Ni'ilin
On Friday, around 200 demonstrators, Palestinian, Israeli & International activists, participated in the weekly demonstration against the wall in Ni'ilin. The march went from the village to the newly laid concrete wall - to meet the soldiers threatening the demonstrators from its other side on a new high rampart. Alas, the new position proved to be a double bladed sword, as it enabled some of the demonstrators to easily stone the soldiers on it. The confrontations near the concrete wall went on for nearly an hour, and the demonstrators focus moved to the wire part of it. In a manner that seems to become the "regular", the soldiers used large amounts of tear gas, answered with stones. Again, the persistent demonstrators confronted the soldiers for hours. And again, in the same "routine" manner - after these few hours the soldiers gathered in front of the gate and eventually invaded the village fields. But this time the attackers had a different than "normal" plan - they rushed over the demonstrators and managed to arrest three of them - two international activists, and an Israeli photographer. The soldiers violently convinced the arrested to accompany them to the jeeps, thus gaining a human shield against the stones. As the soldiers and the arrested went out of sight, the demonstration was declared over. Fortunately enough, the arrested were released the same night.
Ma'asara 25-09-09
In Ma'asara, some 40 Palestinians, 30 internationals and ten Israelis marched from the village towards the planned route of the Apartheid Wall, planned to be built on the village's lands. The demonstration commemorated the recent death of popular committee member Qaher Ala-Din, who was killed in a car accident while driving with a Palestinian friend and a French journalist, who was at the time working on a film on the village's struggle.
Like every Friday, the demonstration was stopped by soldiers who put barbed wire on the road leading from the village to its lands. Soldiers forbade the procession from marching forward, but gave no legal or other justification for their acts. Demonstrators gave speeches in Arabic, Hebrew and English, calling upon the soldiers to refuse, join the demonstration, and avoid facing charges in international criminal courts in the future. After the speeches the village's new and young Samba band came on, following a month of drumming lessons with Israeli drummers of the Qassamba group. The demonstration ended with no arrests or wounded, but with the promise to carry on with Qaher's way of non-violent and popular resistance.
Over 35 Israelis and 10 internationals joined local Palestinians for the weekly Friday demonstration against Israeli land theft and ongoing oppression in Bil'in. The demonstration was relatively small and quiet, with the few kids who fight Occupation with stones keeping away from the non violent demonstrators and getting gassed. The fence gate was pulled open quite quickly by protesters, who entered the area between the fences as a symbolic assertion of Palestinian ownership of the land stolen by means of the fence. A couple rounds of gas pushed most demonstrators away. During the last round soldiers crossed over and arrested two Israeli demonstrators as well as Haithem Khatib, the courageous video journalist responsible for the documentation of the recent nightly military raids on the village. After an hour or so the commanding officer crossed over, and told the few demonstrators waiting for the release of their friends that the detainees were handed over to the Police and security services for investigation. He explained that demonstrators can demonstrate as long as they wish, but they cannot cross the fence line.
