Members of French Parliament to join Bil'in protest

Friday November 16, 2007 06:17 by http://www.bilin-village.org

36 members of the French parliament are scheduled to attend this week's demonstration against the illegal Israeli wall in the central West Bank village of Bil'in, located near Ramallah, the popular committee of the village has announced.

Bilin Olives

The popular committee of Bil’in has been organizing weekly protests for almost three years now; protests that recently culminated in an Israeli Supreme Court decision to reroute the illegal wall further and return 250 acres of Bil'in's land.

The protest, however, continues and plans to construct a further Israeli settlement west of Bil'in remain in motion.

Weekly protests at the village of Bil'in began in December 2004, when the Israeli army began bulldozing village land for the construction of the illegal wall. This aggression was met with a series of non-violent weekly protests in which Palestinians, Internationals and Israeli participated in, despite regular attacks in them with tear-gas, sound bombs, batons and rubber-coated steel bullets.

Over 800 have demonstrators have been injured in more than 200 demonstrations. An Israeli attorney and a Bil’in resident both suffered permanent brain damage from rubber-coated steel bullets shot from close range. Another Palestinian lost sight in one eye. 49 Bil’in residents, including some protest leaders have arrested, even had their houses raided by the army. Others have spent months in prison.

Creative activities are a regular feature of the protests, with events in the past including protestors locking themselves inside a cage, to represent the impact of the illegal wall, and the construction of a Palestinian 'outpost' to mimic the Israeli strategy of establishing outposts to expand settlements.

More recently, protestors distributed the following letter to Israeli soldiers: “Had you come here as guests, we would show you the trees that our grandfathers planted here, and the vegetables that we grow… There will never be security for any of us until Israelis respect our rights to this land.”
For More Information:
* Abdullah: 0547258210
* Mohammed: 0545573285

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