In a semi-historic day for the popular movement against the wall, the central committee of Fatah decided to mark its 42nd anniversary by joining the weekly demonstration in Bil'in.
Demonstrators gathered before the march
Over 500 Palestinians from the entire Ramallah district gathered in Bil'in despite pouring rain and the previous day's military invasion of Ramallah, that left four people dead and about twenty injured, some critically. They were joined by Israeli and international supporters.
This is the first time the popular movement against the wall has received such support and recognition, vital to the continuation and expansion of the struggle.
After a long hour of speechifying, demonstrators started marching, as they have done in Bil’in every week for the past two years, towards their lands that are isolated behind the wall. As usual, the march was stopped at the closed gate in the wall, where a large Israeli border police force and a water cannon were awaiting them. Only seconds after protesters arrived at the gate, the army lashed at the crowd in a completely unprovoked attack – first with the water cannon, and very shortly after with teargas and rubber coated steel bullets.
Demonstrators arriving at the gate in the wall
And seconds after, being attacked
While the majority of the crowd was forced to retreat from the asphyxiating clouds of teargas and whizzing rubber bullets, some demonstrators - Palestinians, internationals and Israelis - tried holding their ground in face the exceptionally massive amounts of teargas and rubber coated steel bullets. Many of the younger Palestinians started hurling rocks at the border policemen, trying to stop them from invading the village.
Teargas returned to its legal owners
Border policemen dismantling a makeshift barricade on their way to invade the village
Israel's complete intolerance of any sort of resistance, or even protest of the occupation is a standing and ongoing policy. In the last four years, the Israeli army's attempts to crush the civilian and unarmed resistance to the wall claimed the lives of 10 Palestinian demonstrators, and injured thousands of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. Today's demonstration adds eight injuries to the bloody count – six Palestinians, one international and one Israeli.
