Deir Ballut Activism Page

• March 18th 2004 - Urgent action call:support village resistance to the Apartheid Wall
• March 18th 2004 - Soldiers announce the Wall in Deir Ballut - video
• LIFE in DEIR BALLUT
• Deir Ballut photo gallery
• HISTORY of LAND THEFT


The village of Deir Ballut, in the Salfit Governorate, asked Palestinian, International and Israeli activists to join a camp for two weeks of activities in opposition to Israel's continued building of Phase II of the Apartheid Wall.

The camp's activities began on Friday, December 19th 2003 and ended on January 3rd 2004. The camp was built on the lessons of the successful Mas'ha camp, which brought enormous international attention to the political motives behind the wall.

The Deir Ballut Camp's activities included:

• Mass march to the school to open the Camp
• Daily and nightly interventions at the notorious checkpoint, where abuses like the death of twins took place
• News item on direct action against the Apartheid Wall and Gates in Mas'ha
• Mass demonstration against the Deir Ballut checkpoint and closing letter of the camp
• Children's march against the Occupation and the Wall

The village chose a primary school under construction in the path of the on-coming wall for the site of the camp. The school is a significant place in the village. Israeli Occupation Forces stopped the building a few months ago, saying that the school's land would be used for the Apartheid Wall. The partially built school will be bulldozed within months if the Apartheid Wall is allowed to go ahead in this village.

Here are the impressions of one ISM activist of Deir Ballut...(external link).

The Deir Ballut camp believed firmly that every struggle is led by the people, not by government representatives or political negotiators. The people directly affected by the wall must take steps, with Israeli and International allies, to protest and oppose this wall in strategic and effective ways. It is nonviolent direct action against the wall which will expose its true motives: Zionist expansionism for political and fundamentalist reasons.

On 26th January 2004, three weeks after the camp had ended, and after an incident where a villager was tortured at the checkpoint (read this IWPS human rights report), the concrete blocks were removed and villagers report that passage to Ramallah has greatly eased. They no longer have to drive out of town on a rough agricultural road in order to drive back in to wait at the checkpoint.

But on February 28th 2004, farmers were handed notices of land confiscation. It seems that Deir Ballut will not be safe from the Apartheid Wall for much longer. We will keep you posted..