The march began. Two Palestinian men were leading the chants. They were: "1-2-3-4 occupation no more, 5-6-7-8 Israel is fascist state". I realize that calling Israel a 'fascist state' can cause a lot of anger and hurt among many Israelis. Fascist states persecuted Jews and one could argue that Israel is a democracy. On the other hand, the systematic abuses of Palestinians that are happening every day in the West Bank at the hands of the soldiers and settlers whom they support are not the actions of a state that respects human rights. I have heard many Jewish Israelis tell me that to them, the actions of their countryment towards Palestinians chillingly resemble the treatment that was meeted out to Jews in Nazi Germany in the early 1930s. They said it, not me.
Other chants included "no good morning no goodnight, occupation we will fight" and "Falastin hurra hurra, Israel burra burra" (Free free Palestine, go away go away Israel).
The soldiers cordoned off a section of the village and we walked up to them. After being stopped by the soldiers, the speakers emphasized to them that this is a non-violent protest and asked them to leave the village. They said they are not occupying Tel Aviv, why does the IDF occupy the West Bank?
An army commander appeared and spoke briefly to his men. Without any warning, some of them threw sound grenades at us. The booms were deafening and people began running from the soldiers. They threw around 5 of these at us. My ears were ringing for about 2 hours but now I am OK. The sound grenades are not lethal but in the past they have burst people's eardrums. Some of them have also exploded into small pieces and injured people. No one got hurt in this protest.
After throwing the sound grenades, the soldiers drove away in their jeeps. The protest was over.
I am angry at the army's reaction. No one was throwing rocks or even threatening to throw rocks at them or harm them. In every action I have been to in the West Bank thus far, the army has been met with no violence from people. Yet in every case, soldiers resort to assaults, whether pushing people, beatings, or throwing things like sound grenades.
Almost every action undertaken by Palestinians is met with repression and violence from the army. When they are peaceful, they are pushed around or beaten or have sound bombs thrown at them. When they throw rocks, the soldiers respond with teargas cannisters, rubber bullets and sometimes live ammunition. If they use guns, the army comes in with tanks and fighter planes.
* I took some videos of the demo but do not yet know how to upload them. If I am able to, I will paste them here.
Driving in to Al Ma'sara
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