Palestinian youths protested on Friday the Israeli "Separation" wall criticised by internatonal communities, marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
During a weekly protest against the barrier, which cuts through the Ramallah-area village's center and isolates residents from 60 percent of their farmland, some 300 demonstrators methodically dismantled a concrete section before Israeli forces arrived.
"When one concrete part started to come down partially, the Israeli army arrived and started shooting large amounts of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and even live ammunition," Maan news agency quoted Ahmad Mesleh, one of the protest organizers, as saying. "Dozens of soldiers came through the gate and are currently following the demonstration into the village."
The youths breached a 6-metre (20-foot) high section of the condemned wall.
Israeli border guards fired tear gas and a foul-smelling spray from behind the high concrete barrier, protesters levered open a space under one the pre-cast panels and used a hydraulic car-jack to topple it out of position.
"No matter how tall, all walls fall," read one banner pasted onto the structure by Palestinian youths helped by Israeli activists, who say the wall on Palestinian land and through Palestinian communities is simply a land grab by Israel.
The panel, cast in the same inverted T-shape as those erected by communist East German through Berlin in 1961, was tilted back close to tipping point onto the Israeli side, but did not fall completely.
The youths scattered when the Israeli guards behind the wall rushed to close the breach.
Thick black smoke from a stack of tyres set alight by the youths mingled with white trails of tear gas against the blue sky. Clouds of Israeli "skunk" spray -- smelling of corpses and faeces -- drenched the protesters' side of the skirmish.
Israel began building its barriers and walls in 2000 despite international warns, and it now runs along most of the West Bank border, encroaching the territory of West Bank alongside the other parts of Palestinian land.
Protests at its construction have become a regular Friday event at points such as Nilin, in which Israeli police fire gas and rubber bullets at civilian Palestinians and Israeli activists. In a non-binding decision in 2004, the International Court of Justice said the barrier was illegal and should be taken down because it crossed occupied territory.
Agencies
