On Friday, July 31st, I went to the weekly demonstration in the Palestinian village of Bilín. Every week, for the past 5 years, internationals and village residents have marched to the separation barrier Israel has built right through Palestinian farmland. In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the barrier Israel is building through the West Bank is contrary to international law. You can see a map of the separation barrier here (Bilín is to the northwest of Ramallah/Jerusalem). The separation barrier, that wraps around the Israeli settlement Modiín Illit, has confiscated 60% of Bilín’s farmland. In 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that a portion of the barrier being built in Bilín needs to be relocated. During the ruling, judges said that “this will require destroying the existing fence in certain places and building a new one,” and ordered the government to come up with a new route in a “reasonable period of time.” Israeli forces declined to implement the Supreme Court ruling and the barrier has not been relocated. It shouldn’t suprise the international community that Israel continues to disregard international law (which it has ignored for decades). However, what is to be said of a state that refuses to even respect the rulings of its own high court? The rule of law means nothing to the Israeli cowboys in the Wild West Bank.
About 150 internationals and 150 residents of Bilín met in front of the village mosque. When afternoon prayers were finished the demonstrators began their march to the separation barrier.
We walked to the wall amongst chants of “Free, Free Palestine!” and “”No, No to the Wall!” A few children left the main contingent of protestors and ran to other parts of the barrier to throw stones at soldiers. When we reached the protest site, Abdullah Abu Rahama, a coordinator with the Popular Committee Against the Wall and a Jewish representative from Gush Shalom (an Israeli peace organization) asked IDF soldiers to disobey their orders. The Israeli army informed us that we were “demonstrating illegally” via their loudspeaker. After the formalities, protestors approached the barrier and began dismantling it. Upon making a hole in the barrier, demonstrators made their way to the Israeli controlled side and began taunting soldiers. The Israeli Occupation Forces reacted by ordering a large white truck to spray demonstrators with a foul-smelling skunk liquid. It smelled like a combination of rotting corpse and human waste. Watch the video here (double click it and watch it in youtube for High Definition):
Israel consistently tries out new weaponry on the Palestinians demonstrating against the annexation barriers in Bilín and Nilín. In April 2009, a resident of Bilín named Bassem Abu Rahme was killed when a new type of high velocity tear gas canister struck him in the chest from 40 meters away. Tristan Anderson was left critically wounded when he was shot in the head with the same high velocity canister. Israel continues to use the West Bank as its testing ground, and the Palestinians are the guinea pigs. The advent of a ‘skunk truck’ was no suprise to anyone.
Once the white truck ran out of skunk liquid, protestors returned to the barrier and continued taunting soldiers. Palestinian protestors and Israeli troops in riot gear played a game of cat & mouse. Palestinians would pass through the wall and riot troops would chase them back. A protestor next to me began humming the Imperial March from Star Wars upon seeing the riot troops.
All of a sudden, without warning, a military vehicle with a cannon on its roof, simultaneously shot around 30 tear gas canisters at the protestors. I had to duck and dodge to prevent getting hit by the dozens of canisters flying towards me. The next thing I knew I was in a huge cloud of gas. The smart thing to do would have been to stay calm and move slowly away from the gas. However, I panicked and ran which caused me to inhale large quantities of the stuff. It was 30 of the most painful seconds of my life. Here is a video of my panicked flight:
Another video of the tear gas from further away:
A cameraman named Haitham Al Katib took an amazing video of the same protest. My skills pale in comparison.
There would be absolutely no problem with the separation barrier if Israel built it on its own borders. However, Israel built the wall well past the green line and on Palestinian land. All 15 judges of the International Court of Justice agree that the wall is contrary to international law. Stealing land and building settlements on stolen land are provocations. They are the roots of the conflict. If Israel wants to resolve things peacefully then it must address the genuine grievances of the Palestinian people. However, Israel is more interested in land annexation than peace. One only needs to look at a map of the separation barrier to realize that. Until a movement is built to put an end to this madness, Israel will continue to grab land and occupy the indigenous inhabitants of the West Bank with unconditional support from the red, white and blue.
