This Friday too the Israeli state forces refused to let us do the Friday joint demonstration against the occupation and the separation fence. However, it seems the higher authorities told something to the new regiment commander responsible to the region Bil'in is part of. We started as usual from the village center at noon. About hundred people. Palestinians from Bil'in and from out of it - including high level persons of the national leadership, Internationals, and Israelis of the anarchists against the wall initiative and "guests", and about 5 teams of local and international media. We marched with 20 of us carrying the placards about the shooting that injured Limor at the demo in Bil'in two weeks ago (hundreds of which were hanged on Tel Aviv walls Wednesday night). Chanting as usual we exited the built are of the village.
When we approached the route of the separation fence, the state forces advanced towards us, declared the are closed military zone, and the demonstration as illegal. Disregarding that, we continued marching and when we met half way on the way up the hill, they started to shower us with shock grenades... and started pushing us back to the village. AS we put some passive resistance, some of the state force personnel used batons, hitting people legs mainly and injured of the demonstrators. After a while, most of the demonstrators were driven back towards the outskirts of the village where the stone throwers started the usual confrontation with the state forces who tested on them a new kind of an automatic riffle of rubber bullets.
Few of us - the more experienced and stubborn, resisted the pushing back and few engaged the state forces with angry speech about the role they play in the service of the building companies that robed the Bil'in lands and pushed the separation fence to protect them.
During that "conversation" was revealed the name of the new brigade commander David Menahem who decided to change the policy and forbid the demonstration near the fence.
During the angry conversation three Palestinians and one international activists were detained, and released only after the demonstration was ended and we returned to the village - leaving the arena for the confrontation between the stone throwers (young and not so young) and the state forces.
It seems the national leadership pressure on the stone throwers helped. They refrained from starting the stone throwing too early to disable the activity of the nonviolent demonstration, and even later they did not throw the stones on the demonstrators.
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