Ramblings From a Small Town Girl: One Two Three Four We Won't Take it Any More

So I've been thinking about this blog post for well over a week, ever since I went to the town of Ni'lin to witness/participate in their weekly demonstration against the wall Israel is building which is cutting through their land. The demonstrations are a symptom of a much larger cause which is this wall that Israel is building. You can't talk about one without the other yet the issue of the wall is so large that it would require a blog post all it's own. And so I have felt leery about writing about what I was up to at all because I knew that to simply discuss what I had done would not be enough. I felt like you needed to know not only what I was doing there, but why others were there. It's a daunting overwhelming task that I guess I will just try and dive into.

Ni'lin is a city in the West Bank about two hours south west from where I am living. Situated only a few kilometers away from the internationally recognized Green Line, Ni'lin has systematically lost more and more land to Israel and its ever expanding settlements. In total roughly 491 acres, 13% of their land, has been taken away from the Palestinian residents of Ni'lin for Israeli settlements since 1967, without receiving any form of compensation for their loss of property.

Then in 2002 Israel began construction on the separation barrier between itself and the West Bank, which is considered illegal by the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. In 2007/2008 construction on the segment of barrier near Ni'lin began. Once/if finished this wall will take away an additional 625 acres, roughly 20% percent of their land.

Doesn't seem fair does it? The people of Ni'lin don't seem to think so which is why they have organized themselves into doing weekly demonstrations against Israel's actions. Every Friday between 50-150+ people (Palestinians, Israelis, Internationals) come together to tell/show Israel what they are doing is not okay and they will fight for what is theirs.

Upon hearing about what was going on here, both by Israel and Palestinians I decided that I wanted to see for myself what was what. Friday morning, myself along with four other volunteers headed out to Ni'lin. Because there were five of us in total we forced ourselves to squish into one taxi. It was totally Benin all over again. Four anyone who has done PC Benin, you know that four people in the back seat is totally doable, yet with three others who don't know what it means to pousser it can be a challenge. The taxi we hired to take us stopped about half way and put us in another taxi. He said it was because the other taxi was bigger but we think it was more likely he didn't want to take us all the way over there, but change taxis we did and after a rather uncomfortable trip we arrived in our destination.

The taxi let us off at the outskirts of Ni'lin leaving us to walk through the town to where we were all to gather. The streets were lined with paintings of the Palestinian flag and Arabic writing. Asking a fellow volunteer what some of the writing said, I wish I could remember the translation she gave me, but basically it was something along the lines of they will continue to resist, they will continue to struggle against what they consider the unfair occupation of their land. As I write this I don't want to give the impression that this was done in a threatening or violent way. It wasn't, I feel, written as a threat but more as encouragement for each other.

Prior to the demonstration we all gathered so that we could walk in an organized procession towards the wall. Which is where I will leave off and let my pictures do the talking.

Before the demonstration protesters come together to listen to a speaker and pray.

This video is of the beginning of the procession from where we gathered to walking to where the wall is being built.

This is a snap shot of the opening procession.

The procession ended at where the wall is being built.

This is where we walked to. From this angle all you can see is the chain link fence and not the wall that has already been built.

These are a few of who were waiting for us on the other side of the road.

This is left over tear gas canister from one of the previous demonstrations. They litter the ground here. Unfortunately, tear gas is not the only ammunition soldiers have been known to use on the demonstrators. Besides tear gas, soldiers have used rubber bullets, metal bullets covered in rubber and live ammunition.

It would be easy for me to leave out that the there was a group of Palestinian youth throwing stones across the road at the soldiers. But I want to try and be as far and honest in what I share with all of you as possible. So yes, kids were chucking some rocks, nothing more. I would be greatly surprised if any of those rocks actually hit anyone. It never appeared to happen, but it is a possibility.

So for the first hour or so of the demonstration nothing happened really. After we marched down to the fence and the people made their speech we all just kind of stood around. Well at least that's what it felt like to me, but I was kind of in the back. People closer to the front I am sure were saying things and there were the kids throwing stones. And then the tear gas started. It wasn't constant. It was more like a few here, a few there and then they'd pause for a bit and then just pummel the area with them. The tear gas was a horrible experience but what was more dangers was the fact that the ground was uneven and completely covered with loose uneven rocks so when you run away from the tear gas there is a very good chance you are going to hurt yourself, especially when you can't see due to the gas.

Some random photos from that day:

Upon leaving, someone left one of their signs on the wall itself.

This kid just seemed to be chillin'.

I thought this post was beautiful so I took a picture of it. I asked one of the other volunteers if she recognized it. She said no, but that the writing on it was about national independence.