The protests against Israel’s Apartheid Wall in Bil’in village have been on-going for over 2 years now. In the five or so I’ve joined, the Israeli military machine has unleashed a violence truly disproportionate to the circumstances.

Some will say that stone-throwing from earlier protests set the precedent for the barrage of tear gas, rubber bullets, live bullets, sound bombs, and beating, kicking and arrests the majority of demonstrations entail. It is remarkable that such a pretext is accepted and used to justify this brutality, a stupefying force used against unarmed protesters–including children, minors, and the elderly– long before any stones might be thrown.

On numerous occasions, I have been part of protests which arrive face to face with the fully-armed Israeli forces. After one such close-up, in which demonstrators had the opportunity to speak to (but not be answered by) the soldiers–nonetheless soldiers minutes later threw sound bombs and tear gas in our faces.

**Me in cloud of tear gas Israeli soldier threw at us when the mob of Israeli soldiers could not abduct the Bil’in villager they were trying to abduct.  [photo credit: Iyad] 

In the above images, the Israeli army was attempting to abduct Adeeb, one of Bil’in’s villagers, believing that if they can abduct those perceived as protest leaders, the protests will stop. But the village is behind the protests, because Israel has stolen their land and routinely abuses them. Abducting one, two, or ten or more perceived leaders won’t stop the protests.

When the Israeli forces attempt to abduct a villager, we would lock onto the person to prevent, if possible, abduction. In the above case, we prevented Adeeb from being abducted. However, the pile of people landed on top of me, one of the Israeli soldiers that mobbed us was kicking my head, and eventually they gave up, backed away, and lobbed a tear gas canister at the pile of us.

The day after last Friday’s protest, I got a call from a Palestinian friend, concerned.

“I saw you on the news, holding onto a Palestinian man, with other activists, keeping the soldiers from taking him. You must be careful, they are very violent and no one will stop them.“

But this is the problem, isn’t it? No one does stop them. Palestinians, out of the view of cameras and observing eyes, are routinely taken, beaten, detained or arrested for from hours to days to months.

This same friend is still waiting for the legal system to try the murderer of his 10 year old daughter, shot in the back of the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet by an Israeli soldier just 6 months ago. He recently received the news from that despite eye-witnesses, there was not enough evidence to pursue the case in Israeli courts and that it would be closed.