2 IDF officers, 16 demonstrators hurt in Bil'in anti-fence protest

Neither the wall or the IDF have any right to be on Palestinian land to begin with, so it is clearly Israel's fault that there is any need to protest.

Your solution would cleverly remove the Palestinian identity all together....I don't think so!

the Jordanian option, I must say, I am delighted to read serious echoes to the idea, even coming from Palestinian Arabs! Having re-examined Palestinian Arab history's "interest" with independence, I have concluded that despite the many opportunities since at least 1937 to the present, the Arabs of Eretz Israel have exhibited either lack of will and lack of ability or both to govern themselves. Hence, I concluded that based on UN resolutionns 242 and 338 the Gaza Strip should become a part of Egypt and its residents Egyptian citizens with full rights and responsibility. Judea-Samaria (West Bank) should become part of Jordan and all the residents there Jordanian citizens with full rights and responsibilities. The future of Jerusalem, I think, should be discussed by Jordan and Israel. I also think Palestinian Arabs in Syria and Lebanon should become full citizens of these countries. And Arab citizens of Israel should shoulder all responsibilities in addition to having full rights.

from your perspective. I wonder if you are considering things I have not. And I say once again, I kind of like the idea of moving away form the two-state solution business, primarily because the Palestinian don't seem to be interesting in having a state, although they say otherwise.

I am open to any solution which would remove the Occupation and give us freedom and independence as any other nation in the world. The idea of a Palestinian State has become the most appealing to Palestinians because they could not imagine total equality if they were attached either to Jordan or Israel. Because of the dwindling reality of the possibility of such a state, many Palestinians have begun to look toward the other two options. Israel will never give equality to Palestinians in any one state, so the most likely alternative would be Jordan. The best of all would be a Palestinian state with open borders with Jordan and the rest of the Arab world. Open borders with Israel would be desirable but not likely to be a reality for many years.

HAARETZ IS PATHETIC IN ITS SLANTED RADICAL LEFTIST REPORTING PROPAGANDA!

Where did you hear this slogan?

You remind Soviet slogans in the good old days.

Actually, several posters of this forum (I am among them) support the idea that is described in your message #30. Here would be several problems: - Neither Egyptians, nor Jordanians want to have PALS again under their administration. BTW Jordanians remember how PALESTINIAN refugees in Jordan tried to overthrow king Hussein (they were expelled, but king Abdallah doesn't want to see the repeatition). - Palestinian leaders already look at international aid as the source of their private profits (example was shown by a well-known thief Y.Arafat). So these leaders oppose return under the Jordan and Egypt Administration. - In case of terrorist activity, Israel would respond severely. Example you had seen recently regarding the HEZBALLAH provocation: Lebanon gave a shelter to HEZBALLAh. So, LEBANON was responsible for HEZBALLAH activity. Israel destroyed Lebanon infrastructures (partially), but noone condemned Israel. - Nevertheless, I find this plan realistic.

It has been suggested here several times, that the whole idea of an independent Palestinian state in the west bank and the Gaza strip is a bankrupt idea. Instead, based on UN 242 and 338 the waring parties of 1967 should re-consider the idea of west bank being incorporated into Jordan while giving its residents full Jordanian citizenship, to all of them, and Gaza being incorporated into Egypt and proving its residents with full Egyptian citizenship. I personally kind of like the idea, and I wish whoever proposed it said more about it and some of the ramifications the I am sure she/he has thought about. Was it you, by any chance?

call of the international "peace activists" who are here to promote peace and eliminate Israel. They should all be shot!!!

The wall is slowly creeping below my house. To the back it creeps over the of the picturesque "Ras Beit Jala" - cutting off access from the people of this village to the lovely area of the Cremisan monastry. The priests ran sports clubs and the local children formed the Cremisan football team. Families wandered in the cool woodlands, taking picnics or having a Sunday BBQ. The road will cut off Cremisan from Beit Jala - no more sports club, football or picnics. Instead the children may well give thought to how to resist those who have cut off their natural childhood - and who could blame them?

Israel occupied the West Bank from Jordan in 1967. For many years Palestinians only thought of they and their land being returned to Jordan. The notion of a Palestinian state only came into the picture as Israel constantly refused to return to the status quo of pre-1967. Palestinians and the International Community then began to turn to thoughts of a Palestinian State - solidified at Oslo. If Israel had acted to return the West Bank to Jordan in the early years, it would never have been faced with what has happened since.

Armed with hate, they load up their cars in Tel Aviv and head to Woodstock. They spew venom, throw rocks and then they are actually surprised when the troops open up on them. But this is a media circus, and the media is the battleground, so the show will go on and on and on and on. Peace and Love.

"...if EVERYONE could or would behave in a civilized manner."

...if these "Palestinians" could or would behave in a civilized manner.

The alternative to the two state solution is not Israel absorbing the West Bank and Gaza. There are other countries in the area. The Palestinians have thus far failed to create even the basics of civil society during 14 years of independance and with the highest per-capita foreign aid in the world by far. More and more people are talking in terms of making the West Bank part of Jordan again, or, as the most recent suggestion intimated, a protectorate of Saudi Arabia. It would not be an independant Palestinian state, but it would not be occupied either.

PB, you make a very good point -- if the protestors were just screaming into the air and throwing rocks at each other, who would care? The reality is that if the IDF were not there, two things would happen: 1. The protesors would accuse the IDF of neglect when something happened and the IDF were not there to stop it. Namely I am thinking of violence within the protests. When you have a crowd, you need security. It is the IDF's job to provid it. 2. At these protests, there is a long and ignobal history of vandalism of the barrier. Being that it is a fence in this location, anti-barrier activists have taken wire cutters to the fence, created portals, and the Palestinians gleefully run to the other side. Soldiers need to be there to stop vandalism of the fence which has happened many times in the past.

The first intifada was marked with daily clashes everywhere between heavily armoured IDF soldiers and children and civilians armed with stones. The IDF responded with steel covered "rubber bullets" and live ammunition. My children were at school in those days. Every day the jeep would be outside the school when the children came out, as if daring them to start throwing stones. Why did they need to be there? Same with protests at the wall. If the IDF was not visible, the protestors would have nobody to clash with. What exactly is the role of the IDF supposed to be at these demonstrations?

I am a Brit with a British Passport. I am also offically a resident of the "Palestinian Authority Area of the West Bank and Gaza." I have another travel document which says so. It means I cannot travel as a Brit and I must leave Palestine via the Allenby Bridge to Jordan, not as a Brit, via Ben Gourion. Most Palestinians are coming to think there is no future for a Palestinian state, so a one state solution will be the answer - just as you seem to suggest. Are you likely to make that a state of equality for all though? I doubt it!

I guess Israeli's are as tolerant as anyone else...but the Israeli army is something else! Every week there are accusations and convictions for harrasment of Palestinians at checkpoints, robbery during seaches of people and homes etc. The weekly protests at Be'lin serves to remind everyone that the illegal Wall is still a bone of contention in Israel and throughout the world. I notice that it has become more "aesthetically acceptable" of late - the most recent chunk south of Bethlehem has improved architectural features, as if to disguise its true purpose!

If it is the "IOF" (anti-Israel activist created acronym for Israeli Occupation Forces as a derogatory term for the IDF) that starts the violence, then: Why do the protests have seperate "violent" and "non-violent" sections. Why did the Anarchists Against the Wall threaten to pull out of the protests unless the Pals stopped violent actions. (The seperate seating was the compromise worked out with them). Is the guy in the photos attacking the soldiers an IDF infiltrator? What happened to the little girl killed by a protestor's stone or the ISM activist shot by a Palestinian at these protests. Were the people that threw the rocks and fired the shots IDF infiltrators? Eagerly awaiting your responses.

LETS GET A FEW POINTS STRAIGHT.1.WHAT IS A PALESTINIAN?THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE ON THE LAND ARE ISRAELI'S(NEVER HEARD OF ANYBODY OR ANY GOVERNMENT OR ORGANISATION PASSING ANY DECREE THAT THERE IS A PALESTINIAN NATION)NOWHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THE ARMY SO MILD IN THE ASSISTANCE OF SECURITY.2LET THE RESIDENT CEASE WITH THIER HATE AND ATTEMPTS TO KILL OTHERS ,HENCE THE WALL(SAFETY)3NOWHERE IN THE WORLD DO THE PEOPLE DECIDE LAW BY FORCED DEMANDS.gET YOUR FACTS LEGALLY CORRECT BEFORE YOU JABBER BULLSHIT

TERRORIST ACTIVITY(!)

Does the guy with the club look non-violent to you?

Every pic of this I have seen today shows the Pals attacking the soldiers with clubs.

If Israel would stop stealing their land, the Palestinians wouldn't need to protest. This disgusting apartheid wall, 27 feet high, has nothing to do with security. If it were it would be built on Israeli land. It's all about land and water theft, and its aim is to crush the spirit of the Palestinian owners of this historic land and cage them into smaller and smaller ghettoes to fulfill the zionists' wet dream of Eretz Israel.

Unfortunately these weekly protests by Palestinians together with Israeli and international peace activists always become violent because the IOF is committed to violence. There is never violence from the protesters. It's actually quite amusing to see the IOF heavies in full riot gear, assaulting unarmed non-violent men, women and children who are merely trying to walk to the place where the Apartheid Wall is cutting through their land. I have been among them many times, and I have never seen violence except from IDF. I HAVE seen Israeli soldiers, dressed as Palestinians, trying to hide in the crowd of civilians and throwing stones at soldiers, so the IDF could claim they were shooting Plestinians "in self defense." Unfortunately for these scumbags, the Palestinian villagers immediately realized they were outsiders, and when they were exposed as armed soldiers by the crowd, their IOF buddies had to rescue them. We all had a good laugh.

Here's an example of a protest, like the ones seen in many countries. No suicide bombers, no missiles. Still, the brutality comes, and this on land that belongs to who? The Israeli gov't wants Palestinians to be be stateless, docile workers (it's now importing those), and when it couldn't get that, it decided to pen them in prison-like bantustans.

hOW MANY TIMES MUST WE READ THIS JUNK.aRE THE HEADS OF THE POLICE ,ARMY OR POLITICIANS SO WEAK THAT THEY ARE UNABLE TO PUT A STOP TO THESE RABBLE.Deport the foreigners.Charge the israelis with intent to do grievious body harm,and send the arabs to egypt to learn how they will be accepted as demonstrators.

I highly commend the Israeli's,for being so tolerant,when facing these ferals. These people are professional agitaters,whose sole purpose is to besmirch Israel's good name.No other country would tolerate the kind of behavior that is shown by these trouble makers.They would be the same kind of people like this nasty Maureen Ann character from Bathurst,who comes on Israeli sites to spew her venom. These people couldn't give a rats for the Balestinians but are happy to just agitate whenever and wherever they can.

Dear Haaretz, The real issue is not as you heading implies "that the demonstrators are against building the fence". The real issue is that the goverment of Isreal is steeling palestinian farmers land; I wish in your next reporting about the fence to reinstate that specificy with your title heading on the subject matter.

I see two shields and six humans, this must be a HUMAN SHIELD, B'SHEKER. You guys are sleeping on the job not noticing something so obvious to a naked eye!

Long live "leftist" cameramen, showing the world the true picture of Israeli brutality and oppression.

Long live "leftist" cameramen, showing the world the true picture of Israeli brutality and oppression.

So these are the great "non-violent" protests against the "apartheid wall" we are always hearing about. Sure does not look "non-violent" to me.

Media belong to the devil... By it he is brainwashing people!

The real terrorists are the israeli soldiers and the foreigners are also the israeli soldiers on palestinian land. hahahaha

during the recent "Ungdomshuset" demos in Copenhagen. Of about 300 arrested,more than half are foreigners. Danish Police didn't even wait to arrest them during demonstrations,they had been arrested before,during the night at their home addresses. Israel is too soft on the losers coming there in order to support terrorists.