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The events from last week must really have pissed the soldiers off. Today, the end of prisoners week in Palestine, the theme of the action was indeed prisoners. An iron cell with a couple of young men in it at the front of the march symbolised the fate of so many Palestinians. When we left the village to march towards the fence, we saw that there were a lot more soldiers than last week. They were standing in front of the fence, on the Palestinian side, in front of a big water cannon. On the left, also on the Palestinian side, there were more soldiers, armed with rubber bullets, tear gas and soundbombs. (more…)

For immediate release: Friday 13^th April 2007

A 28 yr old Brighton man was shot in the arm today by a rubber bullet fired by the Israeli Army. He was on a weekly demonstration against Israel’s apartheid wall in Bil’in village, Palestine. (more…)

I was last here two years ago and I can’t believe the speed at which Israel has tightened its grip on Occupied Palestine - the wall, the checkpoints, the settlements are all expanded at lightning speed. The Bil’in demonstration today just epitomised the situation - walking back to the village through beautiful olive groves carpeted in wild flowers, with tear gas canisters landing round us, I reflected on the rape of this land and the brutality of the occupation which has stifled Palestinians lives with concrete, barbed wire, massive weaponry and hatred.

Today we travelled from Jerusalem to Bil In to take part in the active demonstration about the illegal encroachment of the wall upon the residents of Bil In. The wall has been pushed 5 kilometres in from the green line and has resulted in the loss of a huge amount of farmer’s land and an appalling assault on the dignity of the villagers. The local people have been demonstrating for over two years now and despite the overwhelming might of the Israeli army, the demonstrations have drawn much needed international attention, which has in turn resulted in the villagers regaining of a lot of land and Bil In has become a symbol for non violent struggle in Palestine and an inspiration to a number of other villages fighting against the Apartheid Wall. (more…)

Hamas-ive Attack

A SchNEWS correspondent reports after a visit to the Occupied Territories

Following the humanitarian disaster in Iraq during the 90s caused by UN sanctions, Palestinian society continues to be torn apart by the sanctions regime imposed by the US and EU and the crippling Israeli occupation (See SchNEWS 544). The US stopped all bank transfers to the Palestinian Authority from the outside when Hamas were elected in January. All US and most EU aid has remained frozen and Israel is refusing to pay the customs duties required on goods being imported to Palestine through Israel (and there is no other route for imported goods).

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On thursday I spent the night in the Bil In outpost, a structure the villagers have erected on their lands on the Western side of the Apartheid Wall, in protest at the destruction of their lands.

On the way to the outpost I met the father of Laith, one of two teenagers currently in prison for damaging the wall at a demonstration two months ago.

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I returned to Bil In after six months away during Ramadan. The villagers were getting ready to take part in their weekly demonstration against the construction of the Apartheid Wall, which will limit access to the majority of the villages’ land. They have been demonstrating every week for nearly two years and have established an outpost on the village’s land which has been isolated on the Western side of the wall to re-establish the village’s ownership of the land. (more…)

WALL OF SHAME

West pushes Palestinians further into crisis

The remnants of Palestinian civil society, brutalized by the occupation and ongoing encirclement by the apartheid wall, is now reeling under the shock of the sudden removal of all US and EU aid. Their crime? To have voted in free and fair elections for a movement, Hamas, which Bush and Blair argue is ‘terrorist’.

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