In a symbolic gesture, residents of Bidu spent the afternoon replanting olive trees cut down by IDF bulldozers Tuesday morning as soldiers helped clear a path for the security fence that cuts into their agricultural lands.
Holding a cane in his lap and looking at the sawed-off branches, landowner Muhammad Aldeli, 73, for whose family the valley is named, said he has no hope the trees will actually survive.
The season for transplanting olive trees ended two months ago, said Aldeli, who stands to lose most of his land to the fence. As the army continues to cut down his trees, he feels as his soul and spirit are being taken from his body.
"I would rather give my life than lose my land," he said.
It is almost two months into the battle for Bidu, which often pits villagers and international and Israeli activists against soldiers.
Each morning, protesters march from the village to the work site as soldiers try to stop them.
On Tuesday, the route of some 50 villagers and a dozen activists was blocked by soldiers and police. Other security forces perched on either side of the road, behind trees and walls. The opposing groups stared at each other for 15 minutes. Protesters then chose a secondary path, through the village and up the hill rather than directly down into the valley.
By the time they reached the road on the top of the hill, so had the soldiers. The protesters kept walking, sometimes coming within feet of the soldiers, who spread down the hill toward the olive groves and along the path.
Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said that on this morning, as on most mornings, it was the protesters who broke the silence by throwing stones. The villagers said, as they always do, that it was the soldiers who fired tear gas first.
But the protest area was too large for one person to see who fired first. What was clear was that the tear gas filled the morning air in smoky arches that rose from the trees. Protesters quickly held onions and vinegar-soaked scarves to their heads. Some moved away, while others pushed forward toward the trees.
Then it quieted down. Reporters pulled up in cars to join the group. Protesters passed the time by chatting and idly tossing small stones while an IDF bulldozer chopped a path through the trees.
As more people arrived, protesters rose again and marched toward the bulldozer, only to be greeted by tear gas. Some said rubber bullets were being fired.
The protesters in turn threw stones. Red Crescent medics stood by and bandaged the wounded. The IDF evacuated a soldier wounded in the leg.
Then the scuffle ended as quickly as it began. The IDF left the area, the trees were replanted, and the planning began for the next day.
"We will never give up," said Mansour, a Bidu resident who before September 2000 had studied to be a radio broadcaster. Now he spends his time studying how best to bypass the soldiers and keep the barrier out of his village.
