One Week After the Murder of Bassem Abu Rahmah, 25 Injured in Bil’in Demonstration for his memory

mashriq / arabia / iraq | imperialism / war | non-anarchist press Tuesday April 28, 2009 21:06 by Iyad Burnat - Popular Commitee in Bilin bel3in at yahoo dot com (00972) (2) 2489129

Twenty five protesters were injured today following the end of the 4th Annual International Conference of Popular Resistance in Bil’in. Injuries ranged from light to moderate and most were caused by rubber coated steel bullets. Fadi Al-Arori from Routers news agency, Mohib Barghouti from Al-Haya newspaper and Israeli activist and filmmaker, Shai Pollack, all had their cameras broken by the Israeli army. The rest of the wounded are all from the village: Fadil Al Khatib, brothers Ahmed and Awada Abu Rahmah, brothers Riyad and Iyad Burnat, Khalid Al Khatib, Abdullah Abu Rahmah, Mohammed Al Khatib, Wael Fahmi, Basel Mansour, Tariq Al Khatib, Abdullah Yasin, Tamir Al Khatib, Nizar Abu Rahmah, Husam Al Khatib, Mohammed Nabil Abu Rahmah, Nour Yasin, Ibrahim Burant, Ahmad Abu Rahmah (Bassem’s Brother) and Adeeb Abu Rahmah who was detained by the army for three hours.

The Bil’in conference this week was attended by a large number of international, Israeli and Palestinian activists. Also at the conference were Luisa Morgantini, vice president of the EU Parliament; Mairead Maguire, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Mustafa Al Barghouti, head of the Palestinian Initiative; Khalidah Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The demonstrators began their marched after closing the conference. They carried pictures of the martyr Bassem Ab Rahmah and succeeded in building a memorial for Bassem Abu Rahmah near the gate, despite a constant barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets fired by the Israeli army.

Luisa Morgantini stated, “We succeeded to build the memorial for Bassem Abu Rahmah, as respect for his spirit. We will never forget him; he was a friend of everyone. We have to continue the popular resistance which has begun to expand to the Jordan valley, Al Ma’asarah, Ni’lin, and Jayyous”.

Mairead Maguire said “We came to Bil’in more than five times and we went to Gaza also, we are going to continue our struggle to end the occupation and the siege. What happened in Bil’in and losing Bassem is a tragedy to everyone. Let’s all work together for peace and end the oppression and occupation”. Maguire and Morgantini expressed their condolences to Bassem’s family.

Thank you for you continued support,

Iyad Burnat- Head of Popular Commitee in Bilin
co-founder of Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin