outside Israel are
opposed to the policy of colonisation and annexation. The calls for withdrawal and recognition of an independent and
viable Palestinian state on the 'green line' border of 1967 are supported far and wide.
Israeli soldiers fire tear gas into a peaceful demonstration against the Apartheid Wall by citizens of
the Palestinian village of Aboud on the West Bank. While most news reports in Britain and the West focus on armed resistance
by the militant groups of Hamas and Hezbollah, far more resistance occurs peacefully on a day to day basis by ordinary Palestinians
using demonstrations and civil disobedience. They are rewarded with tear gas, beatings and arrests of leaders.
israel holds over 11,000 Palestinians as prisoners, many without trial.
