Bil’in demonstrates against Apartheid Wall and Israeli arrest campaign
Tens were suffocated with tear gas, fired by Israeli soldiers at Bili’n’s weekly demonstration. Where Bil’in citizens, Israeli and International peace activists demonstrated after the Friday prayers, waving Palestinian flags and banners with slogans calling for the release of the popular leaders, Muhammad al-Khatib and Adib Abu Rahma, and the rest of the other detainees, and calling for ending raids and prosecution of activists and members of the People’s Committee against the wall. Demonstrators has walked in Bil’in streets chanting slogans calling for national unity, and continuation of the popular committee resistance, and events without the fear of the terrorist policy carried out by the Israeli army against Palestinians in general and the people of Bil’in in particularOnce the demonstrators arrived at the wall gat, the Israeli soldiers has fired them strongly with different kinds of gases; some of them were invasive bomb fired by hand, other fired by gun and some of them were fired from the front of military vehicles, as this one has thrown fifty bombs at one time, which covered an area of more than ten donems with gas, causing tens of cases of suffocation.
The soldiers also began spraying the demonstrators with a green – colored water contaminated by waste animal manure and chemicals, resulting in the vomiting by many others. Some reports mentioned that the Israeli are using the skunk smell, which is very strong and can’t be removed from clothes. This colored water is one of the newly tested weapons that the Israelis are using against the demonstrators in Bil’in. The demonstrators dressed in plastic dresses, hats, gloves, and masks in order not to be affect by the chemical water and its noxious smell that the Israeli are using now against them.
On the other hand, the People’s Committee against the Wall in Bil’in called for immediate release of all detainees from the village of Bil’in, including the leaders Muhammad al-Khatib and Adib Abu Rahma. As the charges that they are facing are illegal, thus what the people of Bil’in are doing is legal and legitimate, since it guaranteed by all international conventions and even the Israeli courts themselves, as well as international and Israeli participation in the activities of Bil’in, the Committee considered that the threat against the committee members is unacceptable, and they will continue in their struggle and the threats will not stop them, as they are all being targeted, however everyone has involved in the events has become a target by the occupation. Therefore the Committee calls all the human rights organizations, friends and supporters of the village of Bil’in and the Palestinian issue to the immediate intervention for the release of prisoners and stop the terrorist against the village.
On the other hand, the People’s Committee condolences the death of the two leaders Samir Ghosheh the General Secretary of the Palestinian Struggle Front and and Shafiq Al Hout the member of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
At another level the People’s Committee called in its letter to the participants at “Fateh sixth conference” for having the popular resistance in their future programs and strategies in resisting the occupation.
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Bil’in’s Mohammad Khatib arrested
In the early morning hours on Monday, Israeli military forces wearing combat paint and masks invaded the West Bank village of Bil’in.
Israeli soldiers raided several homes, arresting two Palestinian children and five Palestinians adults including Mohammad Khatib from the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.
In June 2009 Mohammed Khatib traveled to Canada to testify in a historic lawsuit launched by Bil’in village against two Quebec-based companies, Green Park International and Green Mount International, both involved in constructing illegal Israeli-only settlements on the lands of the Palestinian village of Bil’in.
Palestinian activist Mohammed Khatib also spoke to Canada’s major media outlets and publicly in eleven Canadian cities with Emily Schaeffer, an Israeli lawyer representing the village of Bil’in, connecting with hundreds of people across Canada.
At present time Mohammed Khatib remains in Israeli custody although no charges have been brought against Khatib or the other Palestinians arrested, including the children.
“Mohmmad Khatib and Adib Abu Rahme along with other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle are being targeted because the mobilize Palestinians to resist non- violently,” outlines Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of Bil’in’s popular committee, “the fact is that the Apartheid Wall and the settlements built on Palestinian land are illegal under international law, in the case of our village even the biased Israeli court declared the route illegal, yet Israel is prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle non-violently for our freedom.”
Monday’s night-time raid is another in a series of many that Israeli forces have carried out in Bil’in since June 2009, raids that commenced in tandem to the commencement of legal proceedings in Canada.
Israeli forces have arrested 25 people from Bil’in village in the last month, most under 18. Israeli forces have been using interrogation techniques to pressure the arrested youth to give statements against Bil’in community leaders.
