(All photos: Hamde Abu Rahme)
This Friday’s demonstration took place as a protest against the Wall, the settlements, and the Israeli practices of occupation, deportation and exclusion. A large group marched after Friday prayers from the center of the village toward the target areas of the Wall and settlements. The group consisted of dozens of Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists.
Participants chanted national slogans calling for national unity and a removal of the occupation and its walls. They raised Palestinian flags and called for liberation, national unity, freedom for political prisoners, and an end to the settlement assault in Jerusalem. The demonstrators were met with a shower of tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber bullets fired at them by the Israeli occupation forces. Dozens were afflicted by choking from the gas as clashes continued for quite awhile.
The Popular Committee Against the Wall and settlements in Bil’in appreciate the presence of several joint solidarity groups and in particular a French national, who came to Bil’in from France by bicycle as a form of solidarity with the people of Bil’in in their fight against the occupation.
