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Weekly protests met with tear gas
Latest News, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, July 28th, 2009

Above: 30 rounds of tear gas are fired upon the demonstration in Bil'in.

Protests in Ni'lin and Bil'in were met with volleys of tear gas and sound bombs as they approached the Wall this past Friday. In Ni'lin, demonstrators marched to the Wall, where clashes occurred between youth and soldiers for several hours. Villagers marked the anniversary of the deaths of the first two martyrs, Ahmed Mousa and Yousef 'Amira, both killed last year, as well the 40 days since the killing of Yousef “Aqel” Srour.

Despite the recent wave of arrests, protests have not ceased in Bil'in, where activists confronted soldiers at the Wall waving flags and shouting slogans. One demonstrator hurled a football over the gate, and soldiers responded by immediately firing tear gas and sounds bombs. The football was in response to the recent ad aired by Cellcom, an Israeli mobile phone company, in which Occupation soldiers are playing football with a Palestinian football that accidentally comes flying over the Wall. The commercial, which makes light of the suffering brought on by the Wall, has been widely criticized.

Also, last Wednesday, a night demonstration was held in protest of the nightly arrest raids carried out by Occupation forces in Bil'in.

In al-Ma'sara, dozens of Palestinian protestors were joined by internationals from all over the world and Israeli activists. Protestors carried a big Palestinian flag and chanted for the immediate end to Israeli occupation and colonization. Soldiers put a razor wire on the road at the exit of the village and stopped the march, denying people the right to access their land. Protesters stood against the soldiers, holding speeches in Arabic, Hebrew and English.