Bil’in Weekly Protest: No to Expulsions from Jerusalem
Latest News, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, June 26th, 2010
On June 25th, 2010, protesters were wounded and dozens suffocated as a result of the inhalation of tear gas during the clashes that took place in the village of Bil'in (Ramallah District) when the Occupation Forces tried to suppress the weekly march against the Apartheid Wall and the settlements.
The march, organized by the Bi’lin Popular Committee Against the Wall, included the participation of the inhabitants of the village of Bil'in, as well as international supporters.
The participants were holding up portraits of Muhammad Abu Teir, the Palestinian Legislative Council representative for Jerusalem deported by the occupation forces. The demonstration wanted to reflect their solidarity with Abu Teir by sending a message that deportation and expulsion of one member symbolizes the expulsion of the whole Palestinian people from their homeland. Participants also carried signs calling for the boycott of Israel and raised Palestinian flags. The march also chanted slogans condemning Israeli occupation, settlements, and the demolition of Palestinian houses in Jerusalem. They also called for the end of Israel’s policy of deportation and expulsion, a stop of the arrests of activists, the release of all prisoners, and the end of the siege on the Gaza Strip.
As usual, the march headed towards the Wall where the Occupation Forces were waiting behind the concrete blocks of the Wall, next to the gate closed with barbed wire. When the demonstrators tried to reach the land behind the Wall, which is owned by the people of the village, the army fired sound bombs, rubber bullets, and tear gas at the protestors. The Occupation Forces chased the demonstrators to the outskirts of the village. A 50-year-old university professor, Radwan Yassin sustained an injury when a tear gas canister hit his hand. In addition, dozens of people suffered from asphyxiation from inhaling the tear gas the Occupation Forces drowned the area with. The tear gas also burned large swaths of agricultural land owned by the residents of Bil'in.
The Bi’lin Popular Committee against the Wall and the Settlements denounces Israel’s demolition of Palestinian houses in Jerusalem and their policy of deportation and expulsion of its inhabitants. The demonstration condemned this policy which seeks to empty Jerusalem of its native Palestinian population and called for the unity of the Palestinian people along with international solidarity to combat this injustice.
Before the march, a group of young men and women volunteering with the project partnership for development painted approximately 25 murals in Bi’lin in order to create artistic expressions of popular resistance against the injustice of Israeli Occupation and its associated regime of the construction of the Wall and settlements.
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