IDF fires tear gas at security fence protest

Israeli soldiers fire tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a protest in a Palestinian Christian town near Bethlehem against renewed work on Israel’s West Bank security fence.

Dozens of Palestinian and foreign protesters march in the West Bank village of Beit Jala toward an area where military bulldozers have uprooted olive trees to clear space for the barrier.

Two protesters have been arrested for throwing stones at soldiers guarding the construction zone, police say.

The former Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, denounces the work that began earlier this month.

“This land belongs to us,” he says.

“Whatever they do, whatever their courts say, this land belongs to us and it will return to us one day. You are stronger with your guns, but you are not the strongest when it comes to humanity.”

— AFP