Report from the Bil’in Committee Against the Apartheid Wall and Settlements
Friday 17 October 2008
After the Friday prayer, the residents of Bil’in gathered in a protest together with Israeli and international activists. A group from France called on French people to support the Palestinian People and another group from Norway joined the demonstration in solidarity with the village in their struggle against the Wall and settlement building.
The protesters raised Palestinian flags and banners to allow Palestinian farmers to pick olive trees from their land. The protest called to remove the illegal wall and settlements, stop land confiscations, remove checkpoints and road blocks, and the release of all the Palestinian detainees.
Another delegation from the National and International Affairs Department from the PLO visited the village to support the families with picking their olives. The members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlement Building gave a presentation to the delegation. The head manager of the department, along with the head of the Information Department, Abed Alrasol, and Myassar the manager of Foreign Relations gave a plaque in an appreciation for the efforts and standing of the village and the committee against Israeli aggression. They offered Bil’in greetings and support from the head of the Department of International and Arab Relations in the PLO Ghassan Asheka.
The demonstrators chanted against the discriminatory policies of the occupation and called for a national unity among the Palestinians, while they carried ladders and tools to pick olives. When the protest reached the gate, protesters tried to access the land to pick olives, but they were stopped by sound grenades and teargas canisters. The demonstrators managed to damage and take off the gate to bring it to the village, near the monument of Yassir Arafat in the center of the village.
A delegation from the village along with international and Israeli activists joined the village of Almazra’a Alsharqiya and the neighboring villages to remove a road block that has been placed for 17 years near A’in Al-Haramiya area on the road between Nablus and Ramallah.
The International Human Rights Organization in Berlin announced the nomination of Bili’in Popular Committee Against the Wall in Ramallah and the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall for Carl Von Ossietzky’s prize 2008. Osseitzky was kidnapped and tortured in the Nazi prison camp (Soninburg), located near the Polish city of Slontnick because of his resistance against racism and war.
Bili’in Popular Committee Against the Wall in Ramallah and the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall were nominated because of their massive efforts in resisting the wall which violates human rights. The award ceremony will be held on October 7th at the House of World Cultures in Berlin. That date was chosen to mark the sixtieth anniversary of signing the International Declaration of Human Rights on 10th of October, 1948 in the UN General Assembly.