After a week of night-time raids into villages and activists' houses throughout the West Bank, with many leaders of the popular struggle arrested and others threatened, Friday demonstrations took place in Bil'in, Ma'asara, Ni'ilin, Sheikh Jarrah and An Nabi Saleh. Army and police brutality continues to rise, and demonstrators have been beaten, shot and arrested. The struggle continues.

Palestine welcomed the first day of the new decade with four weekly demonstrations - in Bil'in, Maasara, Ni'ilin & Sheikh Jarah.

Bil'in Weekly Demonstration, January 1 2010

At Wednesday night, seven Israeli military jeeps pulled over at Abdullah Abu Rahmah's residence in the city of Ramallah. Soldiers raided the house and arrested Abu Rahmah from his bed in the presence of his wife and children. Abu Rahmah is a high school teacher in the Latin Patriarchate School in Birzeit near Ramallah and is the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements. Following the arrest – a solidarity demonstration was held in Tel-Aviv Thursday evening.

At Friday, five demonstrations against the wall and the settlements were held in Bil'in, Ni'ilin, Ma'asara, Shuqba & Shiekh Jarrah. As 23 demonstrators were arrested in the Sheikh Jarrah demonstration, a seventh demonstration was held in front of the Jerusalem court.

As in so many weeks before, the three Friday demonstrations were also held today. The villages of Bilin, Ma'asara & Ni'ilin carry on their extraordinary struggle, holding on against huge forces trying to break it (& them).

Facing violent oppression, "legal" persecutions, media de-legitimization campaigns – the three weekly Friday demonstrations in Bilin, Niilin & Maasarah took place this weekend, and were also joined by a fourth Saturday demonstration in Deir-Al-Ghousson.

This Friday, mass demonstrations held in Bil'in, Ma'asara, and Ni'ilin, marked the 20th anniversary to the fall of the Berlin wall. In Ni'ilin, demonstrators brought down a section of the eight meters tall concrete wall that cuts through the village's land. This is the first time since Israel began the construction of the wall in 2002 that demonstrators succeeded in toppling down a part of the wall.