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Right to Education

Let’s Bring the Wall Down

Written by admin  •  Wednesday, 07.07.2004, 11:57
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We thank all our friends and supporters who extended their solidarity to us in our hunger strike.

We decided to go on hunger strike to focus the attention of people world wide on the intolerable situation in the Palestinian territories, and to give impetus to a worldwide campaign against the wall. The Israeli wall being built throughout the West Bank incarcerates hundreds of thousands
of people behind massive concrete walls, barbed wires and watchtowers. The wall is the physical embodiment of Israelis’ determination to further dispossess the Palestinians of their lands and more than that, to tear apart the very fabric of Palestinian society, and destroy their will for freedom.

We believe that it is in our power to bring the wall down. The enormous wave of solidarity that responded to the hunger strike shows that people everywhere realize the enormity of what is happening and are willing to act against the wall. The landmark ruling of the International
Court of Justice on Friday 9th July can only help in our struggle. In clear and unequivocal terms, the ruling of the ICJ has declared the building of the Israeli wall to be illegal.

The ruling of the ICJ has reinstated the basic issue that in Palestine there exists an occupier and a people living under occupation, not two sides, equally responsible for the drastic situation we find ourselves in. Ten years of negotiations have tried to fudge this basic truth through the manipulation of the language of two sides and the cycle of violence. In strong language the ICJ ruling has reaffirmed the right of the Palestinians to self-determination; the illegality of the occupation; the illegality of the settlements; and now the wall.

The ruling shows up the failure of the international system, including the Security Council, tied down by the American veto, to discharge its responsibilities to the Palestinian people, and asks the United Nations to bring a speedy end to this illegal situation.

We have to mobilize all our capacities, our friends and supporters, and all people of conscience in an international campaign to entrench the principle that the wall is simply unacceptable and has to come down. The coming period is crucial for part of the struggle will be over how the international state system, including the EU,
will position itself regarding the ICJ ruling which
clearly rehabilitates the principles of international legality that have been under sustained attack for so long.

We call on all our friends and people of conscience to intensify their struggle, and mobilize public opinion to lobby governments to adhere to the principles and norms in the ICJ ruling till we bring the wall down.

This will be a long and hard struggle but one that we can win.

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