SALFIT, March 30, 2007 (WAFA) - Three young men from the village of Rafat were arrested today by the Israeli Forces following a nonviolent demonstration on their land, The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said.

ISM said the men-ages 16, 20, and 24-were detained on the road by eight soldiers who were checking IDs, adding they were handcuffed and escorted by five soldiers to five jeeps.

150 people joined the demonstration in Rafat as part of the Stop the Wall campaign to commemorate the 31st Land Day celebration in Palestine. Participants marched westward from the center of town towards the Israeli Apartheid Wall.

Since 1976, Land Day is marked by Palestinians to protest against the colonization and confiscation of Palestinian lands by Israel.

Rafat is adjacent to the 27-settlement bloc of Ariel, the largest Israeli settlement network in the West Bank. The Wall around the Ariel bloc stretches for 114 km and grabs within it 120,000 dunums of prime aquifer-laden agricultural land which produce about 30 percent of the West Bank's olive oil production.

A.D ( 22:10P) (19:10GMT)