Bil’in residents, international and Israeli peace activists celebrated the “Palestinian Independence Day” by carrying small balloons which carried the colors of the Palestinian flag, and carried two symbolic Styrofoam walls, representing the Separation Wall Israel is constructing over their orchards.ÂÂ
“We tried to convey the massage that the Wall is killing our future state”, Abdullah Abu Rahma, member of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in told the IMEMC, “We wrote this slogan in English, Arabic and Hebrew on the symbolic Wall we surrounded ourselves with, to convey a massage that the Wall is surrounding and isolating us”.
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“The Wall kills our independence”, the slogan reads.
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Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Abdul-Jawad Saleh, and the Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, in addition to Kareem Dabbah, member of the Palestinian Artists League, participated in the protest. ÂÂ
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Also, Abu Rahma reported that Israeli soldiers attacked the peaceful protest, fired concussion grenades, gas bombs and rubber-coated bullets after the protestors reached a construction site of the Wall; two residents were injured, and one French peace activist was attacked and clubbed by the soldiers. ÂÂ
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The two injured residents were identified as Ahmad Al Khateeb, 28, and Nimir Mustafa, 20 years old; both from Bil’in.
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Bil’in village, located west of the West Bank city of Ramallah, conducts weekly peaceful protests against the Separation Wall since February 2005.
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The residents, Israeli and International peace activists, managed through their non-violent protests to highlight Bil’in as a role model of peaceful resistance against the Israeli policy of annexation and land grab.
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Israeli army repeatedly used excessive force against the protestors and used different sorts of weapons and ammunition against them.
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It is worth mentioning that some of the international activists went to the neighboring village of Aboud to participate in a protest against the Wall. This is considered the first protest Aboud village conducts against the Separation Wall which is also annexing and bulldozing the orchards of the residents.
