Published on Jun 2, 2014
PROVIDED BY CNNNEXT.COM
A group of Palestinian landowners and activists have built a new protest village, in yet another effort to raise awareness on Israel's settlement expansion projects which are considered illegal under international law.
The tent village was set up in Khalet al-Nahli, south of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.
But, it was destroyed hours later, after the Israeli army raided the area and dispersed all the protesters.
One of the activists present in the tent village told us that Israel's continuous evictions of the Palestinian protest camps is illegal under international law.
Khalet al-Nahli protest camp was set up near another tent that had been built by Israeli settlers weeks ago.
Those settlers had threatened the Palestinian landowners to seize their land in the area.
Other protest camps have been set up in the past, as part of the Palestinians' efforts to raise international awareness on Israel's settlement projects, and to help bring an end to the expansion activities.
This new protest tent village is reminiscent of one built in the E1 area in 2013, which was violently demolished and evacuated by Israeli authorities.
Protesters here say they will continue to build on their own land to prevent the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the area which are planned to divide the occupied west bank into two parts.
