Weekly non-violent protest continues in Bil'in
14/09/2007
Source : IMEMC
by Ghassan Bannoura
At midday on Friday the villagers of Bil’in were joined by international and Israeli peace activists in a march to the illegal wall built by the Israelis on village land. Another 100 Palestinians from the West Bank city of Jericho came to Bil’in in support.
The demonstrators chanted slogans calling for Palestinian unity against the Wall and the illegal settlements..
Today’s protest is the first since last week’s Israeli court ruling which ordered the Israeli army to change the route of the wall near the village.
After more than two years of continuous non-violent struggle, the villagers of Bil’in scored a victory when the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the wall must be re-routed. The re-routing will allow the village to retrieve 275 acres out of a total of 600 cut off by the wall’s construction and used to build the illegal settlement of Modi’in.
After a number of speeches from local organizers, the protesters then headed back to the village. As they did so Israeli soldiers showered them with tear-gas and steel-coated rubber bullets. A number of light injuries were reported.
