New York Times by Ethan Bronner, August 27, 2009.

Photo: ActiveStills. Palestinian youth demonstrate in Bil’in, Palestine.

BILIN, West Bank — Every Friday for the past four and a half years, several hundred demonstrators — Palestinian villagers, foreign volunteers and Israeli activists — have walked in unison to the Israeli barrier separating this tiny village from the burgeoning settlement of Modiin Illit, part of which is built on the village’s land. One hundred feet away, Israeli soldiers watch and wait.

The protesters chant and shout and, inevitably, a few throw stones. Then just as inevitably, the soldiers open fire with tear gas and water jets, lately including a putrid oil-based liquid that makes the entire area stink.

It is one of the longest-running and best organized protest operations in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it has turned this once anonymous farming village into a symbol of Palestinian civil disobedience, a model that many supporters of the Palestinian cause would like to see spread and prosper.

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Bil’in: village de la Palestine qui continue de résister

Photo: ActiveStills. Manifestation à Bil’in.

Bil’in, situé à l’ouest de Ramallah, est un village typique de la Méditerranée orientale à bien des points de vue: des maisons blanches disposées le long de rues qui épousent les méandres et contours naturels des collines; des vergers, des jardins, des pâturages; l’attitude accueillante et généreuse des habitants; beaucoup d’enfants espiègles et sages. Cependant, ceux de Bil’in vivent dans les mêmes conditions déplorables que tant d’autres en Cisjordanie: une colonie israélienne a été construite illégalement sur leurs terres, et la clotûre dite “de sécurité” dévore d’autres hectares pour les séparer de ce qui leur appartient. Personne n’a le droit de circuler librement: ni vers la ville la plus proche, ni vers la plage, ni vers leur capitale, Jérusalem.

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letter submitted to the Montreal Gazette, Tuesday, August 25th, 2009.

Photo: Satellites in the sky Cairo, Egypt.

Although this was likely unintentional, Terrine Friday’s article “Students misinformed …” (24 August 2009) speaks strongly in favour of the Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) program and of the CURE project proposed by the Montreal social-justice collective Tadamon.

Tadamon’s CURE project submission proposed that a student investigate institutional ties between Montreal universities and Israeli corporations, government agencies and other organizations that support the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

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International Solidarity Movement, August 20, 2009.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian community activist Abu Nizar.

20 August 2009: Once again the night in Bil’in was disrupted by a raid ending with the arrest of one the members of the Village’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. This occurred the night after the childrens demonstration where the children had chanted slogans like “We want to sleep,” “Stop the night raids”.

The house of Bil’in Popular Committee member and vice president of the Bil’in village council, Mohammad Abu Rahma, (age 50), known by his friends as Abu Nizar, was raided shortly before 2am on Thursday morning. About 25 soldiers with their faces painted in black had come to the village on foot.

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17 August 2009.

Tadamon! collective responds to Montreal Gazette.

Peggy Curran’s article entitled “Activist group stirs up storm” (August 14, page A6) is filled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, some of which bear directly on the Montreal social-justice collective Tadamon!. For the record, we would like to identify and correct some of these inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

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Doug Smith, Electronic Intifada, 17 July 2009

Photo: Israel’s apartheid wall in occupied Palestine.

For the first time since the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against institutions supporting Israeli apartheid, students from North America and Palestine came together in Ramallah to share their ideas and experiences. Consisting of eight days of travel and a four-day workshop, the North American student delegation spent their two weeks getting connected with the struggle in Palestine in order to better articulate the BDS movement in their respective cities. The visiting students met face to face with those who are living and resisting the systematic oppression of Palestinians by the state of Israel.

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action urgente en solidarité avec Mohammad Khatib de Bil’in
et tou(te)s les prisonnièr(e)s politiques palestinien(ne)s

vendredi, le 14 août à 12h00
devant la librairie Indigo
au coin de Ste-Catherine & McGill college
(métro McGill)
Montréal, Canada

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photos by Darren Ell, Scott Weinstein, Valerian Mazataud.

Photo: Scott Weinstein: Solidarity rally for Bil’in in Montreal

A protest in solidarity with Bil’in, Palestine took to the street in downtown Montreal on Friday, August 7th, to denounce the ongoing night-time raids on Bil’in and string of arrests by the Israeli military targeting Palestinian community activists. Israeli military forces have been launching night incursions into the village throughout recent weeks and targeting the homes of members of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.

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update on Mohammad Khatib and Biliners abducted by the Israeli occupation forces

Photo: ActiveStills. Israeli occupation forces launch tear-gas on protest in Bil’in

The Military Prosecution is claiming that the 7 people taken from their homes during the night raid that took place in Bil’in on August 3rd are suspected of stone throwing. A leading member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, non-violent activist Mohammad Khatib, is accused of incitement to “damage the security of the area.”

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Le Devoir Marco Bélair-Cirino.

Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian Mohammed Khatib.

Le militant Mohammed Khatib, qui a traîné deux compagnies québécoises devant la Cour supérieure, est arrêté par l’armée israélienne

Mohammed Khatib, un producteur de poulets palestinien qui accuse deux sociétés québécoises de crimes de guerre devant la Cour supérieure du Québec, a été fait prisonnier par l’armée israélienne à Bil’in, en Cisjordanie, dans la nuit de lundi.

Des dizaines de soldats israéliens auraient fait irruption aux aurores lundi dans le village de Bil’in, situé à l’ouest de Ramallah, en Cisjordanie, et ont appréhendé 20 personnes, selon le collectif de soutien aux droits du peuple palestinien Tadamon. «Deux cents soldats sont arrivés dans le village palestinien. Ils étaient déguisés et masqués ou maquillés. Il s’agit d’arrestations arbitraires», affirme la porte-parole de Tadamon, Sarah. Celle-ci appelle à la libération immédiate de ces derniers.

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