MPT members Martha, David, and Brenna returned to Bil’in on Friday, November 23rd, to participate in the weekly nonviolent demonstration led by Bil’in’s villagers. The purpose of the protest is to oppose the wall that has been built by the state of Israel in order to annex large portions of the West Bank, including 60% of Bil’in’s agricultural land. As we reported last week, these weekly protests are part of a larger nonviolent movement in Bil’in that was begun by its residents three years ago, leading to a September 2007 order by the Israeli High Court that the Israeli military must reroute the wall in Bil’in, returning to the village about 250 acres of the 575 stolen acres of land.

The military has not yet obeyed this order, and as the apartheid wall continues to be constructed in and around villages all over the West Bank, Bil’in residents continue to actively  - and nonviolently -resist it.

Palestinians facing Israeli soldiers.

On the Wednesday before the demonstration, MPT met with Eyad Bournat, head of the popular committee in Bil’in and a founder of the Society of Friends for Freedom and Justice in Bil’in (http://www.ffj-bilin.org/). Eyad told us that the villagers of Bil’in stand on the shoulders of many of their friends who went before them.  Bil’in is a link in a long chain of regular Palestinian villages whose residents have resisted the construction of the apartheid wall on their land.

Eyad told us that that main purpose of Bil’in’s struggle is to send to the world the message that Israel is not building this wall for security purposes, as it tells the international community.  It is building the wall in order to annex Palestinian land.

When the wall first went under construction in Bil’in in December 2004, the village mosque called for people to resist. The entire village responded by holding demonstrations in front of the bulldozers.  After marching three times, villagers managed to freeze construction of the wall for two months.  In February 2005, construction of the wall resumed, so the local village council and the various political parties met and formed a popular committee to oppose the wall.  The committee was well aware, however, of the eleven people who had been killed while nonviolently resisting construction of the wall in other villages. The main concern of the committee was how they could send a message to the world without paying such a high price.

The committee focused on four main elements in their campaign. First, they realized that the struggle would have to depend on the villagers’ own investment. Since the wall confiscated 60% of Bil’in’s agricultural land, the villagers had a lot at stake. Secondly, the village committed itself to a nonviolent struggle. The committee realized that the outside world shared the misperception that Palestinians only used violent means to resist Israeli military occupation. They wanted to reverse the picture, so the world would see the truth: that the majority of the violence comes from Israel. Third, the committee knew they needed to attract a lot of media, especially Israeli media, to send their message to regular Israelis and to the world. Fourth, they wanted to enlist the support of international and Israeli activists.

Martha with demonstrators, preparing to face tear gas.

The creative actions of the Bil’in villagers – tying themselves to olive trees, standing in front of bulldozers, etc. – did attract the media, which, in turn, attracted internationals and Israelis who came to see for themselves whether this wall was for “security” purposes, or for “annexation” purposes.   Once they saw the truth, many joined the struggle.

On Friday, November 23^rd, the MPTers joined about 150 Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals at the village Mosque at 12 noon after the call to prayer. Led by an exuberant team of Palestinians who were chanting, laughing, jumping in the air, and waving flags, we marched down the road toward the wall. (In Bil’in, the wall consists of a set of three wire fences, including an electric fence and barbed wire, while in other areas of the West Bank the wall is made of 25-foot-high concrete pillars. However, we refer to the entire structure as “the annexation or apartheid wall.”)  As we approached the annexation wall, Israeli soldiers stopped us and ordered us to turn around, declaring this particular area of Bil’in village a “closed military zone” for the day. When we didn’t leave, soldiers immediately began shooting canisters of tear gas into the crowd. One Palestinian man was hit at close range in the hands and chest with these canisters that burned through his coat and shirt, broke the palm of his hand, and injured his chest.

Eyad Bournat appealing to the soldiers to release Adeeb.

When the tear gas was fired, those demonstrators nearest to the soldiers (and out of the range of the tear gas) managed to continue up the hill toward the wall. A Palestinian man named Adeeb was caught by an Israeli soldier who beat Adeeb on the head, causing him to bleed profusely. Despite intervention by internationals and Israelis, soldiers handcuffed Adeeb behind his back and led him up the hill, detaining him for the crime of being beaten.

Palestinian leaders tried to reason with the soldiers and demanded that they allow Adeeb to go to the hospital to seek medical attention, but the soldiers refused.

Brenna being detained by soldiers.

Soldiers then started chasing Palestinians down the hill, attempting to arrest them. While many Palestinians managed to escape, one university social work professor, Ratib, was surrounded and lifted off the ground by seven soldiers. MPTer Brenna Cussen and another Israeli activist tried to “de-arrest” Ratib by placing their bodies between the soldiers and Ratib, but they were outnumbered. The Israeli was beaten with a stick, and Brenna was violently pushed backwards. When Brenna continued to try to reach Ratib, she, too, was handcuffed and led up the hill.  In all, six people – two Palestinians, two Israelis, and two Americans – were detained during the demonstration.

Adeeb

Fortunately, perhaps because of the numerous phone calls placed by MPTer Martha to lawyers, human rights groups, and the army hotline itself, all detainees were released after about 1.5 hours.

At the conclusion of the demonstration, Adeeb travelled with us to Ramallah to be treated at the hospital.

Man hit with tear gas canisters

Also during the demonstration, an Israeli activist was hit in his temple with a rubber coated steel bullet while standing at the side of the road leading to the wall. When he was hit he fell unconscious and was evacuated. Fortunately, the bullet did no permanent damage, and he has since been released from the hospital.

Ratib, university professor

For more information about Bil’in and its nonviolent movement,

please visit http://www.bilin-village.org