Bulldozers began cutting and uprooting trees on Sunday night and by morning,
hundreds of trees had been laid waste. Several hundred villagers gathered in
the village at 9:00 a.m. and attempted to march to the land, but were
blocked by seven jeeps of soldiers and border police who threw sound
grenades and shot rubber bullets, injuring at least one person.

A small group of women and girls, accompanied by internationals, made their
way around the soldiers and reached the land where bulldozers were working.
Though the soldiers attempted to push them back, the women were persistent
and small girls sat and stood by the trees meant to be uprooted. After
repeatedly threatening to run the women down, the bulldozer drivers finally
turned off their engines, but after about forty-five minutes, soldiers threw
tear gas and dispersed the group.

Contractors, army and border police were confronted by a group of women and
men in a second area. They again used tear gas, sound grenades and fired
shots in the air to prevent the group from stopping the work. This group
included Israeli activists as well as villagers and internationals, who
remained on the land until early afternoon.

The wall will leave the village of Az Zawiya with only 775 dunums, or 90% of
their agricultural land. The village will lose access to around 24,000
dunums where they grew olive trees, almond trees, and carried out intensive
cultivation of vegetables in greenhouses.

They have already lost land to road expropriations for settler highway no.
5, for settlement building, for military facilities and training grounds.

They will be imprisoned in their village. Az Zawiya is one of 3 neighbouring
villages that will be in the same enclave - the other two are Rafat and Deir
Ballut. The village of Az Zawiya has requested an ongoing international and
Israeli presence to help them prevent the destruction of their community.
Plans are being made for a peace camp similar to that held in Mas'ha last
year.

Photos and video are available from IWPS and will be viewable later today at
www.iwps.info.

For more Information contact:
The International Women's Peace Service (IWPS)
Office: 09-2516-644 Mobile: 055 854 988/067 870 198