Three citizens were injured during a weekly demonstration in Bil’in. This Friday’s was organized in honor of the spirit of George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Bil’in residents have actively resistance the Israeli Wall and settlement expansion for years.
Bil’in residents left the western Ramallah village after Friday prayers in a massive march which included journalists and foreign and Israeli supporters. The Popular Committee to Resist the Wall carried flags alongside members of the leftist PFLP holding posters of the late Habash who died last week in a Jordanian hospital. They all called for defending the Palestinian cause, ending the occupation, and for national unity.
The demonstrators marched in the streets of the village chanting slogans for national unity, and condemning the policy of occupation and construction of the Wall and settlements. They headed toward their lands under confiscation where Israeli forces had been waiting since the morning.
As close to the Wall as they could get, demonstrators began speeches, including Ahmed Abu Rahma of the Popular Committee. He spoke words of praise for the work of George Habash and his defense of Palestine, while also calling for more resistance to the Wall.
Israeli forces fired rubber-coated bullets, gas and concussion grenades into the nonviolent protest, injuring several people. Some suffered periods of suffocation from the noxious gas, while three others were severely injured and transported to hospitals.