RAMALLAH, August 29, 2009  (WAFA)- Three citizens were suffocated tonight in a rally organized in lands the Israeli occupation plan to seize for the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Ni’lin near Ramallah .

The citizens marched in the rally after a collective Ramadan breakfast. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas against protestors, resulting in suffocation of three citizens.

Since May 2008, citizens of Ni’lin have been organizing and participating in unarmed demonstrations against construction of the Apartheid Wall. Despite being deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, the Occupation continues to build the Wall, further annexing Palestinian land.

Ni’lin will lose approximately 2,500 dunums of agricultural land when construction of the Wall is completed. Israel annexed 40,000 of Ni’lin’s 58,000 dunums in 1948. After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the illegal settlements and infrastructure of Kiryat Sefer, Mattityahu and Maccabim were built on village lands and Ni’lin lost another 8,000 dunums. Of the remaining 10,000 dunums, the Occupation will confiscate 2,500 for the Wall and 200 for a tunnel to be built under the segregated settler-only road 446. Ni’lin will be left with 7,300 dunums.