The speakers were Sultan Abu Al Enanan from the Fatah movement, Kays Abu Leyla from the Executive Committee of PLO and the political office of the Democratic Front and Basel Monsur from the Popular Committee in Bil'in. They all promised to stay strong as Arafat would have wanted them to be and to fight the occupation together.
Even before the majority of the protesters were moving forward, the soldiers started firing tear gas from where they had taken position on the road leading to the village. Immediately the area was covered with tear gas, with canisters flying into the crowd from different directions. As a response a few youngsters threw stones to the Israeli soldiers, as a symbolic resistance to their violence. The soldiers moved into the field and continued to fire rounds of gas, and also chasing people back into the village. At one point live ammunition was fired, causing fear and the retreat of the protesters remaining in the area.
Also this Friday the tear gas
canister sat fire to the ground several places, and was put out by some
protesters before it spread. The demonstration lasted for about two
hours.
The Popular Committee and the people of Bil'in thanks
their international and Israeli supporters for standing side by side
with them in their struggle against Israel's occupation.
