Palestinian Christians clashed with Israeli forces following mass on Sunday when demonstrators, including priests, marched to protest renewed work on Israel's controversial separation wall in the Christian majority town of Beit Jala in the occupied West Bank.
The march, the latest in a string of protests, moved through neighborhoods in the Bethlehem-district town where Israeli forces are extending the separation wall, which is considered illegal under international law.
Israeli forces shot tear-gas at protesters and physical altercations broke out when Israeli forces attempted to suppress the protest.
Two protesters were arrested for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers guarding the construction zone, police said.
One of several clergymen participated in the march, including Archbishop and former Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah.
Sabbah denounced the work that began earlier this month.
"This land belongs to us," he said.
"Whatever they do, whatever their courts say, this land belongs to us and it will return to us one day. You are stronger with your guns, but you are not the strongest when it comes to humanity."
In addition to the separation wall, protesters also condemned the nearby illegal Israeli settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo, which they fear will be expanded if construction on the wall goes ahead.
Archbishop Sabbah urged the world to support the people of Beit Jala in their battle against the separation wall and called on the Palestinian Authority to bring attention to Israeli violations against Palestinians.
Nearly 60 kilometers of the wall already cuts through Bethlehem district and is built on Palestinian land, the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs reports.
Israel's High Court ruled in April that work through Beit Jala must stop and told the government to consider alternative routes.
However, on July 6 the court reversed the decision, ruling that the previous ban referred only to an area of a few hundred meters alongside a monastery in the town's Cremisan Valley.
Walid Assad, the head of a local group, the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, said that demonstrators rejected the Israeli authorities' aim to seize Palestinian land and isolate Palestinian communities in the area.
