This Friday too we persisted in the nearly five years long chain of struggle against the separation fence and occupation in Bil'in. At noon, about 100 of us - including 35 Israelis, and a dozen or so international activists, marched from the center of the village towards the gate to the route of the separation fence.

The usual chants along the march included the mentioning of local activists arrested during the last few months - including the one arrested the day before.

At the gate, as usual, the state force did not wait long before starting to shower us with tear gas grenades. Like usual, some of the grenades were returned to them to enable them to "enjoy" their own "medicine".

As the wind was making it hard to evade the tear gas, we left there earlier than usual. Part of us converged for a while to challenge the state force at a near by section of the separation fence, before we returned to the village.

Meanwhile, in Ni'ilin - 200 protestors – Palestinian, Israeli & International, gathered for the weekly protest against the wall. The demonstrators marched from the village to the wall – which grew some 500 meters longer in the last week. Apparently, the military finds it too hard to cope with the village youth's decisiveness. The extended wall joined the two-weeks policy of shooting live ammunition at the demonstrators revived after a few calmer months. As the demonstration reached the gate in the wall, the demonstrators addressed the soldiers that crowded together from its other side and verbally protested the occupation and the wall. It wasn't long before the soldiers dispersed the group with tear gas, answered with stones from some of the youth. Shortly after, a first injury from the 0.22 ammunition was listed.

The demonstration went on for hours, counting two medium & one light injuries. The long wall didn't stop the soldiers from invading the village. The skillful youth managed to avoid injuries for this part of the demonstration, and after chasing the retreating soldiers back to the wall, the demonstration was declared over. 

Some fifty Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators marched Friday noon from the centre of Ma'asara village towards the route of the apartheid fence that is to be built on village lands. Like every other Friday, demonstrators were stopped by Israeli soldiers and boarded policemen who laid barbed wire on the main road leading to the fence, forcefully preventing the procession from proceeding. When asked if their actions had any legal basis, soldiers refused to answer.

 Ma'asara, November 20 2009

Protestors then delivered speeches in Arabic, English and Hebrew, and called upon the soldiers to leave their weapons and join the non-violent struggle for two independent states and against war crimes committed by Israel. Slogans were chanted, and the joint drum band, made out of Israeli Qasamba drummers and the village children, played and cheered the demonstrators up.

During the demonstration several children managed to go around the barbed wire, but were pushed back by the soldiers. Some of them then tried to pull away the barbed wire fence with improvised ropes that were then cut by the soldiers. The children, however, did not give up, and eventually succeeded in tearing the fence apart, forcing the soldiers to step up and physically push the demonstrators and threaten demonstrators with arrests.

Ma'asara, November 20 2009

The demonstration was over within fifteen minutes.