While the Ma'asara demonstrators took this Friday off in light of the Muslim Eid al Adha, and the people of Ni'lin choose to postpone their demonstration by a day, Bil'in residents decided to celebrate their holiday by holding a festive demonstration. And so some 30 Israelis and 25 internationals joined the people of Bil'in for this Friday's demonstration against the wall. Demonstrators marched with Palestinian flag colored balloons, chanting slogans and imbued with holiday spirit. The army didn't let the relatively small number of demonstrators confuse them. After a formal holiday greeting, they immediately started throwing gas canisters. The wind, possibly in solidarity with the ovine population, blew directly in the demonstrators' faces, and made it difficult for them to maintain their stance. Demonstration leaders were seen scolding soldiers for their crimes while simultaneously scolding youths for their disobedience to the no-stone-throwing-at-the-gate policy. Several demonstrators suffered direct hits by gas canisters, and some expensive holiday outfits were permanently scarred by the black soot of the struggle.
Bil'in festive demonstration
Around 50 demonstrators gathered this Saturday for the (postponed-by-one-day-due-to-the-holiday) weekly demonstration against the wall in Ni'ilin. The march reached a vehicle gate in the wall, and some of the demonstrators managed to damage it and burn a tire there before the single military jeep in the area arrived at the scene. The demonstrators then retreated back behind the concrete wall, and started damaging another wire-part in a different section.
More and more military and border-police forces started pouring to the area, trying to disperse the demonstration with tear-gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and live ammunition. After overcoming their initial shock, the soldiers grouped and invaded the village fields. For nearly two hours, the village youth maintained its resistance in the fields – confronting the soldiers with stones and endless energy. Then, for the first time since June 5th (the demonstration in which Akel Sadek Srur was murdered with a live bullet) and as a part of the escalation policy the military implements during the last weeks, the soldiers invaded the village streets. This move tripled the size of the demonstration, as many of the village youth joined it.
During the confrontations, 7 demonstrators were lightly injured, most of them by rubber bullets. A baby girl was evacuated by ambulance after inhaling large amounts of tear gas as a canister was shot at her house. The soldiers pulled out of the village streets only close to sunset, and left the fields only as darkness set down, taking with them one detainee.
