Friday, 03 September weekly demonstrations

04/09/2010

Bili'n

Some 10 Israelis and a handful of internationals joined this Ramadan's last Friday demo against the wall and the occupation in Bil'in. With the heat and fasting taking their toll, and the international delegations season over, the demo was smaller than usual. The army set a barbed wire barrier on the way to the wall, and deployed a few dozen meters behind it, between the wall and the barrier. The demonstrators gathered behindthe barbed wire, and after a few minutes removed it to march forward) next week, will they set a new barrier to protect the barrier that is supposed to keep demonstrators away from the wall?). At that point the army started shooting gas, and the demonstrators had to retreat and
declared the demo over. While even some of the feistier shabab couldn't be bothered to throw stones, the army kept on shooting gas until all demonstrators were far up the hill leading to the village, occasionally getting some gas "blow back" due to the shifting winds.

Ni'lin

The weekly protest in Ni'lin was very short. A group of around thirty protesters reached the wall route after a short march through the village's lands. One of the protesters called on the soldiers to stop defending the theft of Ni'lin lands. One or two protesters threw some stones over the wall, and some tires were set fire to. Within a minute of this, soldiers fired a volley of tear gas canisters, and shortly after, crossed the barrier in pursuit of the demonstrators, who retreated back into the village. Two international protesters were grabbed by soldiers and held for around half an hour, but they were then released and returned to the village.

 

Al Maasra

Some thirty Palestinians, Israelis and internationals participated in Friday's demonstration in the village of Al Maasra. Upon arrival at the main road, protesters were blocked by two army vehicles. Additional army vehicles came from the other direction.

Soldiers, who jumped off the vehicles as they wave their guns, declared the area a closed military zone and began pushing the protesters away while throwing stun grenades. One grenade was thrown directly at one of the demonstrators, hitting his body before falling and exploding on ground.

After pushing demonstrators to the junction outside the closed military zone, the soldiers began to back off. Demonstrators decided to move forward again. After a short distance, the soldiers pushed back the demonstrators to junction, using tear gas and stun grenades. At This point, occupation forces left the area and demonstrators declared victory. before the end of the demonstration was announced, Arabic and English speeches were made, denouncing the occupation, and calling for freedom, justice and implementation of international law.