Palestinians, internationals injured in weekly Bil'in protest

On 3rd July, three people were injured and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation during the weekly confrontation between protesters and Israeli military personnel at the village of Bil'in.

Located on the Israeli Separation Wall between the West Bank and Israel, largely built on Palestinian land, Bil'in has over the last year seen significant levels of violence by the Israeli army and border guards against unarmed protesters. A September 2007 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court supported the village, ordering the government to change the route of the wall, deemed “highly prejudicial” to Bil'in's population.

The protests called for a halt to the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and to the construction of the Separation Wall, which in a number of areas including Bil'in divides farmers from their land, destroying livelihoods in an already dire economic situation. This week's demonstration also urged the international community and civil society to resist a number of newly-announced Israeli settlement expansions in the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea areas.

According to reports from the village, the three protesters injured by rubber-coated bullets on July 3rd were Adeeb Abu Rahmah from Bil'in, a British woman called Judi and a German citizen named only as 'Julia.'

In April 2009, 29-year-old Bassem Abu Rahme was killed at a similar demonstration in Bil'in when he was hit in the chest by a high-velocity teargas canister. At the nearby village of Nil'in, where demonstrations against the Wall are also regularly held, 17-year-old Youssef Ahmed Younes Amirah died in August 2008, a week after being shot in the head with rubber bullets. In December 2008 22-year-old Arafat Khawaja was fatally shot in the back with live ammunition during a demonstration against the Israeli invasion of Gaza, and 20 year old Mohammad Khawaja died 3 days later after being shot in the head with live ammunition at the same Nil'in demonstration as Arafat. More recently, Akal Sarur died after allegedly being shot with a "low-velocity gun specially designed to disperse riots."

Serious injuries sustained by protesters at Bil'in have included that of Jonathan Pollak of Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall, who in 2005 was shot in the head by a teargas canister fired from an M16 rifle. He suffered two brain haemorrhages and needed 23 stitches. American protester Tristan Anderson remains in a coma after being hit on the forehead by a similar projectile in March 2009.

The Israeli authorities have also arrested children as young as 11 on the demonstrations on a number of occasions.

In the same week, Bil'in resident Ashraf Abu Rahmeh, 27, along with B'tselem and Israeli human rights NGOs succeeded in persuading the Israeli High Court to order the country's army to impose a stronger sentence on an officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Omri Borberg, who looked on while a soldier shot a blindfolded and handcuffed Abu Rahmeh in the foot in July 2008.

Sarah Irving is a freelance writer specialising in social and environmental issues and the Middle East.