Five Years of Struggle in Bil’in
A complex logistic operation of the A.A. Wall travel agency brought over 300 people from Israel to Bil’in’s 5th anniversary demonstration. Despite several attempts, the army managed to prevent only a small number of cars from entering the village. The demonstrators joined radical clowns, a Palestinian prime minister, the Ka/Ya-Samba percussionists, representatives of various Palestinian parties, The Palestinian Struggle Youth Union marching band, one mayor from Geneva, dozens of journalists and supporters from all over Palestine and other parts of the world to express solidarity with the local wo/men of Bil’in in their struggle against the evils of the Israeli Occupation. After a string of speeches in various languages and a jam session of the Palestinian marching band and the percussionists residing between the wall and the Mediterranean, over 1,000 people marched to the wall. The soldiers stood behind their usual post, and so the demonstrators broke forward, crossed the gate, bent the fence, crossed it, and marched over the soldiers’ front post. After a few minutes of ecstasy, while dignitaries were still making their way forward, the army’s foul water cannon made a surprise guest appearance, and managed to push the demonstrators back behind the fence. In a typical expression of oppression, after the demonstrators backed away from the smelly water, the army used a cannon to fire dozens of gas canisters – not into the few demonstrators at the front, but rather into the hundreds retreating or standing peacefully behind. The wind coming down the path combined with the panic of inexperienced demonstrators led to many injuries from gas inhalation, impact and falling. After the initial dispersal some demonstrators remained to absorb exceptionally large amounts of gas for the struggle. As has become customary lately, when the last demonstrators were on their way to the village, a few soldiers invaded the village, but due to the massive presence of supporters, they settled for one more round of gas, returning to bask in their own stench.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Joseph Dana on 21/02/2010 at 03:53, and is filed under West Bank. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
