The new path of The Wall sanctioned by the high court still leaves 435 acres of village land on the Israeli side, and thus The Bilin Popular Committee has declared June 24th will be the beginning of the struggle against the new route of The Wall. After this Friday's afternoon prayers at the mosque, the ritual mass demonstration will again march to The Wall/Fence, but this time they plan to dismantle it and access the Palestinian's legally owned land.
Mohammed Khatib, spokesperson for the Popular Committee noted, "On the ground, nothing has changed yet. All we know is that although the Israeli court officially pronounced our claims to be just, the army continued to protect the original route shooting and arresting protesters, thereby completely ignoring the ruling. We will continue to struggle until all the land is returned to our people and until we see an end to the Israeli occupation." [1]
On 4 November 2009, Richard Boudreaux, correspondent for the LA Times, reported from Bilin:
"Every Friday Mohammed Khatib's forces assemble for battle with the Israeli army and gather their weapons: a bullhorn, banners -- and a fierce belief that peaceful protest can bring about a Palestinian state.
"His message is a hard sell: Khatib, 35, is a modern-day Gandhi"And the risks of his activism are enormous"The Israeli army has targeted him. He was arrested, severely beaten and threatened with death during a series of midnight raids on the village this summer. He was freed on condition that he report to an Israeli police station each Friday at the hour of the weekly protest." [2]
"The wall will fall in Bilin; the wall will fall like in Berlin"
In a speech commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin on 12 June 1987, Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev , to tear down the Berlin wall, "We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace"if you seek peace...tear down this wall!"
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came crashing down due to the build up of pressures exerted by the Solidarity movement demanding freedom at the time of the demise of Communism.
The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolically ended the Cold War and proved that walls cannot keep people apart. The Berlin Wall was twenty-seven miles of rolls of barbed wire augmented with a high concrete barrier and watchtowers, floodlights, and a no man's land.
Israel's Wall is twice as high and five times as long as the one that fell in Berlin.
"Financed with U.S. aid at a cost of $1.5 million per mile, the Israeli wall prevents residents from receiving health care and emergency medical services. In other areas, the barrier separates farmers from their olive groves which have been their families' sole livelihood for generations ." [3]
When Israel's Wall is super-imposed on a map of Palestinian aquifers, it exposes that The Wall is also about grabbing those natural resources from the indigenous peoples of that land.
In Bilin, the Green Line is five miles from Israel's separation barrier and for the last six years every Friday afternoon after prayers at the mosque, Palestinians and growing numbers of Israelis and Internationals have been waging a nonviolent solidarity march in resistance to the route of the construction of Israel's Wall-which in Bilin is a twenty foot high wire fence that has confiscated their prime agricultural land.
I was inspired to go to Bilin after attending a November 2005, Power Point Lecture by an Israeli and Palestinian member of Anarchists Against the Wall, who spoke throughout America.
Anarchists Against the Wall/AAtW is a collaborative NONVIOLENT resistance and civil disobedience group of Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals who are dedicated to bringing down Israel's separation wall and ending the occupation of Palestine, which has now entered its 44th year!
Israeli anarchist, Jonathon Pollak said:
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