[R-G] Friday In Bil'in

[Aaron Chubb]

Friday In Bil'in

June 19, 2009

*by Bil’in Popular Committee*

http://www.bilin-village.org/english/articles/testimonies/Friday-In-Bilin

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 <http://www.maannews.net/en/>

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 <http://www.imemc.org/>

*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.