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Dozens suffer from tear gas inhalation and ten injured Today’s protesters in Bil’in brought out the message about boycott of Israeli blood diamonds. Every year, consumers the world over unwittingly spend billions of dollar on diamonds crafted in Israel, and Palestinians call for a boycott. The demonstration went on as usual, Palestinians, Israelis and internationals marched together up to the gate of the wall, facing large amounts of tear gas before the soldiers went in through the gate and chased the protesters some hundred meters towards the village. Israel, that stands accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide, the crime of apartheid, extrajudicial executions within and outside the territory it controls and persistent serious breaches of the Geneva Conventions – is the world’s leading exporter of diamonds. Today the villagers carried t-shirts and posters asking to boycott Israel’s diamond industry. About 100 demonstrators went up to the gate, carrying out the message, in a non violent manner. Another message was solidarity with the Palestinians in Jerusalem, facing eviction from their homes and constant violence from Israeli settlers taking over their houses. The soldiers responded with shooting tear gas into the crowd after ten minutes. As people were running towards the village, the soldiers were running after, still shooting tear gas, and dozens suffered from inhalation. Three soldiers were reported to hide in the field close to the village, shooting tear gas making it difficult to reach back towards the village. About ten protesters suffered heavily from the gas, struggling to breathe. Tear gas canisters caused a fire in the field, on both side of the road as the hot canisters hit the dry ground. In the middle of a cloud of tear gas Palestinians were working hard to stop the fire, which was spreading quickly among the olive trees. In the end they managed to put an end to the fire, which caused a lot of smoke in addition to the tear gas. The demonstration lasted for about 45 minutes, when people went back to the village.
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