Anti-fence demonstrators chain themselves to olive trees in Bil'in

Activists from the "Anarchists Against the Fence" movement chained themselves to olive trees near the West Bank village of Bil'in on Wednesday in a bid to prevent their removal to make way for the separation fence.

Police at the site, west of Ramallah, arrested five demonstrators.

The Civil Administration announced Tuesday that the olive trees would be uprooted and transferred to another location in order to facilitate construction of the barrier.

For the past few months, the village of Bil'in, located north of the Jerusalem-Modi'in Highway, has been a daily focus for anti-fence demonstrations by Palestinians and left-wing activists.

Hundreds of dunams of village land located over the Green Line border has been confiscated to build the fence, and, unlike in other areas, the High Court of Justice has not halted construction there.

Last week, Arab MK Mohammad Barakeh was sustained minor leg wounds from an IDF stun grenade during a demonstration at the site. A journalist was also lightly hurt.

The Nature and Parks Authority has expressed fears that the local Nahal Kelt reserve will be harmed by the construction of the fence, which has intensified in the last few days.

Following tours of the area with representatives of the defense establishment, the Nature Authority says that a fence is planned to run along a cliff adjacent to the reserve.

According to Eli Amitai, chairman of the Nature and Parks Authority, "This a question of serious damage to nature, and we will oppose it in every way. The intended route of the fence includes building a sort of step on the cliff, in order to pave a path that will help to control and supervise the fence. This means damage to the cliff and the desert landscape that we will not be able to reverse even if the fence is dismantled in the future."

Amitai said that the riverbed portion of the nature reserve will remain outside the fence, on the Palestinian side. He says this will cause severe damage to plants and animals due to hunting and grazing on the part of the Palestinians.

"Today we can preserve the area, which 10,000 travelers visited during Passover."

The Nature and Parks Authority has provided the defense establishment with recommendations for alternative fence routes that would not damage the cliff.

One of the proposals runs closer to the Green Line and does not damage the cliff, but leaves the settlements and the reserve outside the fence. Another alternative leaves the reserve inside the fence, does not harm the cliff, but leaves more West Bank land under Israeli control.

The construction of the fence has already caused damage to landscapes in the Jerusalem and Judaea Mountains, east of Kiryat Gat and Beit Guvrin, where the Nature Authority did not succeed in changing the fence route.

A particularly difficult environmental struggle is expected in the Judaean Desert. Members of the Nature Authority fear that the defense establishment will decide on a route that will pass through canyons of large rivers in the desert, causing major damage.

	Anti-fence demonstrators chaining themselves to trees near a West Bank village Wednesday. (AP)