One year on: Protest against the Wall in Bil'in

Yesterday I woke up early and headed for a small village in the West Bank, outside of Ramallah, called Bil'in. I arrived earlier than I had expected so I wandered around trying to see where the new portion of the Apartheid Wall will be built to encircle this town and imprison its inhabitants. I asked a small boy to show me the Wall and he took me up to the roof of his home to photograph it. Afterwards his mother came out and asked me to sit down in their courtyard so she could make me breakfast. She brought out an enormous steel bowl of dough and proceeded to make fresh bread on their tabul outside. I finally understood why the pita bread is so fantastic here. The tabul is a big stove with stones in it and they place the dough directly on the stones. She brought out some zaatar and I had a lovely meal--stuffed beyond belief.

About an hour later, after speaking with her neighbors and children, the rest of the crew from International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and various Israeli groups such as Gush Shalom and Taayush arrived and many of the villagers we congregated at the town's main mosque to walk as a group to the site of the demonstration. The people in the community created an enormous justice scale with a coffin beneath stating "Rest in Peace." On the heavy side of the scale was a globe wrapped in an Israeli flag and on the lighter side was just a globe, symbolizing Israel's continued practice of thumbing its nose at international law. We walked down the hill to the site where the Apartheid Wall will be built--there were around 100-150 people present, including media like Al Jazeera, most of whom were equally Israeli and Palestinian non-violent protesters.

The demonstration began with the Muslims in the group praying and then we spent 1 1/2 hours chanting peaceful slogans in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. When we arrived at the bottom of this hill we were met by the Israeli army who were in full riot gear in a line in front of us. They had their weapons pointed at us and there were also quite a few filming us and photographing us. This protest in Bil'in is a weekly occurrence, but because today is the first anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling that this Apartheid Wall is illegal, there were many more people and it lasted much longer than normal.

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