Qalandia Checkpoint, West Bank - Dozens of Palestinians marked the 20th anniversary for the fall of the Berlin Wall on Monday by pulling down a section of the concrete barrier erected by Israel between the Qalandia refugee camp and Jerusalem. Palestinians used a truck to remove a small section of the 8-metre high wall surrounding the airport strip at Qalandia, which Israel has incorporated into the sections of Jerusalem it annexed following the occupation of the city in 1967.
As the chunk was pulled free, the group cheered and crossed the wall into the airport strip for few minutes before an Israeli army patrol arrived and dispersed them with tear gas. Two Palestinians were arrested.
Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, from the Palestinian Committee Against the Wall, said the gesture was the Palestinian way of marking the fall of the Berlin Wall, expressing hope that the barrier Israel started building in 2003 will also fall.
Israel built the wall around Jerusalem and most of the West Bank after a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks in Israeli cities, claiming it was intended to keep out suicide bombers.
Palestinians say the wall was built to incorporate rich farming land into Israel and to insolate the Palestinians behind the barrier, sections of it concrete and others just a fence.
