Reports from the Ground: Weekly Non-violent struggles in Bi’lin, Ni’lin and A-Masara

Bi’lin: Young Palestinian shot in the head, and dozens sick from tear gas and wastewater

Ramallah 30-08-08 – The weekly non-violent protest in Bi’lin against the construction of the Wall on the village’s land started after the Friday prayers. Hundreds of demonstrators consisting of villagers, international and Israeli peace activists, was attacked by the Israeli occupation forces as the group neared the construction site of the Wall and attempted to cross into their ancestral village lands.

The Israeli army fired rubber-coated metal bullets at the crowd, hitting Mohammed Jaber Daraghamed in the head. Daraghamed was transferred to Ash-Sheik Zayed Hospital in Ramallah to receive medical treatment. The army also attacked the civilian protestors with batons, concussion grenades and tear gas. Ten protestors suffered badly from tear gas inhalation.

The Israeli army also sprayed the demonstrators with waste water causing many to faint and vomit due to the noxious smell and the chemical content. Abdellah Abu Rahamah, the coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bi’lin, described the waste water as a mix between toilet water and chemical materials. According to his Israeli sources, the water contains Aldurban riots, which cannot be removed from clothes without burning them. Spraying toxic water is a new method of separating protestors that the Isreli army has recently used on a number of occasions.

Ni’lin: A day after Israeli attacks, the villagers hold prayers on their confiscated land on Friday

The protestors from Ni’lin village, together with international peace activists, managed to reach the Apartheid Wall and their lands which are threatened with confiscation on Friday, despite the heavy Israeli military presence and the barring of journalists from the area. The peaceful demonstrations have taken place on a weekly basis since May in the village of Ni’lin against the building of a new section of the separation Wall.

During the demonstration, protesters cut the barbed wires installed by the Israeli army with the aim of preventing the protestors from reaching the Israeli bulldozers which are constructing the Wall. Youth from the village placed the barbed wire in front of the bulldozers, and the Israeli army responded by firing gas canisters and sound bombs on the residents. Three residents suffocated after breathing in tear gas.

The non-violent rally came a day after an Israeli army attack on the village. According to the media spokesman of the Ni’lin popular committee against the Wall, Salah Al-Khawajah, eleven people including seven children were shot by rubber-coated metal bullets on Thursday. Of those seven children, Baha’ Abu Srur was hit in the head by a bullet, and Rezeq Khalil Nafe in the chest. He underwent a successful surgery in the Ramallah hospital. Al-Khawajah also described how the Israeli troops had surrounded the girls’ secondary school in the village and intimated them by intentionally throwing sound bombs on the villagers’ homes. The actions of the Israeli military injured a four month old baby, as well as a pregnant mother and her young children.

A-Ma’sara: The Israeli army dispersed the weekly protest by beating the demonstrators

Some 100 international and Israeli peace activists and local villagers from Al-Ma’sara village near Bethlehem held on Friday a non-violent march against the construction of the Wall on their lands. The protestors succeeded in reaching the Wall, but were dispersed by the army who first beat the crowds and later invaded the village. The army also seized 8 French members of the international temporary presence in the village, and released them after a couple of hours.