We, a group of israelis joined the people of beit awwa, in palestine, in their almost daily struggle against the wall which is being built on their lands. photo https://israel.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/7/833_beit-awwa-10-3-04-reuters.jpg we arrived in beit awwa at around 10:20 and immediately went with about 250 other demonstrators to the work site. By 10:35 the crowd grew to about about 500 people and we managed to reach the bulldozers very quickly. As we did, one of the two bulldozers stopped working and left the area. the driver of the remaining bulldozer continued to work even as the demonstrators were meters from it, endangering the demonstrators as well as the security guards and soldiers.
for about 45 minutes we stood at the work site, near the remaining bulldozer and the soldiers who seemed by their age to be reserve troops. We chanted and women help up olive branches, not a stone was thrown and virtually all the people from beit awwa as well as israelis and internationals repeated to the soldiers that this is a non violent demonstration and we want no trouble. we simply want to sit on the lands of the people of Beit Awwa. Our reassurance did not seem to calm the soldiers down, they kept pushing people, hitting them, using shock grenades and tear gas. One soldier shot three rounds of tear gas canisters at a crowd of people point blank. in addition to being very dangerous - this use of tear gas canisters violates standing orders which require a distance of 50 meters for their use.
at 11:15 the soldiers managed to disperse the crowd using batons, shock grenades, tear gas and rubber coated metal bullets from close range. The attack resulted in a total of about 30 injuries. amongst them at least 5 from rubber coated metal bullets: three palestinians, one israeli and a danish woman. An israeli woman also suffered a possible fracture to her hand when she fell as she was running away from the soldiers.
After the main demonstration dispersed, a jeep arrived with what seems like a new experimental sound weapon. It consisted of a set of giant speakers mounted on a jeep which can emit painfully loud noise and direct it in a particular direction.
photo https://israel.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/10/833_beit-awwa-10-3-04-ap.jpg
photo https://israel.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/8/833_beit-awwa-10-3-04-ap2.jpg
photo https://israel.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/5/833_beit-awwa-10-3-04-reuters2.jpg
photo https://israel.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/6/833_beit-awwa-10-3-04-reuters3.jpg the danish woman being carried away after being hit by a rubber coated metal bullet in her back
By Ivy & Kobi
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* [Ed. Note: AATW = Anarchists Against The Wall]
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