In Bil'in during Friday's weekly demonstration, Iyad Burnat, the head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was directly hit in his hand by a tear-gas canister, which caused major burns. Palestine TV correspondent, Haroon Amayreh, as well as a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Sultan Aboul-Enein, and dozens of Palestinian, Israeli, and international peace activists, who had joined the demonstration in solidarity, suffered from tear-gas inhalation including fainting as the Israeli occupying forces violently suppressed today's protest against the apartheid wall and settlements in the village of Bil'in.

As the protesters marched towards the western gate of the wall, built on the land of Bil'in, raising Palestinian flags and chanting slogans that called for national unity and for support of the popular resistance against the wall and settlements, they were met with ferocious attacks by the Israeli army. The occupying forces fired volleys of tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at the demonstrators before chasing them all the way inside the limits of the village of Bil'in.

The Israeli army recently started to use special forces and border police during these weekly demonstrations. They ambushed the village, and tried to encircle the protesters from behind in an attempt to arrest them. As they stormed into the village and chased after the young demonstrators, violent confrontations between the two sides erupted whereby the Israeli army shot live ammunition in the air to disperse the youths within the village. Furthermore, special forces pursued journalists and peace activists.

In An Nabi Salih, the neighboring village Deir Nidham was under curfew so it was not able to hold the parallel demonstration as it has in the past few weeks. The demonstration was well attended and as it started to march out of the village towards the lands it was met with several border police jeeps parked next to the last houses of the village. The marchers resisted the provocation of the invasion and sat down on the road and chanted and sang songs. Slowly the marchers inched their way towards the jeeps still only chanting and singing. At a certain point, without a single pretext give the army began to shoot tear gas at the demonstrators.

The army and border police were equipped with a variety of weapons including the multiple canister tear gas launcher, 'the skunk' : an organic compound design to have a foul odor shot through a water canon as plastic coated well as metal balls shot in place of the 'ordinary' rubber coated metal bullets.

At some point in the demonstration, the border police deliberately targeted a house close to the road which had large easy to hit windows. They shot at least one tear gas canister into the house causing about 20 people to be trapped inside without the ability to escape the gas. The victims included Young children and old women. To get away from the suffocating gas, young children were passed down from a third story window to people who climbed the side of the house. At the end of the day 8 people were taken to hospital, mostly from tear gas inhalation.

An Nabi Salih

Meanwhile in Ma'asara, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists have once again gathered in for this week's Friday demonstration. Marking the anniversary to the assassination of Palestinian leader George Habash the demonstration was joint by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, including Tawfiq Tirawy.

Ma'asara

The 70 or so demonstrators marched from the centre of the village to the sound of drums, passed a lone military jeep stationed in the entrance to the village, and preceded towards the route of the Apartheid Wall. As usual they were met by barbed wire laid on the road and a raw of (mainly reserve) soldiers.
Speeches were carried in English, French, Arabic and Hebrew, and slogans chanted for half an hour. On their way back to the village demonstrators stopped in front of the lone jeep, fearing an incursion. Two more jeeps quickly joined the first one, and armed soldiers threatened the demonstrators. Choosing to de-escalate the situation demonstrators backed into the village peacefully, and the army left shortly after.
 
In Sheikh Jarrah there was yet another big demonstration, and for the first time in quite a while – with no arrests made at all. After several weeks of ongoing police oppression the Jerusalem court issued two rulings in support of the demonstrations, stating these were legal and that their dispersal was illegitimate. And so some 300 demonstrators gathered this Friday afternoon at the entrance to the neighborhood, including several members of Knesset, and protested against the racist house evictions.

Sheikh Jarrah

Opposite the demonstration stood tens of riot policemen, and five radical right-wing counter-demonstrators. A short heated debate with the fascists and a failed (by the police) attempt made by a few demonstrators to enter the neighborhood and plant flowers were the only two extraordinary events. Otherwise the cheerful and energetic demonstration went on peacefully for an hour and a half.

in Ni'lin, about 150 protesters headed to the wall route after the friday prayer. The demonstration marked prisoner day, and aside from the religious sermon, the participants heard speeches by Salah Khawaja, the Village legendary medic, and Dr. Mustafa Barghouty. The group arrived at the gate and was greeted by the soldiers guarding it with a volley of tear gas grenades. Some of the protesters then responded with stones, while others expressed their opposition to the land theft by chanting slogans against the wall and by raising posters produced by the Ni'lin Media Group. After approximately an hour and a half, a group of soldiers crossed the wall, and two soldiers, apparently from a special unit, armed with hand guns and fired in the air while they ran after the group of protesters and arrested a person visiting nilin from yabrud. The village youth continued resisting the army's invasion for another two hours, and the protest ended with no injuries recorded aside from tear gas inhalation.