Another weekend of actions against the occupation and the wall took place throughout the West Bank. Here are the videos and the reports. So many villages, so many actions and the weather is getting warmer.

al-Walaja

About 20 Israelis and internationals joined a few dozen Palestinians for a demonstration in Walaje against the wall that is going to enclose the village and turn it into an enclave/open air prison. After a brief march speeches were held in Hebrew, English and Arabic. The army didn’t approach the demo. Then we went to the protest tent set up on the village’s lands that are to be confiscated for constructing the wall, where the local elders gave the visitors a first hand account of the history of the village since the 1948 war. The organizers reported that that the legal case against the local section of the wall is to be repoened on July 25, but the authorities are not freezing the construction. The local organizers are therefore trying to bring the legal proceedings forward, and invite activists to join the villagers on Sunday 9:00 to resist the bulldozers.

Beit Jala

al-Ma’asara

In al-Ma’asara village, around 120 Palestinian, international and Israeli demonstrators participated in a pacifist march promoting the boycott on settlement produce and protesting the prospective construction of the wall, which upon completion will annex 350 hectares of the Palestinian land of the area. The Israeli soldiers blocked the main roadway of the village through which the demonstration advanced and in response the demonstrators decided to sit down on the road. Two young Palestinian men were arrested violently while they were seated on the ground with their hands up in front of the soldiers. The soldiers then began firing sound grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullet at the crowd; one young man was hospitalized with a serious head injury caused by a gas canister.

In addition, Amitai Sandy has a lovely write up of his experience in al-Ma’asara.
How I missed a birth of a goat

Here’s a short report from the demo in the village of Maasra, east of Efrata settelment. The demos in this village are usually much quieter, as the people of this village are much calmer. They don’t throw stones AT ALL. And yet, today, when we marched to the village’s entrance, and met with the soldiers, they had their plan ready in advance.

They told us to get off the main road – we did exactly what they said. No violence, no stone throwing, no nonsense. The demonstrators decided to sit down on the road leading into the village, not blocking the main road AT ALL. So then we hear the commander tell his soldiers: “they’re gonna start throwing stones now, so you better start shooting gas”. They did. Direct shooting, no arcs.

All of us ran into the village, but that wasn’t enough for the soldiers. After arresting two Palestinians, they chased us into the village and continued shooting tear gas canisters, though non of us threatened them in any way, no stone throwing, no nothing.

We were just running away from the tear gas canisters. The tear gas is no fun, but the effect wears off after a few minutes.
But when shot directly, those canisters are as lethal as live ammo. Hassan, one of the demo’s organizers, was shot in the head with a tear gas canister. He’s in hospital now.

If I was a beliver, I’d pray for his health. As an atheist, all I have left is hope. I met his and his brother’s kids today. They are so cute and smart. I climbed a mulberry tree with them today, and we ate the berries together. Their neighbor’s goat gave birth while we waited for news from the hospital.