People against division
09/08/2007
Source : Gulf News
By Zoi Constantine
It is 2pm on Friday following the afternoon prayer — and men, women and children from the West Bank village of Bil’in West Bank/Occupied East Jerusalem converge on the town centre. Just as they have every week for the last two and a half years, the people of the village, along with foreign nationals, including Israelis, begin their march towards the Wall — being built by Israel in the West Bank — to protest the annexation of 60 per cent of Bil’in’s land.
"No, no to the Wall," they chant in Arabic, a group of young boys leading the procession. Bil’in, close to the city of Ramallah, has become a symbol of popular, non-violent resistance against the construction of the Wall, as well as the Israeli occupation at large, that it symbolises.
The odds of pitting 1,800 individuals against an army of thousands are not in the villagers’ favour, yet their resilience continues unabated. "This is a united village, and the people are expressing themselves, their refusal to become victims and their opposition to the wall that is built on their land," said a filmmaker who is documenting the struggle.
In 2002, the Government of Israel began construction of the hugely controversial and complex system made up of 8-metre-high concrete walls, ditches, trenches, wire fences, patrol roads and barbed wire.
Since then, like many other communities located along the route of the Wall, Bil’in has seen much of its agricultural land, which provided a significant source of income to residents, severed from the village.
Villagers say they have lost some 2,300 olive trees and swathes of land. Where once they could walk freely to their olive groves, now a complex Israeli-controlled permit system polices access to land that falls on the other side of the Wall, close to the nearby ultra-Orthodox colony of Mod’in Illit.
"Every week we walk down to the Wall. Why? Firstly because this is our land and we want it back," says the head of Bil’in village council, Ahmad Issa Yassin, pointing to the fertile hills dotted with ancient olive trees and cut in two by a fence. According to Yassin, the Wall has taken 2,300 dunums (230 hectares) of the village’s land.
"We can’t even go close to the Wall, and for what they call security reasons they have taken an additional 200 metres of land as a buffer zone, meaning that the actual percentage of land annexed is 70 per cent of the village’s total land mass."
Bil’in used to rely on the production of olive oil as a main source of income. "Frankly, our land is everything we have," said Radwan Yassin, a professor of Education and English at Al Quds University. "Each olive tree gives us $100 per year through the production of 40 litres of oil.
I lost 300 olive trees, which means I lost everything. We insist that our struggle and our non-violent resistance against the Wall will continue and this is a centre of resistance against the occupation."
Fridays are not the only time that the residents of Bil’in come into contact with the Israeli military. According to Yassin, raids at 3am on the village are routine, and soldiers enter homes and periodically arrest members of the community.
Approximately 200 protesters march along the narrow road winding through the village down towards the Wall, waving flags and banners in the air; dozens of soldiers in position, anticipating their arrival.
Moving down the small valley that separates them from the soldiers, the demonstrators — some wearing scarves over their noses and mouths — chant and continue to push forward before the first tear gas shell is fired, spiralling into the crowd, clouding the area and sending smoke wafting up the hill.
As the stand-off continues, the protesters attempt to move forward towards the Wall and the soldiers retaliate by firing more tear gas shells and rubber bullets. Like most Fridays, sitting in his wheelchair, Rani Abu Waji moves slowly up the slope towards where most of the heavily armed soldiers are holding their positions.
"He does this every week — he tries to converse with the soldiers and asks them to let us through the gate to our land. He tries to reason with them," said one protester, explaining that Abu Waji was left paralysed after he was shot in the back by Israeli soldiers at the beginning of the Second Intifada in September 2000.
Volunteers from the Palestine Medical Relief organisation are on stand-by at the periphery of the protest, when suddenly ambulance lights start to flash and a wounded man is transported away from the protest and attended by medics.
Eight-year-old Majid stands up on the hill overlooking the demonstrators and the soldiers who maintain their positions; a Palestinian flag draped around his shoulders like a cape.
"Those people stole my land, that’s why we come here," he says defiantly, before running fearlessly down the hill, slingshot in hand.
As the clouds of tear gas become more intense, some of the protesters, including a Norwegian, Morten Havdal, move further up the hill. "You get angry when you see the way things are here. I am here to support the people in their non-violent message," he said.
Over the past two and a half years, the people of Bil’in have also been supported in their struggle by Israelis who join the weekly demonstrations; there is a rumour that the grandson of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin had been among them.
Israeli doctoral student and activist Rann Bar-On, 26, comes to Bil’in as often as he can during the summer, often accompanied by his mother.
"I am always so welcomed when I come here. The bottom line is if you come with a bulldozer or a machine gun you are not going to be welcomed, but there is always hospitality shown towards us as we are coming to support the people here in Bil’in," Bar-On told Weekend Review.
"We have even told the soldiers that they would be welcome if they lay down their machine guns. But, fundamentally, there will be no peace until there is justice."
Over the past two and a half years, these weekly protests have had some impact, albeit limited. After petitioning the Israeli High Court, it was ruled that the gates in the fence should be open 24 hours in order for Bil’in village residents to access their land. But, according to Bil’in’s Popular Resistance Committee, this has since been changed to between 6am and 9pm, which is still often ignored.
However, according to a leading member of the Popular Resistance Committee, Abdullah Abu Rahme, it is not simply a matter of seeking access to their land through the Wall, but the very existence of a structure that has annexed upwards of half the village’s land.
"We want the Wall to fall, as well as the colonies," he said. "Even though we use non-violent methods in our protests, the soldiers retaliate with sound bombs, tear gas, rubber bullets, curfews and many other things. We see our enemy as the occupation; not Jews or Israelis."
Facing isolation
Further south of Bil’in, with ongoing construction of the Wall and expansion of the vast colonies around the city, Jerusalemites say that they are increasingly isolated and cut off from the West Bank.
In a small, family-run café on Occupied East Jerusalem’s main Salahadin Street, the strains of a Fairouz song playing in the background, the manager says that business is down 40 per cent compared to what it was in 2006.
"Life is very hard here and we are feeling more and more isolated," says Abu Mohammad. "With the Wall and everything, Israel is trying to make East Jerusalem into Arab areas in Israel like Lid or Ramle."
Forty years after the occupation of East Jerusalem, both the Wall and the Israeli colonies encircling the city continue to create "facts on the ground", complicating prospects for peace. The fate of Occupied East Jerusalem falls under the category of the ever-elusive "final status" issues, that will establish the make-up of an eventual Palestinian state.
Nevertheless, international consensus rejects Israeli sovereignty over Occupied East Jerusalem and UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967 calls for the "withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict."
Today in Jerusalem’s Old City, Orthodox Jews flanked by armed security guards mingle in the narrow, crowded streets alongside Palestinian street vendors and Greek Orthodox priests. Hamza Taha, a 19-year-old who works in a small shoe shop in the heart of the Old City is defiant in the face of Occupied Jerusalem’s smouldering crisis.
"Despite how cut off we feel from the West Bank because of the Wall, whatever happens, this will always be our home."
Over ten per cent of West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem has also been caught between the Wall and the Green Line — the 1949 armistice line and the 1967 boundary between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories. UN figures project some 50,000 Palestinians will be located in the area once construction is completed, impacting access to education, health services and agricultural lands, and even separating families.
Just over three years ago, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion which stated that the Wall’s route constituted a breach of international law. The Court also concluded that Israel has an obligation to pay reparations for the damage, as well as to return the land seized for the construction of the Wall.
Despite this, construction is going on and Israel says that the Wall is a proven self-defence success.
The "barrier", it claims, keeps out would-be suicide bombers and will provide increased security for colonists living in the West Bank.
However, to its many critics, the massive, multi-million dollar project amounts to nothing short of a land-grab; rendering the internationally recognised two-state solution impracticable, while confirming concerns about Israel’s attempts to alter the demographic composition, status and now the physical nature of the West Bank.
Bil'in: A Palestinian village divided
Location: Ramallah district
Population: Approximately 1,800
Size: Approximately 4,000 dunums (400 hectares)
–Source: Bil’in Popular Committee
Colonisation facts: Modi'in Illit
Location: Ramallah district
Established: 1996
Number of colonists (as of 2005) — 30,484
Distance from the Green Line: 0.6 kilometre
–Source: Peace Now
The Wall in Figures — June 2007
Total length of the route of the Wall: 721 kilometres
Construction currently completed: 408 kilometres or 56.5 per cent
Amount constructed following the ICJ opinion: 200 kilometres
Length under construction: 71 kilometres or 10 per cent
Length planned: 242 kilometres or 33.5 per cent
Land between the Green Line and the Wall: 10.17 per cent
Length of planned Wall around Occupied Jerusalem: 168 kilometres
Length of Wall in the Green Line: 140 kilometres or 20 per cent
Length of the Wall in the West Bank: 581 kilometres or 80 per cent
Number of gates in the Wall: 84
Number of gates open to Palestinians with appropriate permits: 45
–Source: UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Occupied East Jerusalem
