Attacken an der Mauer

Barghouthi in Bil’in condems the use of noxious smell water
Palestinian National Initiative
12 July 2009

Ramallah, 12-07-09: At Bil’in’s weekly nonviolent protest against the Separation Wall this Friday, the Israeli military shot teargas, sound bombs, rubber coated steel bullets, and a water cannon that shot darban (“bad smell water”) on the protestors.

Mustafa Barghouthi MP, the Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative was at the protest, showing solidarity and support to the long-term commitment of the peace activists and to mark the 7 year anniversary of PNI, further providing medical care and ambulances from Palestinian Medical Relief Society -the grassroots medical NGO that he presides- to treat injured protestors.

Last Friday’s protest also marked the 5th anniversary of the ICJ ruling that Israel’s Separation Wall is illegal—it also stipulated that all construction on the wall must immediately stop and that the sections already completed must be dismantled.

So far, no action has been taken by the Israeli government to fulfill its responsibilities as required by this decision, issued in 2004. Meanwhile, new sections of the wall have been planned and built.

As they have continued to do for over 4 years, protestors marched to the wall after Friday prayers to demonstrate against the wall. They were shot by the IDF with what the villagers call “bad smell water”— a substance that is chemically treated with sulfurs and other noxious smells. The water was sprayed onto protestors, causing many to vomit—including Barghouthi.

In addition to the water cannon, the IDF also shot dozens of teargas canisters and the teargas cannon—a cannon that shoots out over 30 teargas canisters simultaneously. Dozens were treated for teargas inhalation by the PMRS medics. Two protestors were taken and arrested by the Israeli soldiers.

“The wall will never fall until there is an international movement to boycott, divest, and stop aid to Israel”, stated Barghouthi. “Meanwhile, new creative ways to attack Palestinian’s dignity are always developed by the Israeli”.

Over the past few weeks, in order to intimidate the villagers into stopping their grassroots, non-violent protests against the wall—which steals over 60% of their land—the Israeli military has been invading the village almost nightly. They have arrested over a dozen boys from the village so far, most of them are teenagers. The IDF has also released a list of over 100 ‘wanted” people from Bil’in, many of them young boys.