Solidarity Movement Update
Solidarity Movement Update
Twelve-year old Ibrahim
Ghazi Beit-Ilo was hit in the neck by shrapnel
from a
live bullet following a peaceful protest march against
the
Apartheid Wall in Bil'in today. He underwent surgery
at the Ramallah
goverment hospital and the shrapnel was
successfully removed. Another
16 people were injured by
shrapnel from exploding tear gas and sound
bomb
cannisters or were beaten with military truncheons. Two
Israeli
protestors were arrested.
The, 600 protestors,
comprising Palestinians, Israelis and
internationals,
Palestinian flags flying, marched behind political
and
religious leaders . Palestinian Legislative Council
members Kayes
Abu-Leila and Mohib Awad, Israeli MKs
Mohammed Barakeh and Dov Hanin,
Taysir Tamimi a Muslim
religious leader and village leaders marched at
the head
of the protest from the Bil'in mosque to the massive
razor
wire fortifications that divide the village from
its agricultural
lands. When they arrived they were met
by fully armed Israeli soldiers
in battle dress and
border police.
The focus of the protest was a symbolic
breach of the wall created by
placing two ladders across
the first razor wire fence. Using the
ladders as a
bridge, a group of protestors moved into the next line
of
wall fortifications. As they crossed they were
attacked by tear gas and
sound bombs.
The army turned
on the massed demonstrators who were chanting "No to
the
Wall." Soldiers fired tear gas and sound bombs into the
crowd,
which began to retreat. As the marchers moved back
toward the village,
soliders penetrated into the village
olive groves, gassing the
retreating protestors. One gas
cannister was fired at the ambulance
parked on a hill
distant from the wall and soldiers penetrated into
the
edge of the village where another tear gas cannister
was shot into a
house, injuring grandmother, Intisar
Burnat.
The villagers of Bilin have lost more than 50% of
their agricultural
lands to the Apartheid Wall. The
Israeli government illegally
expropriated their lands
without compensation. Although the seizure of
the lands
was done in the name of security, in fact, research has
found
that corrupt army planners eased the transfer of
Bilin's land to a
billionaire Russian real estate mogul
who belongs to the Lubavitcher
Hassidim. Bilin lands are
now the site of the illegal settlement of
Modin
Elit.
Adeeb Abu Rahma -beaten on the leg
Basem Ahmad
Issa -rubber bullet in the back.
Zohdiya Ali Alkhatib
-teargas
Mohammad Alkhatib -beaten and leg
injury
Naser Abu Rahma -shrapnel from a sound bomb in the
hand
Ahmad Mohammad Hassan -rubber bullet in the
leg
Oz Marinov -hit in the ankle by a sound bomb
Amir
Sidi -wounded in the forhead by shrapnel from a sound
bomb
R. - foot cut by razor wire
G. and L. - beaten
with
truncheons
Ends