Some 15 Israelis and 70 internationals joined the local Palestinian demonstration against the racist Zionist-supremacy wall built on the lands of the village of Bil'in. The demonstration was led by a huge banner of Arafat serving a drink to Sheikh Yassin, calling for Fatah-Hamas unity for the benefit of the Palestinian people. The demonstrators reached the wall, where they stood for a while chanting and attempted to open the gate. Eventually a few kids threw stones at the soldiers who stood out of stone range, behind concrete slabs. After a longer time than usual, the soldiers attacked the demonstration with gas and invaded the village. But unlike the last few weeks, the soldiers were a bit sluggish, and the gas slightly less intense, so demonstrators didn't have to run away quite so fast (maybe the heat was too much even for the soldiers to play catch with news photographers and internationals suffocating from gas). The demonstrators retreated, and the olive groves in the area started catching on fire. Some demonstrators tried to put out the fire, especially those fires that got into the roots of old olive trees. It was a while before the fire fighters came to finish the job.
In Nabi Saleh July 2nd Friday demonstration against the occupation and settlements protesters marched down the village towards its main junction, which was blocked by the Israeli army with several jeeps and about a dozen soldiers. After the army commander threatened to kidnap some youth into the cruel apartheid legal system whilst waving an "album" full of pictures of youth from the village, many of them kept a distance from the soldiers. The village's women then organized some chanting and tried to break through the army blockade and keep the non-violent demo alive.
Meanwhile the army was not satisfied with the guys looking at the scene from afar and started shooting tear gas canisters directly at them, in a life-threatening manner that violates even the army's own regulations. The women kept protesting, and after a while small girls and boys took the lead and surrounded the soldiers. 2 Israeli activists who were near by talking to the soldiers, got arrested. They were released a few hours later with a 15 days restraint order.
After a while, the army violence was responded by some stone throwing. Army jeeps and on-foot soldiers went up and through the village in pursue of stone throwers, though their endeavors were pretty much limited to blocking roads and civilian cars from going through the village.
The following Sunday, at dawn, Israeli soldiers disguised as civilians (in civil cars) invaded Nabi Saleh. They have arrested one of the young activists in the village. Later, after the majority of the people were awaked by the shouting and the noise, the army force headed to other house attempting to arrest another activist. But, alerted by the noise the activist was aware that they might be willing to make more arrests, he took off and was not found at home.
A few dozen Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals walked today at noon from Wadi Rahal to the site Israel plans to build the illegal apartheid wall. With plenty of energy, chanting and drumming (local and Israeli drummers). The army didn't allow passage at some point, and tried to push the demonstrators backwards. After a long non-violent struggle (i.e. the demonstrators acting non-violently) the soldiers started shooting tear gas and stun grenades, the first landing on a little boy's leg, and arrested 2 Israelis. The demonstration went on in a schoolyard nearby, still with lots of energy.
The protest in Ni'lin was short. The protesters marched to the route of the wall, carrying signs protesting the arrest of the village's popular struggle leaders. When the group of protesters reached the wall M, a leader of the village's popular committee, gave a speech in Hebrew, calling the soldiers on the other side to take off their uniforms and go back to their homes, in order to join the Israeli march to support of the release of Gilad Shalit and Palestinian prisoners. M pointed out to the soldiers that while Gilad shalit is in jail, and they are defending land theft in the hot sun, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu is enjoying the finer things in life. A handful of protesters threw a few symbolic stones over the wall. No gas was fired, and no injuries recorded.
In Jerusalem, about 30-40 people marched from Bab al-Amud to Sheikh Jarrah where a few hundreds have already started a peaceful demonstration. After an hour, three tours went out of the demo to three locations in Sheikh Jarrah to learn more about the neighborhood, while and a few remained at the meeting point to protest. At the end all met up back in park where the demonstration was held, and went on with the chanting and singing.
About 150 Palestinians and their international and Israeli supporters gathered next to the closed gates of the Israeli army blockade on Shuhada street in the July 3rd Saturday demonstration in Hebron. After much chanting and some speeches, and while one road was blocked by dozens of soldiers, the protesters started marching through the old city allies. They were soon blocked by the Israeli soldiers, which pushed back the non-violent protesters. Since the soldiers blocked all the ways that are close to settlers residents, and due to the army violence, protesters sat on the floor in front of the soldiers and kept chanting “occupation no more!” and for freedom of movement in Hebron and throughout Palestine. The march then went through another road that led away from the segregated area and soon afterwards the demonstration ended.
And on Sunday, July 4th, in Beit Jala some 30 protesters marched through a street that leads to the apartheid wall's construction site. To the sound of the working bulldozers nearby, the march was stopped by a group of soldiers and a barbed wire they installed earlier. The protesters demanded to go through to the Palestinian land being annexed and destroyed by the wall construction and some touched the barb wire to show their contempt to the occupying army. The soldiers soon launched an assault with sound bombs and then tear gas canisters, which were shot at the populated street far beyond the protesters. One person was treated for heavy tear gas inhalation. At a different spot the army incursion was met with stone throwers. The army then began terrorizing a main street in Beit Jala, hurting the passing by and the entire population of the area.
