They equated their struggle to the intergalactic one portrayed in the film. Israel says the wall is needed for its security. Palestinians consider it a land grab.
- AP & Reuters
- Published: 00:00 February 14, 2010
- Palestinians, Israelis and foreign activists dressed as characters from the movie Avatar campaign against the Israeli wall during a protest in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah on Friday.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Occupied Jerusalem: Palestinian protesters have added a colourful twist to demonstrations against Israel's wall, painting themselves blue and posing as characters from the hit film Avatar.
The demonstrators also donned long hair and loinclothes on Friday for the weekly protest against the wall near the village of Bilin.
They equated their struggle to the intergalactic one portrayed in the film. Israel says the wall is needed for its security. Palestinians consider it a land grab.
Symbolic
The protests have become a symbol of opposition. They often end in clashes with Israeli security forces involving stones and tear gas.
The "Avatar" protest comes a day after the Israeli government began rerouting the wall to eat up less of the Palestinian village.
Palestinian officials say tracks have been laid down for a modified route near the village of Bilin. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter before official confirmation.
The Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government two and a half years ago to modify the route around Bilin.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Friday as he tried to stab them, an army spokeswoman said.
The man, identified by locals as 41-year-old Fayez Faraj, was wounded in the Hebron shooting and taken to an Israeli hospital, where he died.
Locals said Faraj, a father of 10, had worked in a shoe factory. Television footage showed a small yellow cutting blade lying next to his body.
A large Palestinian city where several hundred Jewish colonists live with an Israeli military garrison to protect them, Hebron has seen frequent violence.
PALESTINE BLUES
ReplyDeleteI think it's ironic that as all those phony armchair progressives dither on about whether or not the blue Avatar screen revolutionaries qualify as politically correct, oppressed peoples in the Third World are adopting those images of protest as their own symbolically, in what may come to rival the Che image.