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10/6/2011 demo In spite of the scalding heat, dozens of villagers from Bil’in marched once again together with international and Israeli solidarity activists to the Apartheid Wall in protest to its illegal annexation of 60% of the village’s land for the construction of Jewish-only settlements. As every Friday in various locations throughout Palestine, the activists attempted to implement international law, international humanitarian law – under which settlements constitute a war crime -, and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice with ruled in July 2004 that the illegal Wall and its associated regime should be dismantled. Waving the Palestinian flag and images of martyrs and prisoners of the popular resistance, protestors chanted for freedom and justice, against Apartheid, and for the release of all political prisoners. As usual, the army opened fire at the protestors even before most had reached the Wall, shooting a type of tear gas that is considerably more harmful than the types ordinarily used in Europe or the US, throwing sound bombs, and spraying them with a chemical green liquid that activists have termed „shit“ or „skunk“ due to its nauseating odor which sticks to its target for days. Dozens of activists suffered from tear gas inhalation, which is aggravated by the harsh summer heat, and in various places, crops caught fire and spread quickly. The army continued to shoot at protestors even while they attempted to put out the fires. This week, the villagers were accompanied by national and international diplomats including Mr. Walid al Mu’aqqad, the Palestinian Ambassador to Argentina, Munjid Saleh from the Foreign Ministry’s Office, Mr. Horacio Wamba, the Argentinean Ambassador to Palestine, and Ms. Cecilia Marcha who heads a delegation of Argentinean Parliamentarians that are currently visiting popular committees and networks that participate in the growing Palestinian popular resistance against Israel’s illegal colonization. |