Protests in Bil'in

On Friday November 11th 2005, the residence of the Palestinian village of Bil'in, along with international and Israeli activists, rallied at the center of the village to prepare for their weekly act of civil disobedience and non-violent protest. Bil'in was once a small peaceful village located high on the hills of Palestine, inside the West Bank and north of Jerusalem.

For thirty-eight years, a brutal Israeli military occupation has subjected the village of Bil'in, along with the entire West Bank, to unrelenting violence, seizures, curfews, and land appropriations that have violated the Palestinian peoples' basic civil and human rights. The residence of Bil'in are now embroiled in constant struggle, diligently attempting to use civil disobedience as a form of non-violent resistance against the expansion of Israel's illegal wall and settlements, which are rapidly confiscating what remains of their already truncated olive groves and farm land.

For two years now, the state of Israel has been building a chilling "separation wall", 8 meters high and 650 km long, of pure-concrete and electric wired fence that zigzags deep into the West Bank confiscating land, sometimes five or six kilometers at a stretch.

Rendered "in contravention of international law" by the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the United Nations, this ghastly wall, along with its trenches, moats, and electric wire, is still undergoing rapid constructed in the West Bank. Although Israel claims the wall is being constructed for "security reasons", it is built on 80% of Palestinian land inside the West Bank, annexing large portions of what remains of a putative Palestinian state.

The wall has now reached the village of Bil'in, threatening to cut the villagers off from two thirds of their land. Every Friday, after the Muslim community prayer, the villagers of Bil'in march to demonstrate against the violation of their human rights by the formidable Israeli military. Once enough demonstrators gathered at the center of Bil'in, we began our steady march to the location where the wall is under construction.

Read More (With Photos):
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4302.shtml