Tomorrow, Friday, there will be another rally organized by the residents of the village of Bil'in, near Ramallah, and under the apartheid wall; this will take place as part of a peaceful confrontation with the occupation that has become one of the longest recorded confrontations of this kind in the world. The first of these rallies in fact took place five years ago; in other words, the residents have so far tirelessly organized 250 demonstrations, and in a non-violent manner that would have made Gandhi himself proud. The population of Bil'in does not exceed 1600 (Palestinians), who are mostly olive farmers; the occupation had confiscated two thirds of the village's lands, and six settlements were built and continuously expanded until it sprawled and became the city of Modiin Illit. Bil'in's residents then won a rare victory two years ago, when the Israeli Supreme Court ordered parts of the wall to be moved to within the territories of Israel (i.e. occupied Palestine), and to not expand the settlements further; however, this court order is yet to be implemented, while there is a fascist government in power in Israel that wants to increase settlements and that ruins all chances for peace. This form of nonviolent resistance attracted peace advocates from all over the world to Bil'in, including Israeli activists who join the village's residents every Friday, and they thus must be given credit and appreciation for their efforts; names of such advocates include Mordechai Vanunu, the man who exposed Israel's nuclear program. Moreover, Nelson Mandela founded The Elders, or the Elders for Peace group; their senior members comprising prominent international figures then visited Bil'in, including Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, in addition to former heads of states and governments from Brazil, Norway and all countries, as well as prominent businessmen such as Richard Branson, the head of the Virgin Group, and Jeff Skoll, CEO of eBay. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and peace advocate Rev. Desmond Tutu, who also visited Bil'in, said: “Just as a simple man named Gandhi led the successful nonviolent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bilin are leading a nonviolent struggle that will bring them their freedom.” The residents of Bil'in did not thus resort to arms or explosives; they instead used every other means including chanting, banging on drums, and on anything that can make a noise from on top of their rooftops. They chained themselves to olive trees to prevent the occupation soldiers from uprooting them, wrote letters to the Israeli soldiers demanding them to think before attacking them. In other occasions they raised the flags of the World Cup, or wore orange jumpsuits like the ones worn by inmates on death row. They raised pictures of George W. Bush being hurled with Al-Zaidi's shoes, and banners that said: “We Want to Live”, “No more Night Raids”, and “We Want Peace”. The occupation army then responds with all available means to destroy this nonviolent movement; as such, the soldiers have battered peace advocates who chained themselves to the segregation wall, and has fired rubber bullets at some of the villagers and the foreign peace advocates. Those injured by rubber bullets in fact included: Luisa Morgantini, vice president of the European Parliament, and Máiread Corrigan, the Irish Nobel Prize winner and peace activist. The soldiers also placed barbwires in the village's streets to block movement, and detained a large number of peace advocates visiting Bil'in in solidarity with its residents. The soldiers always used bulldozers, water hoses, and rubber bullets, and even new types of bullets that fire round “pellets” that resemble chickpeas. They also tried recently to use water mixed with chemicals which left a putrid smell, and even mixed water with dung and human faeces; however, their favourite method remains the use of rubber bullets. Las August, the New York Times said that Bil'in is one of the longest-running and best organized protest operations in the history of resistance movements, and that it has now become a model followed by others. I am thus proud that the Arab Thought Foundation, after three meetings of the board of directors and advisers the first of which was in held in June, chose Bil'in as the recipient for the Community Innovation Award, a part of the Arab Creativity Annual Awards. The winners will be announced in the annual general conference, to be held in Kuwait; I personally am a member of its board of directors. All I want to say in the end is that we are all proud of Bil'in and its struggling residents; tomorrow is Friday, and there will be yet another peaceful rally.
