European dignitaries injured in Bil'in
07/06/2008
Source : Ha’aretz
By Yuval Azoulay
The vice president of the European parliament, an Italian judge and a Northern Irish Nobel Peace prize laureate were among the five people injured at Friday’s weekly demonstration in Bil’in against the separation fence.
The three dignitaries - Giulio Toscano, Luisa Morgantini and Mairead Corrigan Maguire - were visiting the Palestinian village as part of a three-day international conference on non-violent resistance, which ended Friday.
The other two casualties in the clashes between protesters and security forces were Palestinians.
The incident occurred after the dignitaries arrived to observe the site where the barrier is being constructed. Their party included Palestinian leaders Jibril Rajoub and Mustafa Barghouti, as well as other Palestinian and Israeli anti-fence activists.
Toscano, the judge, was hit in the head by a tear-gas dispenser, witnesses and medics said. A Red Crescent ambulance took him to Ramallah for medical treatment. Morgantini, who belongs to the European Parliament’s United Left party, was treated along with Maguire for smoke and tear gas inhalation at the scene.
A United Left statement said that a soccer match between two groups of protesters was "interrupted by tear gas fired by the Israeli army." Yonatan Pollak, one of the Israeli activists there, said security forces began firing tear gas for no reason, and that the protesters had not provoked them.
An army spokesman responded, "Demonstrators threw rocks at the soldiers, who responded by firing tear gas."
