Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle against the fence expand 09 Jul

After a while, Bil'in Friday joint demo of the Palestinians lost its "exclusiveness". However, it still draws most of the Israelis - Anarchist Against The Wall initiative and the wider Israely coalition against the separation fence of apartheid. This Friday, first "aniversary" for the international court in the Hague verdict against the fence we were in the demo about 300 participants including about 100 who came from Israel... Due to the simbolic day, in addition to the 60 from the Tel Aviv region, came people from Jerusalem and Haifa, including a group of Israeli Palestinian women who contributed a special content to the slogans and sctivities in the demo, and Palestinians from out of the Bil'in village.

Minor harasment on the way to Bil'in to part of the participants delayed the demo for an hour - alowing time for "socializin" of activists of all kinds. We started about 12:00 on the way to the fence building rote knowing we will be blocked at the last building of the village. At the head of the march we had a big model of the "scale of justice" in which on one side is the Israeli flag that measured as heavier than a world globus psitioned on the other side of the scale.

When we arrived at the fringe of the village, we found as usual in the last weeks, a barbed wire blocking the road, with soldiers, border police and special police personal assembled on the other side of the barbed wire.

First we sopped at the barbed wire not sure how it will develop. We shouted towards the state forces, took away the barbed wire line, and even invaded few metters beyond the forbiden line. Surprisingly, acts that started in previous Fridays assoult of the state forces and arrests of Israelis and Palestinians, caused only a lip service threats and declaration the area as closed zone for Israelis... and no one was arrested.

The demonstration was prolonged for a hour and a half - with a muslim praier in betwee while organizers succeeded to restrain the stone thrower youngsters. Afterwards, when we started to disperse in the direction of the center of the village, the youngsters started their attrition war with the state forces, who used the opportunity as excuse to harase the dispersing demonstrators. The mainly shoot at us tear gas, but added shock grenades and rubber bullets... and policeman from the elite sector "YASAM" even threw stones on Israeli demonstrators.

After about an hour of attrition war of stones against fire arms, with 5 wounded - includin one Palestinian taken in bad condition to hospital things calmed a bit, and the Israelis were assembled with people of the village commity to discuss the development of the jouint struggle in Bil'in.

=======MEDIA - Israel breaks up demos against West Bank barrier======

Fri Jul 8,10:45 AM ET

BILIN, West Bank (AFP) - Israeli soldiers broke up protests against the vast barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank, on the eve of the first anniversary of a world court decision against the fence.

Around 500 Israeli, Palestinian and foreign peace activists demonstrated in the northern West Bank village of Bilin, where they clashed with Israeli troops monitoring the protest, an AFP correspondent said Friday.

Soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets as demonstrators threw stones.

[The usual lie. Nearly always, the firs stone throwing and more so the attrition war between the youngsters "shabab", starts only after the state force disperce the entirely nonviolend demonstration. I.S.]

The army subsequently declared the area a closed military zone.

The huge security barrier being built around Bilin encroaches on more than two kilometres (one mile) of village land, which is home to 1,700 residents.

Further north, around 400 Palestinians joined 50 Israeli and foreign activists to demonstrate at a barrier building site in Masha village.

[Mas'ha joint camp of Israelis and Palestinians which began april 2003, built the intimate relations between the Israeli anarchists and villagers who wanted to use nonviolent struggle against the fence. It took few months till the first joint assult on the fence at Dabuba, brought the joint struggle to the lime-light. I.S]

A foreigner and a soldier were injured, with two Israeli activists arrested, as soldiers moved to break up the protest, witnesses said.

Demonstrators carried a symbolic coffin draped in the blue UN flag to mourn the "death" of last year's world court ruling against the barrier.

Israel insists the separation barrier is necessary to prevent infiltrations by West Bank militants, but the Palestinians have branded it an attempt to grab their land and undermine the viability of their promised state.

[Last round in the procession of contests of the route by Palestinians, at the "high court of justice" the Israeli state "admited" first time that the decision about the route is influenced "also" by political reasons ond not only "security". I.S]

Last July, The Hague-based International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling saying that parts of the barrier built on Palestinian land are illegal.

Although Israel has since re-routed the fence in some stretches, the government has vowed to complete the project, which is eventually expected to stretch around 650 kilometres (406 miles).

=========MEDIA: Palestinian Killed in Anti-Fence Protest=========

Jonathon Pollack of Anarchists Against the Wall told The Jerusalem Post that the demonstrations this week were meant to mark the one-year anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling the separation fence illegal.

Palestinian killed in anti-fence protest

A 17-year-old Palestinian youth was shot dead on Friday afternoon by a security guard at a security fence construction site near the village of Beit Lakiya, west of Ramallah.

The shooting came after several youths threw stones at a number of guards. The suspected shooter was arrested and his weapon was confiscated.

Palestinian hospital staff named the dead boy as Mahyoub Assi, 16, and said he was from the same clan as two 17-year-olds shot dead in May while stoning soldiers at the same spot, near the West Bank village of Beit Lakiya.

Earlier, around 300 left-wing activists and Palestinians protesting the construction of the fence in the West Bank clashed with security forces.

A policeman was wounded in the fray after a rock was thrown at his back. He was evacuated for treatment.

Soldiers fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades at the protestors, who were throwing rocks at them, Israel Radio reported.

The demonstrations were being held in two locations - in Bil'in, where they occur every Friday, and in the village of Mascha.

The demonstrators claimed that seven people were wounded in their ranks, including an Israeli hit in the ear by a stun grenade and a Palestinian shot in the head by a rubber bullet at close range. Five of the wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, according to the protestors.

Jonathon Pollack of Anarchists Against the Wall told The Jerusalem Post that the demonstrations this week were meant to mark the one-year anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling the separation fence illegal.

Participating in Friday's protests were a number of Palestinian officials, including presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouti, head of Hamas in the West Bank Hassan Yousef, and the Islamic Jihad spokesperson in the West Bank.

Four people were arrested in the clashes.