Last update - 00:00 11/05/2007
Four injured in weekly protest in Bil'in against separation fence
By Meron Rappaport, Haaretz Correspondent
Israeli demonstrators said Friday that a Border Policeman shot a rubber bullet from short range at a Palestinian protester at the weekly demonstration against the construction of the West Bank separation fence held in the village of Bil'in, west of Ramallah.
Jonathan Pollack, from the "Anarchists Against the Fence" movement, said that Border Policemen waited for the 200 demonstrators at the entrance to the village. Pollack maintains that about a minute after the demonstrators arrived at the barbed wire fence the soldiers placed on the road, one of the soldiers bent down on his knee and shot directly at a Palestinian protester.
"He shot at a three meter range, even though the Palestinian did not cross the barbed wire, and the demonstration was quiet and peaceful," Pollack said. "This is a direct continuation of what happened in southern Hebron on Wednesday."
Pollack said that he and some of his friends were arrested by security forces after they approached a commander and demanded information on the soldier who shot the demonstrator. Pollack also said that at least four demonstrators were injured, and until now 10 demonstrators, including four Israelis, have been arrested.
The IDF spokesperson's office said that "during a violent disruption of order of 80 Palestinians and Israelis in the village of Bil'in, while trespassing in a closed army area, a Border Policeman officer was attacked by one of the demonstrators with a dark object that struck him. A soldier witnessed the attack and shot at the demonstrator in order to disperse the crowd and identify the attacker."
Over the last two years, the village of Bil'in has become the site of a weekly demonstration protesting the erection of a security fence Israel claims is intended to keep out terrorists, which Palestinians say is a land-grab.