For almost 4 months residents of Ni'ilin Village in the occupied West Bank, along with their Israeli and international supporters, have been trying to defend their lands through grassroots popular resistance, which includes almost daily demonstrations, attempts to block bulldozers and clashes. After losing much of its land in 1948 and due to the massive construction of settlements on its lands since 1967, Ni'ilin is now left with merely 7,000 dunams (1,700 acres). 2,500 dunams (about 620 acres) of these lands are expected to be left isolated and effectively confiscated behind Israel's illegal segregation wall http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6&case=131&k=5a according to the current trajectory.
The Israeli army has employed severe and brutal violence in its attempt to suppress the Ni'ilin uprising, that has so far caused hundreds of injuries and has included arrests, the imposing of siege and curfew http://www.awalls.org/niilin_days_and_nights_of_siege_and_curfew as collective punishment, the the shooting of a cuffed and blindfolded detainee, http://www.awalls.org/a_cuffed_and_blindfolded_demonstrator_shot_with_a_rubber_bullet_from_pointblank_in_niilin and most recently the cold blooded murders of ten year old Ahmed Mousa http://www.awalls.org/10_year_old_murdered_in_niilin and 17 year old Ahmed Amireh http://www.awalls.org/niilin_youssef_amierehs_funeral_attacked_with_teargas_and_rubber_coated_bullets who was mortaly injured http://www.awalls.org/niilin_second_mortal_casualty_in_two_days on the eve of Mousa's funeral, and succumbed to his wounds five days later.
The village of Ni'ilin remains undeterred, and after three days of grieving over Ahmed Mousa, struggle has already resumed http://www.awalls.org/niilin_razor_wire_barricade_dismantled_in_ahmed_mousas_memory_7_injured Villagers vowed to continue the struggle against the theft of their lands and their livelihood.
As Anarchists Against the Wall wrote: "A monument erected in the memory of Ahmed Mousa where he was murdered, from stones stained by his blood".
For the first time since the murder and mortal injury that shocked Ni'ilin this week, about 600 villagers marched to their lands accompanied by Israeli and international supporters. Villagers prayed on their lands, only a few hundred meters away from where Ahmed Mousa was murdered, and as soon as they were done, loudspeakers went on announcing in Hebrew and Arabic that the area is a closed military zone, and threatened everyone present that force will be used if people will not disperse. A large border police force was present on the overlooking hill, with a valley separating them from the villagers.
On hearing the border police message, demonstrators grew more and more angry, and their rage over the past days could be felt very strongly. At first, shouts were called towards the officers, denouncing them as murderers and calling them to go back to their homes. Very quickly however, demonstrators lost interest in the border police's provocation and turned towards the wall's construction site. There were no bulldozers at work, but everyone knew that the razor wire barricade that was erected to try and prevent protesters from disrupting construction still stands. The same razor wire Ahmed Mousa was trying to take apart before he was murdered on Tuesday.
The border policemen started firing teargas at the demonstrators, but there was no stopping them. The protesters' resolved, fueled by their outrage of the last few days' events was greater than the pain caused by the teargas. When a group of a few dozen border policemen came nearer to the crowd and started firing rubber-coated bullets, collective ire erupted into a hail of stones.
Clashes continued for about four hours. After two hours, the demonstrators were pushed away from the groves, and into the first houses of the village, but at around 17:00, the army retreated, and demonstrators went back to finish what they had started - dismantling the razor wire barricade in Ahmed Mousa's memory, and blocking the path of the wall with it. An hour later it all lied on the path of the wall, about 300 meters of it.
Five Palestinians and two international activists were injured by rubber-coated bullets."
More info: http://www.awalls.org/niilin_razor_wire_barricade_dismantled_in_ahmed_mousas_memory_7_injured
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