Death in Bilin

[Jefferson23]

The death of Bassem Abu Rahme – or How Israel kills at will and in total impunity while the world asks the Palestinians for non-violent resistance
04.21.2009 | Original (pdf, doc)

By Frank Barat

On April the 17th, like any Fridays afternoon for the last 4 years, the small village of Bil’in, north of Ramallah, was preparing for the usual demonstration against Israel’s annexation wall (some people call it apartheid wall or separation wall. The Israeli government refers to it as the security fence).

The village of Bil’in has, since the mid eighties, lost more than 60% of its land for the purpose of Israeli growing settlements the construction of the wall. The inhabitants of the village use to live mainly from agriculture and olive trees plantations but more and more, the people of Bil’in have to rely on the women to survive. Embroidering has become one of the main resource of the place, located a few kilometres away from Tel Aviv. (on a nice day, you can see the “inaccessible”-for the Palestinians- beach from the roof tops of Bil’in).

In January 2005, a village committee (led by Mohamed Khatib, Iyad Burnat and Abdullah Abu Rahme) was created and a month later non-violent demonstrations started, first taking part every day, then once a week, on Yum Al Juma’a (Friday, day of prayer).

The village won a huge battle in August 2008 <1> when the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that hat the new route of the barrier in Bil’in was in violation of the Court ruling released on September 2007 <2> (which ruled that the Wall path was prejudicial to Bil’in and must be altered)and ordered the State to present within 45 days a new route, which will uphold the principles of the ruling.

remainder here: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/death-in-bilin/

[grassfed]

1. Irish Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire Shot by IOF at Nonviolent protest in Bilin

Irish Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire Shot With Rubber Bullet by Israeli Military at Nonviolent Protest
Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a non-violent protest against the separation wall near the West Bank village of Bilin. Several protesters were injured including the Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire who was shot with a rubber bullet. She joins us on the line from Ireland.

We turn now to Israel and the Occupied Territories. Israeli forces have killed eight Palestinians over the past two days including a 17-year-old girl and a Palestinian police officer. Meanwhile Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a non-violent protest against the separation wall near the West Bank village of Bilin. Several protesters were injured including the Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire who was shot with a rubber bullet. Mairead has just returned to Ireland.

AMY GOODMAN: Israeli forces have killed eight Palestinians over the past two days, including a seventeen-year-old girl and a Palestinian police officer. Meanwhile, Israeli troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a nonviolent protest against the separation wall near the West Bank village of Bilin. Several protesters were injured, including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire. She was shot with a rubber bullet. She returned yesterday to Ireland, where she joins us now on the line. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Mairead Maguire.

MAIREAD MAGUIRE: Good afternoon, Amy, and to all your listeners.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us what happened?

MAIREAD MAGUIRE: Yes. I was invited with my friend to attend a nonviolent conference in Bilin, a village outside Ramallah, and to give a talk there, which I did. At the end of the conference, we were invited to participate in a nonviolent demonstration with some of the Palestinian members of parliament, including Dr. Barghouti, and Israeli peace activists and local villagers and international visitors from over several hundred countries so—or several hundred international peace activists from over twenty countries.

We walked along to try to walk up toward the separation wall, and it was a totally nonviolent protest. And we were viciously attacked by the Israeli military. They threw gas canisters into the peace walkers, and they also fired rubber-covered steel bullets. As I tried to move back and helping a French lady, I was shot in the leg with a rubber-covered steel bullet, and the young Israeli soldier who shot me was only twenty meters from me. I was stunned by it, and then later on, after having some treatment by the ambulance medics, I went back down to the front line with the peace activists, and we were again showered with gas. I was overcome and had a severe nosebleed and had to be taken by stretcher to the ambulance and treated.

And I witnessed there a Palestinian woman, maybe around in her sixties, and an old Palestinian man with blood on his face. These were over twenty-five unarmed peace people who had been viciously attacked by the Israeli military. And it was a completely peaceful protest. It was absolutely unbelievable. I never in all my years of activism witnessed anything so vicious as from the Israeli military.

more
video and transcript
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/4/23/irish_nobel_peace_laureate_mairead_maguire