Bil'in Conference June 2008

Bil'in is an agricultural village near Ramallah that is losing most of it's land behind Israel's security wall. The land is being allocated to an Israeli settlement. The people of Bi'lin have wages a nonviolent campaign against the wall since 2005 with demonstrations every Friday, and this year held their third international conference inviting people from around the world to join them in discussions and their demonstration. According to organizers, one thousand people have been injured in these demonstrations by tear gas and rubber bullets when the soldiers inevitably attack the demonstration. This time, no rubber bullets were fired, perhaps because of the presence of an Irish nobel prize winner and one of the vice-presidents of the European Union. There were injuries however, including an Italian judge was struck in the head by a tear gas container fired by the soldiers. The Israeli military also brought out a new weapon for the second time: a jeep that can fire about 30 tear gas containers simultaneously.

The village website including news, photos and Bi'lin's story is at: http://www.bilin-village.org/

More photos of this week's (june 7, 2008) demonstration are at: http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/bilin/