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April 27, 2010
The Wall/Fence in Bil'in: 2005-2010
By eileen fleming
The fifth Bil'in International Conference "on popular resistance to network and strategize in support to end the Israeli occupation and free Palestine" concluded on Friday, April 23rd with five demonstrators arrested and one Israeli activist taking a direct hit into the forehead which fractured his skull after Israeli soldiers shot him with a tear gas projectile.
::::::::
"They're building a wall. A wall to keep
distant the terrible sound of the houses that crumble and the children
that die.
A wall to keep separate the truth from the lie."-Dave Rovics,
"They're
Building a Wall" The fifth Bil'in
International Conference "on popular resistance to network and
strategize in
support to end the Israeli occupation and free Palestine" concluded
on Friday, April 23rd with
five demonstrators arrested and one Israeli activist taking a direct hit
into
the forehead which fractured his skull after Israeli soldiers shot him
with a
tear gas projectile. The
conference began on April 21 with all Palestinian political factions
represented and speakers
included politicians, leaders of
Popular Committees, Israeli activists, and international solidarity
activists. Due to a mainstream
media blackout on the five-year
struggle in Bil'in, most Americans are unaware of the thousands of
nonviolent Palestinians
and growing legions of Israeli and International activists who have been
waging
a nonviolent campaign of resistance to the construction of the route of
Israel's Wall in the Occupied Territories and to end the occupation of
Palestine. Farmers, mothers,
children and activists
have been braving teargas, beatings, bullets, arrest, and even death to
rise up
against the route of The Wall/Fence and most well equipped army in the
world,
with nothing more than their own bodies and the innate persistent
determination
within all people for justice and freedom. 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 and economy in order to establish more illegal settlements. The Wall/Fence in
Bil'in and the Israeli
army prohibit the indigenous people to tend and harvest their olive
groves.
Over 2,003 dunums of prime agricultural land have been confiscated by
The
Electric Fence. The Israelis have built apartments for Jewish only
settlers,
which the indigenous people are forbidden to even enter. In Bil'in, the
Green Line is five miles from
The Wall/Fence and the Popular Committee in Bil'in has been fighting the
Israeli government and forces with legal actions and nonviolent
demonstrations. The Israeli
government attempts to justify
their land theft by returning to the Ottoman Law that states if the
landowner
doesn't tend his land it can be confiscated by the State. The Israeli
army and
The Electric Fence have prevented the indigenous people from accessing
their
legally owned land, thus depriving them of food, income and human
rights. After the
indigenous people of Bil'in
brought their case to the Israeli Municipal Court and the High Court;
both
courts agreed the building of the settlement dwellings was indeed
illegal and
ordered the construction to cease in January 2006. Construction
continued and
the settlers have moved in. The High Court
accepted these 'facts on the
ground' but the indigenous people and all who believe in equal human
rights and
international law will never give up seeking justice and resisting the
route of
the wall/fence. In many West Bank villages, the indigenous people are
being joined
by growing numbers of locals, Israelis and internationals and many have
been
injured, arrested and yet return for more-except those who have been
imprisoned,
incapacitated or killed by Israeli forces. My first visit to Bil'in was in January 2006.I
met many locals and a few internationals
and Israelis who had created their own facts on the ground with an
outpost
where they held the ground 24/7. They slept for weeks at a time inside
the
10x10 brick house on sleeping bags on a dirt floor, a few hundred yards
from
where a settlement of 700 upscale apartments was being erected for
Jewish only settlers
upon legally owned Palestinian property. Bil'in Outpost, January 2006: A twenty-year-old activist from New York
said, "We are fighting an important struggle. If America would only
learn
the truth about what is happening here, they would stop their blind
support of
the Israeli government that denies people basic human rights." It was after the outpost was demolished that
the Friday afternoon ritual marches to The Wall/Fence began after
prayers at
the mosque, and all the people chant slogans such as: "The wall will fall
in Bilin; the wall
will fall like in Berlin." I was inspired to
go to Bil'in, after
attending a power point lecture in Gainesville, Florida given by a
Palestinian
and Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli member of Anarchists Against the
Wall/AAtW. Pollak
was also a keynote speaker at the 5th International
conference in Bil'in,
but in November 2006, I heard Pollak say: "I was six years
old at my first
demonstration and active on my own at thirteen. I am 23 now. When they
started
to build the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank I would go a few times a
week and
watch them deceive the world. The Israeli government successfully
marketed the
Apartheid Wall as a security barrier. But it is all about segregation,
separation and ethnic cleansing. "Civilian uprising
and non-violent
activism is not like the Gandhi movie. It's not carrying posters and
saying we don't
like your wall, go away. We stand in front of Caterpillar's knowing we
will be
shot and arrested. I was shot five times in the last two years by rubber
bullets,
which are 1/2-inch steel bullets covered with plastic. I have been shot
in the
head and the more experience I have the scarier it is. One learns to
recognize
the ritual of it all: when the IOF will begin using the Billy clubs,
when the
tear gas will come, when the bullets will come. "We are not a
dialogue group, we are an
Israeli organization and we are not colonial liberators. All the
strategy is
done by Palestinians, we are with them seeking justice and giving
support.
There is no price to high to pay for freedom, equality and universal
rights.
Without justice there can be no peace. "Negotiations alone
will not secure
freedom for the Palestinian people. During the negotiations of the
so-called
Oslo Peace Process from 1993-2000, Israel simply imposed its will on the
Palestinians, using its overwhelming military and economic power, and US
support. During seven years of supposed peace, Palestinians saw 200,000
new
Israeli settlers arrive in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the
same
number of settlers that had arrived there in the previous 26 years. "However, the
recent grassroots
struggle against Israel's Wall has demonstrated that it may be possible
to
counter Israel's overwhelming power, and its exploitation of
negotiations,
through nonviolent resistance. The Wall, is just one blatant Israeli
attempt to
impose its will, and has become a focus for civilian resistance. "Although Israel
marketed the Wall as a
security barrier, logic suggests such a barrier would be as short and
straight
as possible. Instead, it snakes deep inside the West Bank, resulting in a
route
that is twice as long as the Green Line, the internationally recognized
border.
Israel chose the Wall's path in order to dispossess Palestinians of the
maximum
land and water, to preserve as many Israeli settlements as possible, and
to
unilaterally determine a border. "In order to build
the Wall Israel is
uprooting tens of thousands of ancient olive trees that for many
Palestinians
are also the last resource to provide food for their children. "The Palestinian
aspiration for an
independent state is also threatened by the Wall, as it isolates
villages from
their mother cities and divides the West Bank into disconnected cantons
[Bantustans/ghettos]. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem
conservatively estimates that 500,000 Palestinians are negatively
impacted by
the Wall. "Faced with a
history of suffering,
Palestinians have no alternative but to struggle. The only question is
how?
Killing diminishes our humanity, and Israel's occupation, which has
killed
thousands of Palestinians, shouldn't be our teacher. It is time for both
sides
to refuse killing. "Though
Palestinians have employed
nonviolence since 1929, they have seen little evidence that it will help
them
to achieve freedom. In 2003-2004, the West Bank village of Budrus
decided to
set an example for how nonviolence can defeat the Wall. "All the people of
Budrus mobilized,
and were joined by Israeli and international activists. In 55 nonviolent
marches, Israeli soldiers injured more than 300 people, arrested 33 and
killed
one, as the villagers, with their bodies alone, attempted to stop the
destruction of their land. Faced with Budrus' determined protests, the
Israeli
government eventually moved the Wall to the Green Line. The village
saved 300
acres of its land and 3000 olive trees. Children, women and old people
were
among the heroes of Budrus' nonviolent struggle. "Throughout the
West Bank, nine
protesters were killed in marches against the Wall, thousands were
injured and
hundreds arrested. Hundreds of civilian protests throughout the West
Bank are
the reason the world learned of the injustice of the Wall. As a direct
result,
the International Court of Justice at the Hague ruled in 2004 that
Israel's
construction of the Wall violated international law. "The village of
Budrus and the
International Court of Justice ruling represent victories for nonviolent
resistance. Another success of the joint struggle was the connection
forged
between Palestinians and the Israelis who joined them in their
resistance. This
connection, stronger than anything that ideas could create, was
unwittingly
forged by the Israeli army, through their beatings, the joint arrests
and the
bullets. Joining Palestinians in nonviolent struggle has allowed some
Israelis
to voice very clearly that the struggle against occupation and for
freedom is
not a Palestinian struggle alone, but is their struggle as well. "We believe that,
as with Apartheid
South Africa, Americans have a vital role to play in ending Israeli
occupation
- by speaking out, coming to Palestine as witnesses, or standing with
Palestinians in nonviolent resistance. "We are confident
that Israeli
occupation will one day be defeated, as were other US government
supported
repressive regimes - Apartheid South Africa, Pinochet's Chile and racial
segregation in the United States. There is no price too great to pay for
freedom, and nothing will deter us from achieving this goal." On one of my four
trips to Bil'in, after
chanting a while in front of the soldiers, Jonathan was the first down
the
steep rocky hill and over a metal railing to grab the roll of razor
sharp
barbed wire that is in front of the electrified fence in order to shake
it. He
was immediately joined by a few dozen locals and other AAtW, who were
swiftly
greeted by the first of dozens of sound bombs-thick orange plastic
grenades
that hit the ground with a deafening blast. I was half way down
the hill when a teenager
next to me threw a rock at a soldier and I know that action alone can
get one
killed or arrested, so I headed back up the hill before the tear gas
assaulted
the crowd at the barbwire. By the time I made it up the hill the first
of
hundreds of rubber bullets were being shot into the crowd. Only two
internationals were hit and other than a few Palestinian adolescents and
young
boys throwing rocks all remained nonviolent. I was told that because of
the
large International presence no live ammo was fired; although the week
before a
Frenchman took a bullet in the arm while standing next to a group of
children.
He was back at the Friday ritual with a cast and sling on. Another who was
wounded and continues to
return is Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Maried Corrigan-Maguire. On June 6, 2008,
Israeli Forces assaulted
Maried Corrigan-Maguire with tear gas during the Friday afternoon ritual
she
attended after speaking at Bil'in's third annual international
conference
supporting nonviolent protests against the wall and military occupation
of the
West Bank agricultural village. At the conclusion
of the second annual Bil'in
conference, on April 21st, 2007, Mairead Maguire, was shot with a
rubber-coated
steel bullet by Israeli Forces an hour after a press conference where
she
stated: "Thanks to the
media here for telling
the truth"Bring this truth to whatever country you come from.
Non-violence will
solve the problems here in Israel and Palestine. Often, the world sees
only
violence. But Palestinians are a good people, working towards
non-violence.
This Wall must fall! It is an insult to the human family and to the
world that
we are building Apartheid Walls in the 21st Century! More than forty
years of
Occupation and Land Appropriation." Máiread didn't make
it to Bil'in this year
as planned due to the volcanic ash closed down Tel Aviv Airport, and
instead
wrote: "Your Palestinian
Popular Nonviolent
Resistance movement is so important because You are asserting to the
Israeli
Government and the World that Palestinians, like all human beings, are
entitled
to dignity and freedom, freedom of Movement, Freedom of expression, and
access
to work, health care and education.Your Peoples' movement
is touching the hearts of many people around the
world, who are increasingly coming to recognize the truth, that the
Palestinian
people have been deprived from all of these things for decades by
dispossession
and Israeli military occupation. "Increasing numbers
of world citizens are
beginning to support and work for your call for the immediate ending of
Israeli
occupation, full implementation of humanitarian and International Law,
and the
Right of the Palestinian People to self-determination. They are also
supporting
your call for the immediate removal of military check points in the West
Bank,
ending of settlements, house demolitions, as well as the separation
wall, and
for the lifting of the unacceptable and inhuman siege of the Gaza strip.
Your
call to support the BDS campaign to end occupation and Apartheid (as it
did in
South Africa) is gaining momentum with Citizens, international Bodies,
and
Governments and they are increasingly beginning to "break the silence'
and call
upon Israel to implement justice and peace for the Palestinians. "I thank you for
your great spirit of
nonviolent love in action, and encourage you to keep Hope alive and keep
on
building Palestinian Unity united the Palestinian people will succeed.
Believe passionately in peace and justice and it will come out of the
seeds of
nonviolence and sacrifice you, and your families, are making on behalf
of us
all, the Human Family. Salaam, Shalom, Peace,Mairead
Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate. 21 April 2010. Mairead previously
said: "Hope for the
future depends on each of
us taking nonviolence into our hearts and minds and developing new and
imaginative structures which are nonviolent and life-giving for all.
Some
people will argue that this is too idealistic. I believe it is very
realistic.
I am convinced that humanity is fast evolving to this higher
consciousness. For
those who say it cannot be done, let us remember that humanity learned
to
abolish slavery. Our task now is no less than the abolition of violence
and
war. "While Governments
can make a
difference, in the final analysis it is the individual that is each
one of us
that will bring the dream of a nonviolent world to reality. We, the
people
must think and act non-violently. We must not get stuck in the past as
to do so
will destroy the imagination and creativity. "To change our
world we need a
spiritual and a political evolution. The political steps are often very
obvious: uphold Human rights, and International Laws, demand our
Governments
meet their obligations under these Laws, support and reform United
Nations,
etc., However, all the legislation, resolutions, and fine talk will be
of no
use, if we do not as men and women evolve and become transformed, so
that we,
the human family, achieve a more enlightened and humane way of living
together,
and solving conflicts. "We can rejoice and
celebrate today because we
are living in a miraculous time. Everything is changing and everything
is
possible." "They're building a wall. And at
such a
cost. Land, money and safety. And all the lives lost. A wall made of
brick but bricks can be
broken, when the people of Zion have finally awoken! And said no more
walls, no
more refugees. No more keeping people upon their knees. And before
apartheid
was ended they were building a wall."
For
more information:
bilin
weeklly demo 23-4-2010
The
indigenous people of Bil'in brought their case against the settlement to
the Municipal Court and that Court agreed the building of the settlement
dwellings was illegal and ordered construction to cease. But, building
continued
and the day I was there, a half dozen USA made Caterpillar tractors were
moving
earth for the anticipated paved road that only Jewish colonists- most of
them
from the USA-will be allowed to travel upon.
In 2006, Eyad, a landowner and a leader of The Popular Committee in
Bil'in
explained to me, "A few weeks ago we brought in a caravan [trailer] on
our
land close to where the settlers apartments are being built. While we
were
inside the Israeli Force's sawed the door open and pulled us out and
roughed us
up.
"So, we brought in another caravan and during the night we built a
concrete
brick building within four hours. All day and all night people stay here
to
resist the wall and occupation. People come and go; they are from all
over the
world. They support our non-violently resisting the wall that is clearly
stealing our land. This electric wall and the IDF are not allowing us
onto our
land to care for our olive trees. They confiscated our land and impose
military
law upon us and claim we are trespassing on our legally owned land."
Abdullah, Coordinator of Against The Wall in Bil'in informed me that
there were
1,600 people who call home Bil'in and legally own 4,000 dunums of
property. The
Israeli government confiscated 2,003 dunums of agricultural land and is
building apartments that Palestinians are forbidden to approach.
Vanunu's
Message to Hillary Clinton re: The Apartheid Wall
Eileen Fleming,is a Citizen of CONSCIENCE for US House of Representatives 2012
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Staff Member of Salem-news.com, A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" and "BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010"
http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming