Photos
Bil’in and Saffa: The Apartheid Wall destroys everything that is beautiful
Photos, The Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, March 26th, 2005

For the last month the villagers of Bil’in and Saffa have been resisting the construction of the Apartheid Wall on their lands. This is a typical story of struggle and confrontation against the building of the Apartheid Wall across Palestine.
The Occupation’s bullets and bulldozers may destroy this land, devastate its nature and injure its people. However, it will never quell the spirit, determination and resilience of the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom.

Above: The green of the land, the olive and the trees. And the green of the Occupation soldiers. One natural and eternal. The other perverse and malevolent. A temporary scar on this land. They contradict. One encapsulates life, and the other death. The Palestinian clutches the green of life and faith in the renewal of nature. The other seeks to destroy. One will always thrive, confront and thwart the green of Occupation and force. One will heal what the other has fractured.

Above: Our story begins. A Zionist soldier, an alien and stranger to this land, its people and trees came three weeks ago to the villages of Saffa and Bil’in with two papers. The first: to confiscate land. The second: a map of the Wall in this area. Theft, aggression and domination, all under the laws created by the Occupying force! “Take the papers and go. Complain to our military judge. Yet you do so in vain. This is what they told us to tell you.” The decision is issued by a military soldier, delivered by its messenger and judged by its master. A system built on injustice.

Above: Resistance starts with a stone. A stone in front of a bulldozer! The stone is the will, spirit and embodiment of resistance. The stone is the first step towards victory. It is the opening moment of our struggle.

Above: The stone in the hands of children, the birth of our struggle. Everyday for the last three weeks, the people of Saffa and Bil’in gather in their lands. They sit, fight and pray. Old men who planted these trees, women who ploughed and took care of the land, and children who played in them, collected their flowers and climbed their rocks. All come to defend these lands. The first Intifada lives on in the minds of the people, and the culture of resistance.

Above: Confrontations are continuous. The scene of resistance a daily phenomenon. A bulldozer destroys people’s lands and an ambulance waits for the injured. During the last three weeks more than 30 people have been critically wounded by Occupation bullets.

Above: Someone falls. Are they stricken by the “rubber” bullets of the Occupation Forces which puncture the skin, and pierce the body? Is the injury from a canister smashing someone in the skull, burning and exploding in the face as experienced by Ibrahim Saleh (72 years old)? Is it from the butt of a soldier’s rifle slammed against the head? There are many possibilities, but the result is one. An occupying army serving to destroy and oppress. The people’s determination to maintain their lands, history and culture.

Above: It is the spring. A child tries to salvage Hanoun flowers before they are bulldozed by occupation machinery, to be replaced by the cold and concrete Apartheid Wall. The red of the flower symbolizes the martyr’s blood buried deep in this land. The Wall will never replace these roots.

Above: Nothing but popular resistance can renew the brightness and life of the flowers. This is what the people of Saffa and Bil’in believe and this is what the rest of the Palestinians in the villages destroyed by the Wall know. It is only through resistance that they can tear down this Apartheid Wall and instill dignity and justice. The flowers and trees will once again blossom from the strength of the people.