Israeli authorities released the British peace activist who was arrested in Bilin protest earlier this morning after questioning her, IMEMC correspondent reported.
Esther Cohen said, she was released from the police station with no conditions Tuesday afternoon.
The protestors in Bil’in who attached themselves to the ground with metal bars and boxes, aimed at preventing the bulldozers from coming forward and uprooting the trees to build the Wall.
The protestors handed out letters to the soldiers asking them to rethink of what they are doing.
The letter reads, "Soldier, Wait a minute please before you aim your weapon. You and your friends are on our land. Had you come here as guests, we would show you the trees that our grandfathers planted here, the vegetables that we grow, the slabs of stone that we played on as children."
The letter also tells the soldiers that the only reason the protest is organized because they are coming here to cut their trees and interrupt their lives.
"But you’ve been sent here as representatives of an army and a State that has been occupying us since 1967. You have been sent here to uproot our trees, to dry up our land, to deny our children the slabs of stone on which they could play. That is why we are demonstrating here," the letter says.
Through the letter, the villagers told the soldiers that they are holding a nonviolent protest.
"Without weapons facing all your weapons. Only with pain and the knowledge that in this area there will be security for no one without the Israeli people respecting our rights to this land; without ending the Israeli occupation; without us achieving our freedom," The letter that was signed by the Popular Committees for the Struggle Against the Racist Separation Wall read.
Three arrested, many assaulted in nonviolent anti-wall protest in Bil’in
Scores of protestors took part in the demonstration organized on Tuesday morning by the residents of the West Bank village of Bil’in, West of Ramallah.
The demonstration was organized after the residents received information that the construction in the wall will be resumed in the morning and that the Israeli army will start cutting olive trees in the village for the construction of the wall.
The popular committee of the resistance of the wall in the village organized the action in which a group of young people from the village linked each other with metal boxes forming something like a human fence to prevent the bulldozers and soldiers of breaking it, said Mohammad Al-Khatib, resident of Bil’in.
"Our action today, started at six am, and is meant to reflect a fact that the wall is killing us and we will protect our land with our bodies," Al-Khatib told IMEMC in a phone interview.
"Some of the villagers chained themselves together making a wall so that soldiers won’t be able to remove them," Al-Khatib said, adding that the at least 50 soldiers came to the protest site.
Some soldiers distracted the cameramen who were shooting there, while other soldiers tried to arrest and beat protestors.
"When we became away from the cameras, around seven soldiers beat me up with their clubs," said al-Khatib, adding that the troops used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protestors who failed to leave in the five-minute ultimatum given by the soldiers.
According to eyewitnesses, soldiers arrested two Palestinians, Ashraf and Nabil Abu Rahma. Other residents of the village managed to release Nabil after he was severely beaten by the troops. Nabil Abu Rahma was taken to the hospital for treatment while Ashraf is still held by the army.
Additionally, troops arrested an Israeli activist named Cobi and UK resident Esther Cohen, and took them to an unknown destination.
Amr Burnat from the village was also wounded by a rubber coated bullet in the back. His injury was described as minor.
The village of Bil’in is home to 1600 Palestinians located west of Ramallah. Given the planned route of the wall, it will confiscate around 50 percent of the land, according to the villagers.
The village has been organizing nonviolent anti-wall protests over the last three months in an attempt to stop the construction on their land, and the bulldozing of their trees and fields, Al-Khatib said.
He insisted that all the actions they organized are nonviolent; admitting that in few cases there was some stone throwing. However, Al-Khatib dismissed allegations that some Israeli soldiers were injured in today’s action saying that this is all Israeli propaganda.
He added, "last demonstration, when we used the coffins, the army brought the media to the action, and the media witnessed the fact that our action in nonviolent."
Asked on the belief in nonviolent, Al-Khatib said, "We are a nation under occupation, we want to fight the occupation, and by using nonviolence we expose the Israeli violent response and tell the truth to the world about how Israel treats us."
On Saturday, the villagers carried coffins and walked with them at the construction site to protest. The coffins carried words like, life, humanity, peace, justice, human rights and freedom symbolizing that the wall kills all these values.
