Several residents, Israeli and International peace activists and a reporter were injured, on Friday afternoon, during protests against the annexation Wall in the villages of Beit Seera and Bil’in, near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Soldiers attacked the peaceful processions in the two villages and fired rubber-coated bullets and gas bombs at the protesters before attacking them with batons.
The Maan News Agency reported that Abbas Al Momany, a local reporter working with an international news agency was hospitalized after suffering a rubber-coated bullet injury in his head.
Also, a medical source at the Red Crescent Society reported that four residents identified as Abdul-Nasser Abu Rahma, 17, Mustafa Jamil Abu Rahma, 13, Sameer Burnat, 33, and Rateb Abu Rahma, 40, were among the protesters injured during the procession.
The source added that soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets at the ambulance causing damage to its windows.
The protesters carried a symbolic 10-meter coffin wrapped with a white cloth representing the villages strangled by the Wall.
"The deceased: residents of Bil’in and villages surrounded by the Wall, Cause of death: The Annexation Wall, Time: 2006, Place; Palestine”, was written on the coffin.
One of the protesters said that this coffin symbolizes the Palestinian villages that are strangled by the Wall and the residents who became isolated and unable to reach their orchards, their only source of livelihood.
"We are here to resist, and continue our resistance against this Wall that annexed 2300 Dunams of the orchards in Bil’in”, the protester stated, “They annexed 60% of our orchards and isolated them behind the Wall, they want to starve and isolate us in our villages”.
He added that the protesters want to convey a message to the world that settlements and the Wall are annexing the orchards, the only source of livelihood of the residents.
David Nier, member of an Israeli movement against the Wall, said that the Israelis who came to the protest with the residents, are here to protest against the Wall that isolated the residents and made their lives hard and bitter.
A Palestinian protester, sitting on his wheelchair, said that he was injured and paralyzed by the Israeli army during the first Intifada, and that he came today to Bil’in to protest against the annexation wall and the Israeli policy of land grab and apartheid.
"Each time I protest I inhale gas fired by the army”, he said, “But I, as well as every Palestinian, am determined to protest against Israel’s policy of segregation”.
Meanwhile, an Israeli army source claimed that six soldiers were mildly injured during the clashes.
Local, Israeli and International peace activists confirmed that troops violently attacked the peaceful protesters and attempted to bar them from reaching the construction site of the Wall.
