Wadi Rahal
Some eighty Palestinians, Israelis and internationals demonstrated this past Friday against the fence in the village of Wadi Rahal, south of Bethlehem. The village celebrated the completion of one month of popular resistance, and is planning to proceed with the struggle.
Demonstrations in Wadi Rahal were launched after two years of complete stoppage of fence-construction work in the area, as suicide attacks subsided and Israeli coffers ran out. All that was left of the planned apartheid monster was a new road, meant to serve soldiers patrolling along the barrier, but now serving Palestinians of the region instead. However, recently villagers started receiving new land expropriation warrants, indicating Israeli intentions to restart construction, and leading them on to struggle.
Demonstrators marched from the centre of the village to the road on the route of the wall at noon, where soldier where already waiting. The soldiers failed to stop the colorful procession, and retreated, allowing the march to proceed on the road. At some point the soldiers stopped, declared the area a closed military zone, and denied further marching. Demonstrators gave speeches in Arabic and English, in spite of threats of arrests, and eventually decided to leave peacefully, only to return the next week once more.
Ma'asara
In Ma'asara, a smaller than usual demonstration of some 30 people made an unprecedented achievement, and made it all the way from the village, over the route of the wall, and onto the entrance to the illegal settlement of Efrat. At the gate, they were attacked by tens of soldiers, who pushed them all the way back to the route of the fence. Once there, and joined by twenty more people who had just finished demonstrating in neighboring Wadi Rahal, demonstrators decided to be content with what they had achieved, and returned to the village. As of next week, the two demonstrators are supposed to be coordinated, so that the Ma'asara one will start right after the Wadi Rahal protest ends.
An Nabi Salih
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Beit Jala
Around 30 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals demonstrated against the building of the Wall in Beit Jala. Israeli soldiers blocked the march with barbwire; a few people managed to bypass the Israeli soldiers but they were then violently pushed back. The Israeli soldiers violently arrested three demonstrators that refused to leave. Concussion grenades and tear gas canisters were thrown directly at the crowd and nearby houses. At distance, bulldozers were seen continuing their work, paving the route of the Wall just a few meters from Palestinian homes
Bil'in
About 100 demonstrators, including Israelis and international activists, marched from the center of the village chanting slogans against the siege on the Gaza Strip and condemning the aggression of settler-colonialists in Jerusalem. When the march arrived at the gate of the route of the separation fence, the military force of the Israeli occupation army was waiting as usual behind the concrete blocks on the hill - some dozen meters behind the fence. When the demonstrators tried to cross towards the land they own, behind the fence, the army fired tear gas canisters, sound bombs and coated metal bullets. Then the soldiers crossed the fence chasing the fleeing demonstrators up to the outskirts of the village, wounding Radwan Yassin's (a 50 years old a university lecturer) hand with a tear gas canister. Dozens of others inhaled high dosages of tear gas, which also resulted in fires that spread through near by olive orchards.
Silwan
Due to the recent decision to demolish 22 houses in Silwan, hundreds of Palestinian, Israeli, and International activists, changed the route of the weekly demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah and instead marched in Silwan in a protest against Israel's ongoing policy of violence and land theft in East Jerusalem. One settler threw a few small stones at the demonstrators, but no one was injured.
