Surrealism in Bil'in
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0509/S00165.htm
Surrealism in Bil'in
Report by Adam Keller
Monday, 12 September 2005, 11:45 am
Opinion: Gush Shalom
Surrealism in Bil'in
September 9, 2005
Report by Adam Keller
The army imposed a curfew on Bil'in and forbade the weekly
anti-Wall demonstration. Nevertheless, the protest took
place with the help of 300 Israelis
"The army tries to make Bil'in into 'counterbalance' of the
Gaza pull-out"
"We are witnessing an attempt to make the village of Bil'in
into a sort of 'counterbalance' for the settlements
evacuated in the Gaza Strip, and to use brutal force against
the Palestinians here. We, Israeli peace activists, reject
out of hand such a balancing act" say the organizers of the
solidarity action which took place today in the village in
spite of the army's effort to prevent it. The settlers in
Gaza have taken by force land which did not belong to them,
while violating international law. The people of Bil'in just
want to preserve the land which they inherited and which is
their only source of livelihood, land which the government
of Israel tries to confiscate through the "Separation Fence"
and pass it on to settlement extension.
Already last Friday the army invaded Bil'in and used
considerable violence in an effort to prevent the weekly
demonstration. At that time, the military commander demanded
that the Bil'in Popular Committee not invite anymore Israeli
activists to the weekly protest, a demand which was rejected.
This morning at five o'clock army and border police forces
entered Bil'in, declared a curfew, prohibited the weekly
demonstration and ordered the eight Israelis, who had stayed
the night in Bil'in, to leave. When they refused they were
all arrested. Meanwhile Bil'in inhabitants came out of their
homes, thereby breaking the curfew, and started to drum on
pots and pans in the village streets. Only when soldiers
started to shoot rubber bullets, tear gas and concussion
grenades, did part of the village youth start throwing stones.
Meanwhile, about three hundred Israeli activists, supporters
of Gush Shalom, Ta'ayush and Anarchists against the Wall and
others went on their way to Bil'in in a bus convoy from
Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. The army sealed tightly all
roads to Bil'in but the demonstrators arrived through the
ultra-Orthodox settlement Modi'in Illit (Kiryat Sefer) which
was created on the lands of Bil'in and its neighboring
villages. Through the building site where a new settlement
neighborhood is being added, the protestors gained access to
the olive groves and canyons in Bil'in village lands which
are earmarked for further extension of the settlement. An
army officer who arrived on the spot called over the
megaphone: "Stop! Stop! You are entering a closed military
zone, but demonstrators ignored him and continued descending
into the rocky canyon.
Walking several kilometers in difficult terrain during the
hottest hour the demonstrator column succeeded in arriving
at the Separation Fence site from the western ("Israeli")
side. Military and police forces which waited there started
shooting tear gas and tried to arrest them. Demonstrators
divided into small groups and most of them succeeded to
arrive at the Bil'in built-up area, with soldiers and police
persuing them through the village back alleys. The Bil'in
people received the Israelis with great enthusiasm, offering
refuge in their homes -- and cold water. Some 25 Israelis
were arrested, among them Dr Anat Matar of the Tel-Aviv
University, Philosophy Department, and veteran Meretz
activist Latif Dori. Some of them were dragged into the
police cars after passively resisting arrest.
About a hundred demonstrators succeeded to get through to
the main square of Bil'in in front of the mosque, where they
joined a large number of Palestinian curfew breakers. Also
present were many international activists, most of them US
citizens. A bit later there arrived more Israelis, who had
fallen behind but not given up, among them former KM Uri
Avnery of Gush Shalom who on this very day marks his 82nd
birthday, Yakov Manor of Ta'ayush and Dorothy Naor of New
Profile.
For about an hour, Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators
stood facing the soldiers and Border Police, chanting "The
Fence is Terror, the Refuser is the Hero!" and singing
"Military prison is a swell place when you follow your
conscience." Some called at the soldiers: Why don't you
embrace us as you did with the settlers?" The Bil'in leaders
invited Israelis and internationals to join them in dancing
and clapping while singing "we will win, we will win, here
in Bil'in, here in Bil'in, Christian Muslim hand in hand,
Israeli movement with us will stand". Then the large
prisoner truck passed through the square with the detained
activists drumming from the inside and their fellows calling
from the outside "soldiers go home! down with the
occupation!" Two women prisoners who tried to jump out of
the army van were dragged back in by soldiers.
After an hour, soldiers resumed shooting and the village
square was soon covered with clouds of tear gas.
Environmental activist Advocate Dov Chinin got a rubber
bullet in his leg. The demonstrators found refuge in the
backyard of a nearby home, in the company of sheep and
goats. After a quarter of an hour more Bil'iners joined them
and told that the army actually has left open the route to
the Separation Fence site. It was decided to hold after all,
and in spite of the army's opposition, the weekly march.
Along the route additional inhabitants came out of their
homes and joined. They reached without difficulty the Fence
building site to which the army had blocked them in the
demonstrations of the past six months. Only a small military
force was present, headed by the local military commander at
the rank of lieutenant colonel. Soldiers tried to
Palestinian demonstrators, accusing them of "curfew
breaking" but Israelis barred the way for the soldiers,
giving time to the Palestinians to run back home.
Demonstrators conducted a march along the fence site,
chanting "after all the wall will fall" and returned to the
village center. Shortly after the army and Border Guard
forces left Bil'in followed by calls of derision from the
protestors.
"The army tried to break the people of Bil'in and prevent by
brutal force their right to protest. They especially wanted
to prevent the arrival of Israeli supporters whose presence
denies the army the freedom of rampage. The result was the
total opposite. Today there came to Bil'in many more
Israelis than on other Fridays. No only they did not prevent
the march, but it got further than before," says Yonathan
Pollak of Anarchists Against the Wall, a central organizer
of the weekly Bil'in protests.
Shortly after the end of the demonstration most of the
detainees were released. The army did however keep in
detention Abdallah Abu Rahme -- central activist of the
Bil'in Popular Committee who had already been detained
several times in the past months. The Coalition Against the
Fence demands his immediate release: "He is a personality
well-known in the wide region for his total devotion to the
non-violent struggle. It's a scandal that such a man is
again and again put into prison."
The Popular Committees against the Wall and Settlement Expansion
Gush Shalom
Taayush
Coalition of Women for Peace
The Committee against House Demolitions
Anarchists against the Wall
ENDS
--
Dan Clore
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