This Friday the theme of the demonstration in Bil'in was the Nacba. This week there was 99 years to the formal robbery of most of the Palestinian lands by the Israeli settler colonialists with blessing of the United Nation and the big imperial powers. We marched at noon on the road leading to the route of the separation fence - Palestinians from the village and the region; international activists; Israelis organized by the anarchists against the wall (AATW) initiative; and media workers of all kinds. Among the participants from Ramalla, were people of the Popular Democratic Front (of Naif Hawatme). One of them was old enough to remember the exchanging of texts between their journals and the Israeli antiauthoritarian anti capitalist (anti Zionist) journal Matspen....
Most of the marchers carried small placards - each with the name of one of the about 500 villages destroyed in 1948 by the Israeli expansionist forces.
When we arrived at the foot of the hill on its top is located the gate to the robed lands on the other side of the separation fence, we encountered a line of barbed wire and lot of soldiers half the way up the hill. Their commander declared with the loudspeaker that there is a military closed space just behind the barbed wire. He warned with retaliation and arrest people who will cross the line.
The people at the head moved aside the barbed wire spool and continued to advance - and got immediately a shower of tear gas canisters.
The tear gas deter most of the people who retreated a hundred meters and dispersed among the olive trees on the side of the road. A small group of comrades who succeeded to march up the hill got a special sower of tear gas and was forced to join the rest of us.
For more than two hours there were waves of people regrouping and advancing a bit, and showers of tear gas forcing us to retreat. At some point, olive trees in the groove were set on fire by the shooting of tear gas grenades, and demonstrators worked to extinguish the fire in spite of the tear gas.
In their efforts to disperse the demonstration soldiers even invaded the fringe of the built area of the village.
After the fires were extinguished the demonstration was ended. I could see one comrade carrying a 20 liter bucket full of tear gas canisters as a kind of trophy - a small part of the hundreds fired on us this day.
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Um Salmuna - Report of a Participant:
"We met around 12:30 near the village Um Salmuna - about 20 Israelis of the AATW and others, 20 internationals and about 50 Palestinians. The Israeli army "delegation" was accompanied by police and border gendarmes - at least 100 of these.
At about 1:00 the Palestinian had there the midday prayer, and at its end we marched towards the village lands confiscated for the building of the separation fence. The state forces blocked our way. We tried to advance in spit of their resistance, and they detained two of the Israeli activists.
The demonstration continued there till the state forces went away. Then, the demonstrators took another way toward the route of the separation fence is in built there. We succeeded to fell down part of the infrastructure of the separation fence already constructed.
The Israeli activists were released later from Kiriat Arba (occupied Hebron) police station on third side bail after formally accused of attacking soldiers and dis obeying the decry of closed military Zone."
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