Palestine-Israel, My weekly report on the AAtW activities and the joint struggle - Bush, Bil'in, apartheid 443, Um Salmuna, Beit Ur

Wednesday, the Emperor Bush landed in Israel to continue his war mongering on the spot. Few dozens of leftists including the samba troupe of the Anarchists Against the Wall - confronted by state forces, converged on the lawn of the Independent garden in Jerusalem and in front of the Us consulate in Jerusalem, to tell him what they think about his triple talks.
On Friday were the usual 3 demonstrations against the separation fence: West of Ramalla Bil'in and apartheid highway 443, and south of Bethlehem Um Salmuna.
On Saturday, a new front on south of Bethlehem recently opened at Beit Umar (which is a frequent participant in the struggle against the separation fence).
In Bil'in, the whether was on our side. The 153th consecutive Friday demonstration marched from the center of the village under a deep blue sky and a bit warmer whether. When we approached the hill the gate in the separation fence is on, we encountered the same barbed wire spool blocking the road, the same declaration about the closed military zone, and the same threats about not crossing the line. However, the unexpected changes in the wind that tended to be from the East, the state force could not use it to block our way.

They tried few tear gas canisters but the wind drifted the gas towards the soldiers. They tried shock grenades, but we are so used to it that it only cause people to move a meter away from where a grenade fell. Thus, we slowly closed the gap and the state forces had to block us with their body. After a while, they retreated few meters and we decided to return to the village. Only when we were far from them they could punish us with tear gas canisters and later with bullets covered by rubber. Few were slightly hurt by shock grenades and tear gas. One member of the village popular comity was hit with a bullet to his head and was taken to hospital in Ramalla for treatment.

This is the link to the documentary video from Bil'in Palestine 11-01-2008 by Emad Burnat is on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=387BJWIwOXo

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At the near by apartheid highway 443 the lukewarm Friday demonstration continued. It was compromised again by the higher authority which overruled the grass root comity of the region. (It sabotaged the option of direct action on the previous Friday which was supposed to be a joint Israeli-Palestinian mass demonstration.)
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At the Bethlehem region Friday demonstration was at Um Salmuna. The people were able to reach the route of the separation fence. A kid with the Palestinian flag was photographed standing on a heavy construction machine that was waiting for repair.... Later, A temporary road block made of a spool of barbed wire appeared on the road from Israel to the region (used mostly by settlers).
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On Saturday, we had a non standard demonstration at Beit Umar of the Bethlehem region. It was the second one - to be continued, protesting the last grab of lands by the near by colonialist settlement Karnei Shomron built on previously confiscated land of the village. Not long ago, the fence of the settlement moved in the direction of Beit Umar, grabbed more of its lands, Lately it could be seen from the village that settlers' caravans were put part of on the stolen land.

Early afternoon we marched from the village built area through the vineyards, towards the settlement. Israeli army soldiers blocked our way few score meters from the new fence of the settlement. By physical pressure we succeeded to advance a bit till we were near the army armed cars. When people tried to go nearer through a vineyard bordering the dirt road, the soldiers became more belligerent.

As the demonstration ended and we started to return to the village, youngsters started to through stones and the army retaliated with tear gas and shooting of bullets rubbed with rubber.

As our way back was blocked we made a detour through the land back to the village. The army followed the youngsters up to the built area of the village before retreating back to the colonialist settlement.