Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, the joint struggle against the occupation and the separation fence - Friday 7-7-06

This Friday demonstration was on the background of yesterday short lived "squatting" in a building built in the settler town Modi'in Ilit on a field belonging to a villager of Bil'in. after a short deliberations of 5 hours, the Israeli state forces forced the "squatters" - three families of activists from Bil'in to evacuate - declaring the place a closed military zone, and the Bil'in people in the building as "endangering the security". The background included in addition to the "squatting" (that was all over the Israeli and Palestinian media) the after tomorrow hearing of the Israeli higher court of "justice" of the case of Bil'in lands confiscation for the building of a new sector of the settler town Modi'in Ilit, and the illegal building itself.

At noon, we marched from the center of the village on the road to the separation fence. We were about 200 participants: hundred from the Bil'in villagers, about 40 internationals (plus a 10 strong Baskian troop), 20 Israelis of the anarchists against the wall, 15 Palestinians from other places, and some teams of media workers from the region and from far away.

As usual, the marching was involving chanting, singing and even dancing. Not as usual was the amazing part of the Baskian troop: clad with appropriate clothes, and huge pairs of bells on their backs with a leader who used a horn as a trumpet. They danced in the front of the marching people, till we arrived at the route of the fence. They continue time and again to do their ritual even when we were blocked as usual at the gate to the route by armored cars. The other people confronted verbally the Israeli state forces and few of them even tried to enter the route. The brutal behavior of the blocking state forces was an excuse to the wild teens to through a barrage of stones on the state forces who responded with a barrage of shock grenades.

At first, both the wild teens and the nonviolent demonstrators dispersed, but after a minute or two we reassembled 10 meters from the route while a line of state force tried with partial success to prevent the more bold of us and the dancing baskian troop to enter the "forbidden" tract of land.

In parallel, like in Eastern bazaar, people from the local comity had a discussion with the state forces commander who agreed to soften the three days block on movement from the village to the Bil'in center for joint struggle located west of the separation fence, declared in response to yesterday "squat".

After the baskian troop ended their last ritual, the demonstration was declared as finished. This was a signal for the wild teens to start again their stone throwing, which involved state forces responses that made the return to the village less than comfortable...