On Friday - coinciding with May 1st, International Workers’ Day - Israeli and international activists joined residents of al Ma’asara (near Bethlehem), Ni’ilin and Bil’in (near Ramallah) for their ongoing protest marches against the Apartheid wall, this week with an added emphasis on labor rights.

Israeli soldiers and Border Police attempting to stop the protest march, al Ma'asara

In Al Ma’asara, around 200 people took part in the weekly protest march against the wall. Due to this week’s demonstration taking place on the first of May, many members of farmers’ unions were in attendance. Even before the protest began there was a larger-than-usual army presence in the village, with military jeeps driving through it periodically. Demonstrators began marching from the center of the village in the direction of the separation barrier, while simultaneously, as the crowd was assembling, soldiers and border police were positioning themselves at the entrance to the village, where they created a makeshift barrier composed of two spools of barbed wire stretched over the road.

Once the crowd reached the barbed wire, demonstrators attempted to continue the march and reach the village’s lands, raising their hands in the air while trying to pass the obstacle blocking the road. Soldiers then used physical force in order to stop the protesters, pushing and hitting them in a manner even more severe than in previous weeks. Troops also used concussion grenades and teargas against the demonstrators. As people were trying to escape the soldiers’ assault, four members of the village’s Popular Committee and an International activist were violently arrested, with two more people arrested shortly after - another Popular Committee member as well as an Israeli activist - when they approached to check on the arrestees. The two non-Palestinians were released several hours afterwards.

Protester injured by rubber-coated steel bullets being evacuated, Bil'in

In Bil’in, demonstrators gathered in the center of the village at noon, following the Friday prayer, and marched towards the separation barrier (already completed in this area). Marchers, accompanied by a loud percussion troupe, carried Palestinian flags and banners demanding workers’ rights, highlighting the fact that Israel’s wall plays a significant role in delaying or preventing Palestinian workers from reaching their places of employment, or farmers reaching their lands.  

As the march arrived at the separation barrier, protesters placed flowers next to the memorial for Bassem Abu Rahme, killed on that spot by the army two weeks ago during a similar demonstration. Protesters then observed a minute of silence, in remembrance of Bassem and all the other martyrs in the fight against the occupation.

As the head of the march got close to the fence and the barbed wire blocking the barrier’s main gate, Israeli troops waiting behind concrete blocks on the other side of the separation barrier began throwing concussion and teargas grenades at the protesters, to which some of the village’s youth responded by throwing stones. During the clashes which ensued, soldiers fired massive amounts of teargas canisters, as well as rubber-coated steel bullets, injuring four Palestinians (in addition to the scores of people who suffered from extensive teargas inhalation).

Friday demonstration against the wall, Ni'ilin. Video by David Reeb

In Ni’ilin, the army invaded the village before the noon prayers, attempting - without the warrants required by the army’s own procedures - to occupy houses on the outskirts of the village. As soldiers tried to enter the first house, members of the family stood at the doorstep and blocked their path. Soldiers were unable to enter the house and moved on to a different one, but not before hurling a concussion grenade at the women blocking the entrance, injuring a ten year-old girl, who had to be transferred to a hospital after shrapnel from the grenade hit her thigh. Troops then occupied the roof of a second house, from which they fired teargas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at some of the village’s young who had responded to the soldiers’ unprovoked incursion with stones. After being confronted by Palestinians as well as international and Israeli activists who climbed onto the roof alongside them, the soldiers and border police finally left.

After the prayers, demonstrators began marching with the intention of reaching the village’s own lands and the separation barrier (currently under construction on them), chanting slogans for national unity and against the occupation. However, soldiers positioned nearby began firing teargas canisters at the march while it was still on Ni’ilin’s main road, dispersing the crowd and causing many residents to respond with rocks to such an unprovoked assault. Hours of confrontations followed, during which soldiers and border police positioned themselves inside the village and fired large quantities of teargas canisters as well as rubber-coated steel bullets into the narrow streets and alleys. Clashes came to an end only with the retreat of the army.