Against the Wall in Bilin

How a village in the West Bank is opposing the wall with the help of Israeli and international activists

On Friday around 150 people demonstrated in Bilin, a town in the Palestinian West Bank close to the Israeli border. The Israeli Army IDF used shock grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets against the demonstration. A 16-year-old Palestinian was hit in the head by a rubber bullet - he was brought to the hospital in unknown condition.

During the last ten months the "Separation Barrier", a barrier around the entire West Bank, is being built in Bilin. The fence, which is still under construction, is supposed to protect the Israeli settlements close to the town. There are five of them, and a sixth is under construction. One of the central aims of the action was to block dump trucks and bulldozers that are used to build the settlements and the wall.

Of the 4,300 dunam (4.3 km2 or 1,000 acres) that belong to the village, more than 2,000 will be behind the wall. In this way the 1,600 residents, who live primarily from agriculture, will lose a large part of their olive fields.

Bilin is more than four kilometers behind the Green Line, the border to Israel which was established in 1967. This is no exception. Throughout the West Bank the apartheid wall is being built not on the border, but on a zigzag line. The route runs several kilometers within the Palestinian territories and is supposed to bring as many settlements and fertile land as possible onto the Israeli side.

Every Friday there is a demonstration in Bilin, for the last ten months, since the day when construction began. One of the central objectives of the action this Friday was to block bulldozers and dump trucks used to build the wall and the settlements.

This week the action was supposed to draw a comparison the Berlin wall, which fell sixteen years ago. An activist from Berlin carried a sign: "November 1989: Wall in Berlin falls. November 2005: Wall in Bilin will also fall!" At the same time it the first anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death. Palestinian demonstrators wore masks with his face, as well as with the face of his negotiation partner for the Oslo Accords, Yitzak Rabin, who was assasinated ten years ago. Other masks commemorated peace activists like Martin Luther Kind, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks and even Rosa Luxemburg.

At the demo in Bilin were not just residents of the village, but also activists of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) from the USA, Canada, Sweden and other countries. A number Israelis took part as well: young anarchists and trotskyists, older peace activists und a few ex-soldiers. Nadav, who after one year in the IDF refused to serve in the occupied territories, said: "The Soldiers are in a very uncomfortable situation. They don't want to be photographed while they're beating us."

The hopes of a peaceful protest were quickly destroyed by the Israeli Army. As the demonstration was blocked by soldiers about 200 meters from the fence, the people chanted and sang in Arabic, Hebrew and English, or simply sat down. They were able to block a giant dumptruck for more than an hour. To clear the road for the construction vehicles, the soldiers dispersed this little rally without warning using noise grenades and tear gas.

Only after this provocation did young people from the village begin to throw stones at the border police. They responded with rubber-bullets (which are actually rubber-coated steel bullets) and even shot live ammunition into the air. After many beatings, arrests, and small battles between soldiers and young people, the demonstration was ended. The activists had pushed forward to a point 50 meters from the fence. But their goal of hanging peace posters on the fence was not reached.

With a bit of pride Osama Nasser from the Peoples Resistance Comittee Against the Wall said: "In one year the wall was built between Jenin in the North and Budros by Ramallah. But in Billin they have been working for ten months and they are still not finished." In fact, of the barrier there so far only exists a railing, a road, and a chain-link fence, and that only on 2 kilometers of the 3.5 kilometer route.

In the past months there have been lots of actions. The children of the village had a street theater with giant black snakes strangling the Palestinian economy. Young Palestinian women from the region led a women's demo. Israeli anarchists from Tel Aviv chained themselves to the fence. And of course solidarity delegations from around the world have come to Bilin. There are examples like the town Budros, where protests lasting a full year had the effect that the wall was build on or behind the green line. The people of Bilin are hoping for a similar result.

But for this, many residents have to suffer: The president of the village council, Abdullah Achmed Yassan, has two sons in Israeli prisons: his 14-year-old son was sentenced to two months, his 28-year-old son, whose wife is eight months pregnant, was setenced to four months.

At night the IDF forces its way into the town to look for suspects. So far eighteen people have been arrested - a permanent presence of the ISM tries to oppose this terrorization by filming every military action. In the coming weeks the demos will continue.

//by Wladek Flakin, Ramallah //dieser Artikel auf Deutsch

www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/bilin