Bil'in concludes its fourth annual conference on popular resistance with  an Anti-Apartheid Wall protest

Friday April 24, 2009 21:07 by George Rishmawi & Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Dozens were wounded as hundreds of Palestinians supported by International and Israeli supporters marched Friday afternoon in the West Bank village of Bil'in to the construction site of the illegal Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall, which is built on the village lands.

The Bil'in residents noticed an intensive presence of the Israeli military in the past few days.

As protesters arrived near the gate at the wall, Israeli troops showered them with tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets wounding dozens.  Several protesters were treated for gas inhalation.
Last week, Israeli troops killed Bassem Abu Rahma, 30 during a similar nonviolent protest.  Abu Rahma received a high velocity gas canister directly to his check at a short distance, which caused him to bleed to death.

This march concluded the fourth international conference on popular resistance in the village.  This year the conference held the name of Bassem Abu Rahma.

Speaking to the conference, Abdullah Abu Rahma, co-ordinator of the popular resistance committee in the village said that Bassem was shot as he was yelling to the soldiers to stop shooting after they wounded an Israeli woman who came to protest with the villagers of Bil'in against the wall.

Meanwhile, Eyad Burnat head of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in the village told IMEMC over the phone that the main goal of the conference is to support nonviolent popular resistance in all places.

Among those who took part in the conference were delegations from South Africa, the Catalan government, and Luisa Morgantini, vice-president of the European Parliament, in addition to Palestinian officials like the appointed PM Salam Fayyad.

In September 2007 the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the construction of the wall around Bil’in must stop. The court also ruled that the section of the wall currently built on the Palestinian villagers’ land must be re-routed. The lawyer for the village, Michael Safrad met the villagers on the second day of the conference, as the groups were touring the West Bank.

“Now two and half years after the first decision, and two attempts by the army to evade from implementing the decision, finally the army have issued new route, if implemented it will restore something like 750 donums (around 200 acres) out of 2,000 donums, (500 acres), that was taken in the first place,” Sfarad said.

Bil'in : 25 injured in weekly protest against the Wall

Saturday April 25, 2009 02:16 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

On Friday Israeli soldiers violently attacked the weekly non-violent protest against the Annexation Wall in Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, injuring 25 protesters. 13 soldiers were reportedly injured in clashes that took place after the army attacked the protestors.

Dozens of residents and peace activists marched towards the Wall and settlements chanting slogans in memory of Bassem Abu Rahma, who was killed by the army in the previous week's protest.

Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets and gas bombs at the protesters. Two local reporters, Fadi Al-Arouri of Reuters and Moheeb Al-Barghouthi of Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda Newspaper were among those injured. Shai Pollack, an Israeli peace activist, was also wounded.

Local sources in Bil’in identified the wounded local protesters as Fadil Al-Khateeb, Odah Abu Rahma, his brother Ahmad, Eyad Bornat, his brother Riyadh, Khalid Al-Khateeb, Abdullah Abu Rahma, Mohammad Al-Khateeb, Wael Fahmi, Taeq Al-Khateeb, Abdullah Yassin, Tamer Al-Khateeb, Nizar Abu Rahma, Mohammad Abu Rahma, Ibrahim Bornat, Adeeb Abu Rahma, and Ahmad Abu Rahma, brother of Bassim Abu Rahma, the man killed by the army last week.

The protest began after the conclusion of the Fourth Annual Conference on Non-violent Resistance in Bil’in.

Among those who took part in the conference were delegations from South Africa, the Catalan government, and Luisa Morgantini, vice-president of the European Parliament as well as Palestinian officials PM Salam Fayyad, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, and member of the Legislative Council Khalida Jarrar.

The protesters erected a memorial to Bassem Abu Rahma in spite of the army’s attacks on them.

“We managed to erect the memorial” Morgantini stated, “We will never forget you Bassem, you were a friend to all of us, we must continue the non-violent resistance and help spread it all over the country”.

Four injured, dozens suffer gas effects in Ni'lin weekly protest

Saturday April 25, 2009 01:48 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMc News & Agencies

Israeli soldiers on Friday attacked Palestinian and international peace activists holding the weekly non-violent protest against the Annexation Wall in Ni’lin village, west of the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Four protestors were injured and dozens were treated for the effects gas inhalation.

The protesters marched in memory of Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahmah, 30, who was killed by the army during last week's protest in Bil’in village near Ramallah.

Palestinian legislator, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, also took part in the protest.

Israeli soldiers met the protesters with excessive violence and showered them with gas bombs and rubber-coated bullets.

Dozens suffocated after inhaling teargas fired by the army, and four residents were injured by rubber-coated bullets. One of them, Mo’min Al Khawaja, 18, required hospital treatment when he was hit in the face with a rubber-coated bullet.

Salah Al-Khawaja, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, said that soldiers initially fired 36 gas bombs and then a mixture of gas bombs and rubber-coated bullets.

Al-Khawaja added that dozens of extremist Israeli settlers from settlements around Ramallah marched near the Annexation Wall and chanted “deaths to Arabs” and other slogans calling for the expulsion of Arabs and Palestinians from the country.