"Stop the bleeding of Bethlehem" campaign launched in Bethlehem

Friday June 08, 2007 12:32 by Nisreen Qumsieh - IMEMC News

Palestinian activists from Bethlehem city in the West Bank announced the construction of a framework to face Israeli occupation and to raise levels of international awareness and support the Palestinians against Israeli transgressions of human rights.

Husam Jubran, one of the activists, stated that the idea for the campaign came within the popular resistance attempts to stand against Israeli operations in a simple and uncomplicated fashion.

The campaign was launched in the Nativity church yard with an exhibition containing pictures concerning Israeli operations in the area. The pictures represented the construction of the annexation wall on Bethlehem lands, the transformation of the area into an open-air jail, the bulldozed lands, the destruction of fruit-bearing trees and invasion operations. Jubran reported that most of the pictures have been shot by the foreign volunteers during their time in the area.

The exhibition, which lasted for two days, was visited by a large number of local residents and foreign visitors. Jubran remained on hand to present a detailed explanation of the pictures where necessary.

Throughout the exhibition, activists distributed leaflets written in Arabic in English that outlined and highlighted the impact of Israeli military operations in the area.

The leaflet further highlighted the special place of the olive tree in Palestinian identity and outlined the measures by which Palestinian farmers have had their land confiscated, have been barred access to their land and have had their olive trees uprooted and destroyed.

Jubran reported that the campaign will continue the work of aiming to reveal the true nature of occupation to the outside world and called for increased levels of similar activity throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.

bethlehem | human rights | news report nisreen at imemc dot org