October 31, 2008
The weekly Friday prayer demonstration began at 12.00 near the Ni’lin clinic with residents of Ni’lin praying on their land.
Video courtesy of Israel Putermam
Shortly after the prayer, 200 Palestinians supported by 20 international and Israeli activists marched towards the construction site of the Apartheid Wall.
After arriving at the site to discover that bulldozers were not working, the demonstrators created roadblocks meant to delay the next day’s work and to stop the Israeli army. Not 10 minutes after arriving at the site, 4 jeeps with Israeli soldiers arrived and instantly began to shoot tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets at the demonstrators, The crowd retreated into the olive groves and continued to show their resistance to the annexation of Nilin’s land until 16.00.
Once the soldiers drove back towards their base, several people ran to the construction site in the hopes of disabling equipment meant for the Apartheid Wall. The jeeps quickly returned and fired directly at the demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets. The crowd headed back for the town soon after. Injured with rubber-coated steel bullets were Muhamad Imad Tantur (18) who suffered a broken hand from a bullet, Khamis Umirah (28) who was shot in the hand, Ala Ali Khawaja (20) was shot in the back and Sa’ad Ibrahim Umirah (20) was shot in the face.