Nabi Salih
Around 150 Israeli, international and local palestinian residents from the village of Nabi Salih demonstrated today near the settlement of Halamish (Neve Zuf) protesting the on going expropriation of their land by Israel and used by the Jewish settlements around. The Israeli army enterd the village in the early hours of the afternoon and surrounded the area attacking from the mountain top and the road in a long confrontation that lasted several hours while using tear gas, stunt grenades and rubber coated bullets in a violent attempt to break and disperse the demonstration. 5 protesters were arrested.
al-Walaje
On Friday, the 30th of May, at around 13:00, aprox. 60 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals gathered in the village of al-Walaje for the demo against the apartheid wall, which is being built there these days while confiscating much of the village's lands, surrounding and excluding it from its connection with Jerusalem. The demo began with a march along the bulldozered roads of the village. While walking, some of the demonstrators took direct action and rolled big rocks back on the road where the wall is planned to be built. After the walk speeches were made, both by locals and supporters from the village of al-Ma'asara. Police was only overseeing the protest from afar.
Ma'asarah
25 Palestinians, Israeli and internationals demonstrated this Friday in Ma'asara. Facing some thirty soldiers, protestors gave speeches in Arabic, English and Hebrew, ridiculing the so-called threat the soldiers seemed to find in the unarmed small demonstration.
Cars that tried to leave the village during the demonstration were stopped by the soldiers with their barbed wire. This includes one car carrying a sick woman to the regional clinic. Attempts to reason with the soldiers so they'd allow the cars through fell on deaf ears.
After about one hour of protest the demonstration ended. Next week's demonstration is expected to be bigger, as it will mark the 1st of May (a bit late).
Bil'in
Today’s demonstration began with speeches in honor of International Workers’ Day by the Union of Palestine Workers, after which the crowd processed to the Wall. After several minutes, soldiers fired the first rounds of tear gas into the crowd, and continued to launch tear gas deep into the protestors’ route. Soldiers aggressively entered the village in waves in an effort to make arrests.
Four people were arrested today, including a female journalist and an international activist. Prior to the demonstration, two Israeli activists broached the Wall and attempted to post flyers calling for the arrest of the soldier who shot Emad Rizka in the forehead at last Friday’s demonstration. When soldiers approached them, they moved away, and soldiers instead arrested two Al-Jazeera cameramen who were sitting in a car by the Wall.
Injuries this week consisted of a girl who was struck from behind with a tear gas canister. Cameraman Haitham al-Khatib was also hit in his stomach by a canister. The international activist who was arrested was treated roughly by the soldiers, who ripped off his gas mask and threw him to the ground, resulting in a 3-inch gash on his leg and a wound to his ear.
