8 September 2009
Shortly after 2:30am, the Israeli occupation forces invaded the village of Bil’in again with five Jeeps and a military truck. They came to arrest Hamaza Burnat (age 16) but he was not at home at the time. This was the second time this week that the Israeli Army raided his house.
Bil’in is a small village of 1,700 inhabitants near Ramallah in the West Bank. For nearly three months now, the Israeli occupation forces have been conducting … Continue reading
Hundreds of Palestinian villagers have made a short but symbolic march to the separation wall that Israel has built on their land, a non-violent protests that they regularly undertake.
Equally, the protesters, marching from the village of Bilin, are regularly met with a violent response from the Israeli army.
“The village of Bilin is literally on the frontline of Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian land and the construction of its separation barrier,” Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reporting from … Continue reading
5 September 2009
Around 2:30am, the Israeli occupation forces invaded Bil’in again. They raided two houses but no arrests were made.
They raided the house where Khamse Yaseen (age 16) lives and attempted to arrest him, but he was not at home at the time. They also raided the house where Yaseen Mohammed Ali Yaseen (age 21) lives but could not find him either.
During the raid at both houses, Palestinian and international activists challenged the soldiers standing guard outside. They … Continue reading
4 September 2009
Despite the hot summer and the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, a protest joined by internationals and Israeli peace activists marched from Bili’n after the Friday prayer. The protesters chanted and called for the end of the occupation, settlement building and the release of Palestinian detainees.
Today is the second anniversary of the decision from the so-called “Israeli Supreme Court of Justice” to move the path of the wall in Bili’n. On the 4th of Sept 2007, the Israeli court ruled that the wall in Bilin should be moved back to a distance of … Continue reading
Michael Sfard | Ha’aretz
3 September 2009
When my father was 21, he was arrested. Secret service agents tailed him everywhere for a few weeks, and the stress over whether and when he’d be shackled ate at him. Above all, it killed his aged parents. Many members of the student union were arrested with him. Each time the heavy iron door of his cell opened everyone’s heart skipped a beat. Who would they summon for interrogation now? Who would be spending the next 10 hours with the good interrogator and the bad interrogator?
During his many interrogations he wasn’t beaten or tortured, … Continue reading
1 September 2009
Shortly after 3am, Bil’in was invaded again. 4 Jeeps and a military truck entered the village with over 50 soldiers. The Israeli occupation forces raided three homes simultaneously and arrested Abed Baset Mohammed Abu Rahme (age 19). In the second house, they tried to arrest Yaseen Mohammed Ali Yaseen (21), but he was not at home. They left a military order for him to turn himself in by 9am the next day. In the third house, they wanted to arrest Mohammed Ahmed Yaseen (age 21), but did not find him at his home either.
The soldiers acted very … Continue reading
Support Bil’in’s struggle
“Just as a simple man named Ghandi led the successful non-violent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bil’in are leading a non-violent struggle that will bring them their freedom. The South Africa experience proves that injustice can be dismantled.”
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a visit to Bil’in on 27 August 2009
The Israeli military’s most recent attempt to crush Bil’in village’s ongoing popular non-violent resistance campaign against the Apartheid Wall is a wave of night raids and arrests … Continue reading
28 August 2009
Three injured and dozens were suffocated with tear gas during their participation at Bili’n weekly demonstration against the apartheid wall and the construction of settlements on Bili’n lands. Three protesters: Rani Burnat, Omar Attamemi, and Zuhdya Alkhatib were lightly wounded. The demonstration started at the center of the village directly after the Friday prayers, with participation of international and Israeli peace activists. In addition to Qais Abu Laila (PLC member) and a number of other comrades and members of the Palestinian National Council from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Mr. … Continue reading
Ethan Bronner | The New York Times
27 August 2009
Every Friday for the past four and a half years, several hundred demonstrators — Palestinian villagers, foreign volunteers and Israeli activists — have walked in unison to the Israeli barrier separating this tiny village from the burgeoning settlement of Modiin Illit, part of which is built on the village’s land. One hundred feet away, Israeli soldiers watch and wait.
The protesters chant and shout and, inevitably, a few throw stones. Then just as inevitably, the soldiers open fire with tear gas and water jets, lately including a putrid oil-based liquid that makes … Continue reading
Akiva Eldar | Ha’aretz
28 August 2009
“The lesson that Israel must learn from the Holocaust is that it can never get security through fences, walls and guns,” Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa told Haaretz Thursday.
Commenting on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement in Germany Thursday that the lesson of the Holocaust is that Israel should always defend itself, Tutu noted that “in South Africa, they tried to get security from the barrel of a gun. They never got it. They got security when the human rights of all were recognized and respected.”
The Nobel Prize laureate spoke to Haaretz in … Continue reading
