Tear gassed in Bil'in

Bil'in mosque

Today I had first-hand experience with the way  Israel reacts to protest demonstrations. The Palestinian village of Bil'in in the West Bank, a half-hour drive from Ramallah, has been protesting for eight years against the separation wall, which took about half the town's land. First the demonstrations were daily, then weekly.

The demonstrations, plus litigation, convinced Israel to move the wall, but it still takes 250 acres of the town's land.

The picture below shows where the wall used to be, and now is nowhere in sight.

Site of removed wall

As we gathered for the demonstration, we saw a poster of two local martyrs, a man killed by a high velocity tear gas canister fired at his chest at close range while he had his hands in the air, and his sister who died from inhalation of a heavy barrage of tear gas.


By my estimate, today's demonstration was led by about 30 local residents, accompanied by a similar number of internationals, primarily from Europe, and Israelis.

Peaceful march along the wall

For the first 10 minutes, the demonstrators proceeded without incident, waving Palestinian flags and chanting phrases like "occupation no more," "Israel, Fascist state," and "free, free Palestine."

Sound bomb from previous demonstration along the route

Israeli soldiers atop wall

A few yards in front of the wall was concertina wire and a trilingual warning of  mortal danger. I heeded it (so did the other internationals), but the youth of Bil'in did not, and they started to throw stones at the wall. 

Stone throwing youth; note soldiers behind shields

The soldiers retaliated  by intermittently firing tear gas and sound bombs .

Tear gassing the demonstrators

Some of the demonstrators picked up the canisters and threw them back over the wall. And they continued to throw stones.

Young Israeli settlers watched the confrontation from the other side of the wall.

At one point the demonstrators retreated, to regroup and run back shouting.

The soldiers were ready for them.

The tear gas and sound bombs continued. Although I was 50 yards away, I really felt the gas. (The only time I had experienced tear gas before was more than half a century ago in army training, and then I had a gas mask that I only had to remove for a few seconds.) Today I felt blinded, disoriented, and suffocated for a few minutes, and I still feel angry at this repression of a peaceful demonstration. In my view, chanting and stone throwing do not justify tear gas and sound bombs. [I later learned that in a demonstration in another village today the troops used rubber bullets and live ammunition as well.] 

One of my three colleagues from the International Solidarity Movement who were with me at Bil'in received a scratch on his leg from a tear gas canister. Another canister struck my shoe, but did no damage to my foot, just left a mark on the shoe.

 

Basel Mansour

After the one-hour demonstration, we relaxed in the Bil'in Community Center.  One of the leaders, Basel Mansour, told me their goal is to end the occupation, and the wall is just one problem. He said soldiers have been acquitted of killing residents. I asked him where the young men get their courage to defy the soldiers at the wall. He said, "It's their land, their trees, their homes That's why they're brave." I like to believe that international solidarity strengthens their resolve.