Tag: Bil’in

by the ISM media team, November 24th

At today’s weekly protest against the apartheid wall in Bil’in, villagers tried to reach their land on the other side of the wall with a tractor to plough it. Bil’in villagers have been prevented from taking agricultural vehicles through the illegal gates in the wall to work their land, and recently soldiers have also tried to prevent internationals joining villagers on the other side of the wall. Around 50 villagers were joined by international and Israeli activists for today’s tractor-led march to the wall.

As the protesters attempted to remove the razor-wire in front of the gate, soldiers fired multiple sound bombs and used their shields against the non-violent activists. The soldiers refrained however from using tear gas, probably because the wind would have blown it back towards them.

Non-violent activist from Bil’in, Ayad Burnat, was seized and badly beaten by soldiers when he reached the other side of the gate. He was then arrested and is currently in detention in Ofer where he will be held for four days. Villagers have been told Ayad has been charged with throwing stones, a clearly false charge — Ayad was with the peaceful demonstrators the whole time, and often prevents children from throwing stones at Bil’in demonstrations. Today’s arrest follows the targetting of four other activists on Tuesday evening.

The IOF followed up this arbitrary arrest by clambering over the gate to ‘guard’ the razor-wire from further attention.

After the demo soldiers shot 10 children and a journalist with rubber bullets as well as firing tear-gas at residents’ homes on the edge of the village.

by the ISM media team, November 22nd

Last night the IOF invaded Bil’in village at around 2am and arrested 4 villagers, who were taken to Ofer military base. Head of the Popular Committee against the Wall Iyad Burnat, committee member Basel Mansour, Loi Burnat and Khamis Abu Rahme were held at Ofer until 9am when they were taken to the police station at Mod’in.

They were then interrogated first by the police and then by Shabak, the Israeli intelligence service. They were questioned at length on their involvement in the weekly non-violent demonstrations and threatened with being charged for the actions of others at the protests. The four were finally released without charge in the evening. This is merely the latest attempt to intimidate the non-violent resistance to the apartheid wall and Israeli colonies, which after nearly two years of weekly demonstrations in Bil’in, refuses to succumb to the repression of the Zionist regime.

Meanwhile in a further attempt to disrupt the lives of non-violent activists in Bil’in the trial of Popular Committee Coordinator Abdullah Abu Rahme was postponed after Border Policemen failed to appear at the court. The trial has been postponed until January 16th. Abdullah was arrested in non-violent demonstrations last year on June 17th, July 15th, and September 9th.

by ISM Media team, November 17

The demonstration against Israel’s apartheid wall in Bil’in today was resolute, if small. Protesting against the construction of the barrier that is effectively annexing land to Israel for the use of Jewish-only settlements (illegal under international law), the villagers were once again joined by Israeli and international supporters — about 100 demonstrators in total.

Reaching the gate that leads to Bil’in’s agricultural land (now annexed behind the Israeli construction) the protesters were stopped by Israeli soldiers. The troops blocked the gate with a jeep and razor wire, waving their billy-clubs menacingly. Others took a higher position on a ridge of the patrol-road that is part of the construction that the International Court of Justice has ruled illegal.

After a few minutes of chanting against the wall and the Israeli occupation, the demonstrators were attacked by soldiers throwing concussion grenades. A few of the local teenagers retaliated by throwing stones at the well-armed troops. The situation escalated when the soldiers on the ridge started shooting tear-gas canisters and rubber-bullets at the demonstrators, most of whom retreated.

Falling back to the village proper, some of the international demonstrators observed soldiers occupying the roof of a Palestinian home, using it as a vantage point from which to shoot at local children. The children were mostly throwing stones at the soldiers. They do this as a symbol of their rejection of the Israeli military presence in their village and their homes. The international supporters tried to persuade the soldiers to leave the village and stop their violence, but they responded by throwing tear-gas grenades.

Six Palestinians were injured by rubber-bullets, tear gas canisters and shrapnel from the concussion grenades.

by the ISM media team

In a laconic verdict, the High Court of Justice yesterday rejected a petition filed by the residents of Bil’in and Peace Now, against declarations made in the early 90s where 900 dunams of the village lands were declared government property. Most of these lands were subsequently allocated for the construction of the Matityahu East neighborhood in the settlement Modi’in Illit.

The basis for the petition were documents recently exposed from which it was evident that the declarations were made in an attempt to conceal alleged purchases made by the Fund for the Redemption of Lands, a settlers company that claimed to have bought lands in Bil’in. The State declared the lands government property and immediately thereafter allocated the lands to the Fund, while bypassing the orders of the local law pertaining to land registration.

Despite the fact that documents submitted to the Court proved clearly that this happened, Judge Rivlin wrote in the verdict that the plaintiffs didn’t prove that “the declarations were done in an attempt to bypass the” law dealing with such purchases. Judge Rivlin adds that the State admitted that one of the declarations was made following the request of Israelis who claimed to have bought lands in Bil’in. However, the Court upheld the State’s claim that the decision to declare the land as government property was taken not due to the request of the settlers, but due to the fact the land was indeed government property, i.e., agricultural land that has not been cultivated for some time. And yet, Judge Rivlin added that “the material in front of us is not
unequivocal on this. There is evidence in both directions”. Despite this, the Court refrained from issuing an order nisi which would have involved further investigation of the issues to resolve them completely.

Two other petitions regarding Bil’in are still pending in Court: petition 8414/05 against the route of the barrier and petition 143/06 against the illegal construction in Matityahu East. In the latter, a temporary injunction issued about 10 months ago prohibits any further building and moving in of settlers.