Roads were blocked to activists travelling Friday to the weekly anti-wall protest in the town of Bil’in. The Israeli military blocked all roads going into the town as a means of minimising turnout for the protest. Bil’in has been the site of weekly protests against the Israeli annexation Wall being constructed in the area. The protest has regularly been attacked by the Israeli military with military forces resorting to tear gas and stun grenades. At least ten people have been killed in the six years since the protests began.
On Friday, the military increased its numbers and surveillance in the West Bank for the Nakba commemoration. Many Palestinian politicians and activists have hailed the possibility of a “third intifada” gaining speed in the days surrounding the annual Nakba commemoration. They warn Palestinians may have lost faith in the peace process and use the weekend’s events as a means of organising another round of mass resistance against the Israeli occupation. Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed any such development, however, claiming that the second intifada “was a disaster for the Palestinian nation”
