Friday, dozens of residents of Bil’in village, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, along with dozens of Israeli and international peace activists held their weekly protest against the annexation Wall Israel is constructing on Palestinian orchards.
An International peace activist told the IMEMC that the army does not want the internationals and Israeli peace activists to be present in the village or near the construction site of the Wall in an attempt to bar them from exposing the nature of this Wall that uprooted the orchards and isolates them from their Palestinian owners.
The main theme of the protest this week was to protest against the Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, that led to the death of 28 Palestinians, including seven members of the same family; 67 Palestinian civilians, including at least 20 children, were injured.
“As usual, soldiers declared the area a closed military zone as we arrived the Gate of the annexation Wall”, the activist reported, “We attempted to find a gap in the Wall or an area to cross through but the soldiers fired gas bombs and concussion grenades at us”.
“They do not want us there, they want to keep the area closed so they can do whatever they want”, the activist added, “They don’t want their illegal methods exposed to the world”.
During the protest, the participants carried coffins with fake blood, a move that symbolizes the repeated attacks carried by the army in the Gaza Strip, especially the the attack against civilians vacationing at the Gaza beach last Friday. Eleven Palestinian civilians, including seven members of one family were killed when the army fired shells at the beach.
One resident, identified as Mohammad Mansour was mildly injured when a concussion grenade exploded near him. No arrests were reported.
