07/10/2011 Bil'in-Palestine Dozens tear gassed at weekly demonstration in Bil'in, west of Ramallah.

Demonstrators were fired at with tear gas in the weekly march organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil'in, which was attended by dozens of Palestinians and a small group of international activists and Israeli peace activists. 
 The march began from the center of the village after Friday prayers, and headed to the land that was liberated in June when the separation fence was removed. Participants raised Palestinian flags, banners painted with the image of imprisoned leader Marwan Barghouti and other Palestinian prisoners. They chanted patriotic slogans calling for the departure of the occupation, the destruction of the Apartheid wall, and freedom and rights for Palestinian prisoners. Participants chained their hands together as a message to friends of peace, to call attention to the abysmal conditions faced by Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

 

Upon their arrival to the Abu Lemon natural reserve, they were able to open many holes in the barbed wire fence surrounding the concrete wall, and then they demonstrated along the concrete wall, while the Israeli Occupation forces stationed behind the wall fired tear gas towards the participants and the TV crew from the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation, which was covering the event. Following the barrage of tear gas, participants threw stones over the wall. The tear gas canisters ignited a fire in the olive groves adjacent to the wall, but the participants were able to control and extinguish the fire.