In the petition of the village of Bil'in against The Wall (HCJ 8414/05), which in that area of the occupied territory of the West Bank, is mostly an electrified fence with miles of rolled barbwire that prevents the indigenous landowners access to their olive groves, Judges Beinish, Prokachya and Rivlin, of the Supreme Court ruled against the current route of The Wall/separation barrier and ordered the State to prepare a proposal for an alternative route.

Due to the power of nonviolent persistent people the empire and military occupation of Israel  has now been justly ordered to leave the agricultural lands of Bil'in on the legally owned Palestinian side of the apartheid/separation barrier!

Dr. Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, explained that the steadfast peaceful resistance of the villagers of Bil'in resulted in the decision to partially remove the wall in the village. He also commended the heroic struggle of the people; local families and foreign sympathizers who maintained a peaceful popular struggle against the apartheid/separation wall that weekly occurred every Friday afternoon as a ritual over the last two and a half years. The persistence of nonviolent people forced the Israeli High Court of Justice to issue a just decision that ordered the removal of the wall from the village of Bil'in. Dr. Barghouthi added that the struggle must continue until the wall is fully removed from Bil'in and all legally owned Palestinian land.

Dr. Barghouthi explained that this decision of the Israeli High Court of Justice proves the effectiveness of the strategy of nonviolent resistance and international solidarity. Dr. Barghouthi has also called for all Palestinians to continue the struggle against The Wall, the settlements and the annexation of East Jerusalem; citing the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which has deemed them all illegal.

"Residents of the village of Bilin went to court arguing that the current route, built on village land, kept them from their fields and orchards, which remained on the other side of the barrier. Villagers and their Israeli and foreign supporters have protested at the barrier every Friday for the past 2½ years…The Israeli government argued that the route was necessary to protect residents of the nearby settlement of Modiin Illit, and completed the section of fence that cut through Bilin despite the protests. A three-judge Supreme Court panel unanimously rejected the government’s argument Tuesday, ordering defense planners to change the barrier’s route so it causes less harm to the village’s residents. [1]

“We were not convinced that it is necessary for security-military reasons to retain the current route that passes on Bilin’s lands,” Chief Justice Dorit Beinish wrote in the decision. The judges specified 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.” [Ibid]

"Israel began building the 425-mile barrier along the West Bank in 2002, saying it was a necessary weapon in its war against Palestinian suicide bombers. But the barrier juts into West Bank territory, provoking Palestinian claims that Israel is using security arguments to mask a land grab." [Ibid]

This most embarrassing blow against the empire and military occupation of Palestine just may be the second domino to fall in the occupation and apartheid/separation policies of the ethnocracy [human rights for Jews, but nobody else] of Israel.

Now that the highest court in Israel; the Supreme Court has ordered the State to redraw the route of its West Bank, what happened in Budrus and now Bil'in is all due to the persistence of people power and anarchy.

Palestinian farmers, workers, mothers, and students, together with Israeli and international volunteers, have been braving teargas, beatings, bullets, arrest, and even death to block the construction of The Wall with nothing more than their bodies.

Two Anarchists Against the Wall, Palestinian Ayed Morrar and Israeli Jonathan Pollak toured the United States in 2005 to wake up Americans about the persistent struggle and nonviolent resistance against the Israeli occupation and their illegal actions in Palestine. This reporter attended their Gainesville, Florida session and learned from Ayed Morrar, a community leader from the West Bank village of Budrus, how a few committed, thoughtful, persistent and nonviolent citizens changed their part of the world.

In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that The Wall is a violation of international law because it cuts through the West Bank appropriating Palestinian land and destroying Palestinian villages to make way for further Israeli settlements, all of which are illegal under international law.

Soft-spoken and humble, Ayed Morrar, led his village of Budrus in a nonviolent David versus Goliath victory over the Israeli military in 2003-2004. Through a campaign of 50 protests, the village of Budrus pushed The Wall’s path off of the village's land and onto the Green Line. Day after day, the people of Budrus; men, women and children, with only their bodies resisting the might Israeli army, blocked the destruction of their homeland and the illegal construction of The Wall by marching onto their legally owned land. Despite the Israeli soldiers’ attempts to stop them, these few thoughtful, committed nonviolent activists placed their bodies in front of the Caterpillar/Caterkiller bulldozers and took the punishment.

Hundreds of residents were injured during the campaign by Israeli soldier's billy clubs, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Ayed was jailed for eight days by the Israeli authorities, but was released due to the international outcry that erupted because his only offense was organizing nonviolent protests.

The nonviolent resistance against the illegal actions of the Israeli government in Budrus was supported by justice and peace activists from ISM/International Solidarity Movement and from Israeli groups such as the Anarchists Against the Wall. The strategy implemented in Budrus served as a model for Bil'in and other Palestinian communities have joined in, to nonviolently resist Israel’s military occupation and the confiscation of their legally owned land.

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