Tag: Bil’in

Bil’in: Un-cage Palestine!

by an ISM Media office volunteer

The non-violent demonstration against the Apartheid Wall on the land of Bil’in village this week was themed around the economic siege of Palestine by western powers. Israeli and international activists with pictures of western leaders taped to their chests carried a barbed-wire cage in which a Palestinian dressed in Palestinian flags was symbolically trapped. This was to signify the fact that Palestine is being made a prison created by the Israeli state and it’s western financiers.

The demonstration reached the fence gate which was closed to prevent the villagers accessing their own land. As has been the case for the last few weeks, the Israeli military enforced the closure of the gate by lining up jeeps and Border Police behind it. The demonstrators with the cage tried to open the gate and pass, but were prevented by the Border Police who beat those who got close to them with clubs. After a short while of trying this, the demonstrators gave up and instead dumped the cage on a jeep.

As was the case last week, the chanting group of demonstrators was broken up when the Border Police threw sound bombs at us. In response, several shebab from the village started throwing stones at the soldiers, who then opened fire on them with rubber-coated metal bullets. Most of the demonstrators moved out of the way of this unequal crossfire, shouting at the soldiers to stop firing at children, or talking to them in Hebrew to the same effect. Some from the village Popular Committee convinced the shebab to stop throwing stones. The demonstration regrouped and some tried to start a noise demo (banging in rhythm on a metal barrier which is part of the barrier), but the soldiers tried to arrest one of them – an international activist. Israeli international and Palestinian demonstrators prevented the arrest, simply by piling on the international. The soldiers gave up after a short while.

After a while, the demonstration was declared over by the Popular Committee. The demonstration left peacefully, making sure that the military jeeps were prevented from following us. Shebab from the village exchanged stones with tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets with the soldiers.

No one was arrested this week. One Israeli demonstrator was mildly bruised (we think by a ricocheting rubber-bullet).

It Can Be Done

The people of Bil’in will demonstrate against the wall, this Friday
May 6 At 12:00 AM

A year ago, when the weekly demonstrations in Bil’in started no one believed that they would be able to continue for more than a few weeks. If one had suggested that a year later, the Supreme Court would order the state to explain why it would not demolish the new buildings in the settlement and prevent the housing of the new apartments
and the head of the council of Modi’in Ilit would be under criminal investigation for illegal construction he or she would have been considered delusional.

But as hundreds of thousands chanted in the May Day immigrant matches in Los Angeles and Chicago, “Si se Puede”- yes it can be done. The people of Bil’in have remained optimistic in their struggle against the wall which is being built on their land and have exceeded everyone’s expectations. There are no guarantees but if the nonviolent struggle continues, the achievements may be surprising,

For more information:
ISM media office 02-2971824
Abdullah 0547-258-210

Audio Report from Bil’in Demonstration 28th April

bilin crowd

This is Pennie Quinton reporting for IMEMC:


Audio Report from Bil’in 28th April 2006 – mp3

[Update, 1/5/06: this a new version of the audio file – due to technical problems, the last version cut out before the end.]

“On Friday the 28th of April on behalf of the International Middle Eastern Media Centre I traveled to Bil’in to cover the weekly protest and resistance to the Israeli illegal occupation of the Bil’in village’s agricultural lands.

“The young people of Bil’in village had the longest Palestinian flag I have ever seen, it stretched for over 300m’ and the youth held it over their heads as if they were a giant Chinese dragon they carried it up a steep hill to the apartheid wall, a construction of razor wire, manned by soldiers standing on jeeps and humvess with their guns raised. The protest was peaceful with some of the older men chanting for freedom at the army.

“The soldiers then brought down wooden clubs on the men’s heads. This did not deter their protest so the soldiers then fired sound bombs and tear gas. Two men had to be carried away for medical treatment.

“The protestors briefly divided to avoid the gas and sound bombs then returned to sitting in front of the jeeps and humvess this time with a group of Israeli and international protestors.

“The Army again attempted to disperse the protest by firing more gas and sound bombs but once the smoke cleared the protest continued.

“Leaders of the Bi’lin village closed the yellow gate which had been opened to allow the army access to invade Bi’lin if necessary they sat astride it beating out a noise protest with rocks on the metal. Again tear gas and sound bombs were used, this time the protestors dispersed as the youth of the village hiding in the olive orchards began to hurl stones at the soldiers from bandoliers. As I left the demonstration I came across a mother and her young son of six years choking from the effects of the gas, they had been working in the orchards.”

Listen to the report for more…

http://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/04/339096.html

Border Police Lash Out

The huge Palestinian flag that has been used by the village on demonstrations

by an ISM Media office volunteer

Today’s non-violent demonstration against the Wall in Bil’in was attacked by the Israeli soldiers, as usual. The demonstrators reached the gate in the annexation wall that is stealing some 60% of the village’s land. The gate was blocked by several jeeps with Israeli border police standing on top and menacingly waving their clubs and pointing their M16 rifles at the demonstrators.

The crowd of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals chanted and sang against the wall and called on the soldiers to leave the village. Mohammed Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements stood on the gate and was beaten by three soldiers at once, seriously bruising him on the arms. Several other Palestinians were also beaten, although there ended up being no arrests this week.

Eventually, the military dispersed the demonstration using sound grenades, which, in conjunction with the beatings, provoked a few stones from some of the shabab. The soldiers then shot rubber bullets and teargas at the crowd. A 14 year old boy was wounded and Many tear gas suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Israeli Border Police lash out

This exchange repeated itself few times. Each time most of the demonstrators moved out of the line of fire. Israelis and internationals tried to stay close to the soldiers at the sides, talking to them and shouting at them – trying to convince them to stop shooting at children. The presence of internationals and Israelis, along with large amounts of journalists and photographers means that they rarely use live ammunition, unlike in places such as Nablus. There, very few internationals and press are present, and they regularly use live rounds against unarmed protesters – often children.

A soldier points his rifle at unarmed demonstrators. Rubber coated metal bullets are often lethal – a boy in Nablus shot in the head with one three days ago is in critical condition, and is not expected to escape brain-death.

The Popular Committee is expecting the Wall in Bil’in to be completed in July, so they now fear an escalation in the oppression of the army against the village – in terms of both arrests and general levels of violence used against the villagers. Abdullah Abu-Rahme, co-ordinator of the Popular Committee called for as many Israelis and internationals as possible to join them now – both on the weekly demonstrations and to stay overnight in the village and the outpost to act as an presence in case of army entering the village.

Ha’aretz: “Police probe building of West Bank settlement neighborhood”

By Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz Correspondent

The Israel Police’s National Fraud Squad has opened a criminal investigation into the illegal construction of hundreds of housing units in the Matityahu East neighborhood of the Modi’in Ilit ultra-Orthodox settlement. A statement to this effect was submitted on Tuesday to the High Court of Justice in response to an injunction issued at the request of the Peace Now movement.

The police investigation is focusing on Modi’in Ilit council head Yaakov Gutterman, other senior council officials, entrepreneurs and large construction companies, Jewish real estate dealers who acquired privately owned Palestinian land, lawyers and settler organizations involved in “land redemption.”

Hundreds of millions of dollars are believed to have changed hands in the affair.

According to police suspicions, a lawyer at one of the settler organizations purchased the land in question based on an affidavit submitted by the mukhtar of Bil’in, who claimed that because of the security situation, he was unable to get to the village and collect the signatures of the landowners.

During the course of Tuesday’s legal debate, the High Court was told of a land-laundering system that allowed the real-estate dealers and settler organizations to convert private land – purchased sometimes through dubious means – into “state land.”

Ahead of the construction of the separation fence in the area, the land was “returned” to the buyers so that they could establish facts on the ground and press the Defense Ministry into moving the route of the fence to the east of the new neighborhood.

Peace Now attorney Michael Sfarad, who is also representing residents of Bil’in on whose land Matityahu East is being built, has provided the state with documents allegedly indicating that Gutterman and other council officials had a hand in illegal construction on an unprecedented scale. The documents include a letter in which the council’s legal advisor warns the council engineer that entrepreneurs are constructing “entire buildings without permits, with your full knowledge and in total disregard for planning process and the law.”

Furthermore, a report sent to the Interior Ministry by the council’s comptroller notes that construction in the new project is going ahead contrary to the state’s approved urban master plan.

Following a Haaretz report on the affair early in the year, and in keeping with a directive from the State Attorney’s Office, the Civil Administration in the West Bank took over law enforcement duties at the new building sites in the settlement, issuing injunctions to cease all the construction work and sending out inspectors to ensure that these were upheld. At the same time, the head of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch unit, Dror Etkes, submitted complaints to the police against all those involved in the affair.

At Tuesday’s High Court debate, the state said it had no objection to extending the construction ban, but said it was opposed to razing the illegal structures that had already been completed or were near completion. The state also said it saw no cause to evict individuals who had already moved into their apartments.