Violent clashes broke out on Friday afternoon between Palestinian young men and Israeli soldiers in Kafr Qaddum town in Qalqilya after the latter attacked the peaceful anti-settlement march staged weekly by local and foreign activists.
A local activist said that hundreds of Kafr Qaddum residents as well as some foreign activists participated in the march which demands the Israeli occupation authority to open a main road annexed 14 years ago.
He added that the protesters chanted slogans and carried banners denouncing Israel’s racist policies and asserting that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Palestine whether the new US president likes it or not.”
As the protesters approached an area near the blocked road a large number of Israeli troops attacked and dispersed them provoking young participants to respond by throwing stones and blocking a road with burning tires the activist said.
No one was reportedly injured or arrested during the events.
In 2003 the Israeli army closed the main entrance of the village that connects it to Nablus with a permanent roadblock and set up a dirt mound one kilometer before the roadblock isolating one family house and making it unreachable by vehicles.
In 2010 after waiting for five years for an Israeli court verdict it was ruled that the roadblock is illegal but the court also stated that the road is too dangerous to travel on so the Israeli army used it as an excuse to keep it blocked.
The roadblock makes it difficult for many local residents to reach their farmlands because they are prohibited from driving so they must walk on foot and carry their equipment and harvest. It also delays the 15-minute journey to Nablus to 40 minutes.
