Peaceful Protesters Attacked by Vicious Israeli Military

On June 8, 2008 the third Annual Bilin Conference concluded with a protest against the separation wall as the Israeli government calls it. Many others calls it the apartheid wall. This is a wall that has been built though the land that the Palestinians depend on to sustain themselves. It has separated Palestinian villagers from large parts of agricultural land that they previously farmed and had access to. It has also separated them from family and neighbors so that they are isolated and cut off from needed resources. This wall was built to grab land from Palestinians past the 1967 boarders. Dispossessing Palestinians from 75% or more of the land they had lived on for hundred of years was not good enough. The Israeli government wants to take more of the land they had lived on and past down for so many generations. There has always been a small group of religious Jewish people living in Palestine as it was called up till 1948. As I said in an earlier article Palestinians can have their land seized by the Israeli government at any time for housing that only Jewish people can live in..

The non-violent protest began in the center of town where the conference was held. Many of the people who attended the conference participated in the protest. The protest consisted of Israeli Peace Activists, members of the Palestinian Parliament, Deputy speaker of the EU Parliament Luisa Morgantini, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Italian Judge Julio Tuscani.

When the protesters arrived at the entrance of the wall Mohamed Nazal read a statement. As he was reading this statement Israeli Occupation forces started firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters. Many of the protesters had to be treated for the tear gas they inhaled. The Italian Judge Julio Tuscani sustained a head injury as a result of the attack by Israeli Occupation forces.

As was said in an article I read in Tikkun, Israel is a democracy with many anti-democratic trends. In a speech by a member of Jewish Voices for Peace the speaker noted that Jewish children in Israeli schools learn about democratic principles but when they join the Israeli army, they see the anti-democratic aspects of the Israeli occupation.