Friday In Bil'in

19/06/2009

by Bil’in Popular Committee

There, we had the first surprise. The IOF were hiding behind the concrete walls and non of the soldiers were seen only the jeeps. Demonstrators didn’t shower with tear gas as every past Fridays. When few activists opened the external gate fortified with barbed wire, still nothing. Not even when some approached the electronic fence and put there on fire a used car tier.

After 20, 30 minutes a troop of The IOF started to appear and through tear gas at the demonstrators. Few times, the border police unit came running and throw some tear gas canisters that did not deter the stone throwers. The IOF fired tear gas some grenades. After a long while, when demonstrators and photographers started to return to the village the tear gas machine gun shoot a barrage of tear gas, which to injury of Rani Burnat. Form the village and dozens affected by the inhalation of the tear gas. In a call to nilin popular committee that “they said, the same way the IOF Treated them in the weekly protest of Nilin against the apartheid wall.”

The Demonstration started as usual after the Friday pray finished were Palestinians, internationals and Israelis joint together and marched into the demo. Demonstrators marched into the village streets.

I expect readers get the gist despite some odd spelling and translations from the Arabic—perhaps I will start using these weekly missives to practice.

Four and a half years on, Bil'in protesters again brave tear gas

Source : Ma’an

More than 200 Palestinian, international and Israeli demonstrators braved clouds of tear gas to register their opposition to Israel’s construction of the separation wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in, near Ramallah, on Friday.

As they have every week for more than four and a half years, the protesters marched from the village center after the Friday Muslim prayer to the barrier, which separates the villagers from more than 60 percent of their land.

Young and old marchers waved flags, sung, and chanted slogans in Arabic, English and occasionally Hebrew demanding peace and an end to the occupation. (One chant goes "Oh Abbas, Oh Haniyeh, we want national unity," which rhymes in Arabic.)

Upon reaching the barrier, which at this stage is still a pair of barbed wire fences, young Palestinian men managed to wrench open a gate and clear away a tangle of barbed wire, getting them through one layer. Israeli soldiers and police in riot gear were waiting on the other side.

Organizers repeatedly shouted to the marchers, "No one throw stones!", which teenage boys from the village ignored, and soon began raining rocks on the soldiers, who protected themselves with shields.

A handful of protesters set fire to rubber tires, sending a plume of black smoke into the air. The soldiers responded with tear gas. After an hour of exchanging gas canisters and rocks, the soldiers fired a broadside of dozens of canisters into the air, streaking white gas across the sky and sending the majority of the protesters running back toward Bil’in.

No one was reported physically injured at Friday’s demonstration, although dozens choked on tear gas, including two Ma’an reporters. Two months ago a Bil’in protester, Bassem Abu Rahmeh, was killed when an Israeli soldier shot him in the chest with a high-velocity gas canister. On Friday some demonstrators carried metal shields plastered with Abu Rahmeh’s photo.

In 2007, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that the military must reroute the wall further from the village, a decision that the demonstrators are still pushing to be implemented.

But according to Iyad Burnat of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall, "This is not our goal – to move the wall 500 meters back. We want to remove the wall. It’s illegal for Israel to build this settlement on our land. We want to end this settlement."

Bil’in is also suing two Canadian companies, Green Park International and Green Mount International, in a Quebec court over their involvement in constructing, marketing, and selling homes in the settlement of Modi’in Illit on land seized from Bil’in. Burnat said a ruling is expected in that case on 22 June.

Bil’in is one of several villages that hold weekly demonstrations along the barrier’s route. In reality, the wall is a network of walls, fences, watchtowers, and electronic sensors snaking through the interior of the West Bank. When completed, it is planned to be 723 kilometers long. The International Court of Justice ruled it illegal in 2004.

After more than 225 weekly protests, Burnat said that Bil’in plans to keep marching until they win their land back. "Bassem’s death won’t stop us, because we need peace. Our message to the world is that this is not a security wall, this is a way of expanding settlements. If it was for security, why not build it on the ‘67 line?"

The Israeli military attack Bil'in weekly protest

Source : IMEMC

by Ghassan Bannoura

Dozens suffered from gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest in Bil’in village near the central West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday afternoon.

Residents of Bil’in and their international and Israelis supporters marched from the village center after the Friday midday prayers.

The protesters demanded the halt of the Israeli illegal settlements and the construction of the wall. As the protesters arrived at the wall, Israeli troops at the gate nearby fired a barrage of sound bombs, tear gas and rubber-coated bullets.

After the protest ended troops set fire to olive crops located near the Palestinian side of the gate of the wall, a number of olive trees were damaged.