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Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jqIPKWjGlhialGyZpKCgEVwMfXMQ
PA Backing a Violent "Popular Struggle"
(AFP) Joseph Krauss - With the peace process at an impasse for over a year, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority has vowed to escalate "popular struggle" by supporting weekly protests in villages across the West Bank. Senior Fatah officials have started turning up at the protests, but few are turning out for the demonstrations, both because of heightened Israeli efforts to suppress the gatherings and growing disenchantment with the fractured Palestinian movement. The protests are modeled on the weekly demonstrations held in the West Bank towns of Bilin and Nilin, where residents, along with foreign and Israeli activists, have tried to halt Israel's separation barrier. Violence frequently erupts, with Palestinian youths hurling stones and Israeli troops firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The military rejects the idea that the protests are non-violent and says that in the last two years more than 100 security forces have been wounded in "violent riots." "We have a soldier with a smashed eye socket," says Major Peter Lerner, an IDF spokesman. "We're not talking about sit-ins. We're not talking about an atmosphere of peaceful demonstration."