Landmark wall razed on Jerusalem outskirts

[oberliner]

JERUSALEM — Israeli troops on Sunday began demolishing a huge concrete wall erected nine years ago to prevent shooting attacks towards Gilo, a Jewish neighbourhood in occupied east Jerusalem.

Soldiers wearing construction helmets began removing the towering slabs from one of the streets, lowering them onto a truck, an AFP correspondent said, at the start of an operation likely to take a fortnight.

The two-metre-high (6.5-foot) concrete barrier was set up in 2001 along several streets on the southernmost edge of Gilo, which sits just across the valley from the Palestinian village of Beit Jala in the West Bank.

During the second intifada, gunmen in Beit Jala would take pot shots at their Jewish neighbours, prompting Israel to erect several hundred metres of protective concrete along the length of at least four streets and to install bullet-proof glass in all the homes there.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hhr7IXthYayDXlP011n4Pg0CEm4g

[madrchsod]

1. interesting picture in that article

Israeli activists helping Palestinians replant trees?