Bil’in: An international conference held today in Bi’lin village focused on the history and methods of non-violent resistance in Palestine, and on practical methods that can be used to continue the peaceful struggle of villages throughout Palestine, against construction of Israel’s Separation Wall.
Bil’in has become a symbol of the non-violent resistance movement after peaceful protests against construction of the Wall began in November 2004. Up to 2,300 dunums (60 percent) of village lands have been confiscated in order to build the Wall. While the Israeli government argues that its route in the area is based purely on security considerations, an investigation by Haaretz Newspaper has revealed that the path of the Wall was designed to allow for the expansion of the nearby, illegal Israeli settlement of Modi’in Illit. [1]
The conference is being organized by the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, and is supported by the International Solidarity Movement, Gush Shalom, the Coalition of Women for Peace, Anarchists against the Wall, Ta’ayush, the Alternative Information Centre, and Rabbis for Human Rights.
The opening ceremony was attended by scores of Palestinian, Israeli and international participants, and included talks by well-known Israel and Palestinian figures, such as newly-elected parliamentarians, Mustafa Barghouthi and Qais Abu Laila, as well as former legislative council member, Qaddoura Fares, and veteran peace activist, Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom.
Dr. Barghouthi, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative and long-term supporter of the non-violence movement, stated that construction of the Wall was a result of the failure of all other efforts made by Israel over the last 38 years to expel Palestinians from their lands. He said that the Wall was but one symptom of a long-term Israeli plan to render the concept of a viable Palestinian state impossible by creating a series of cantons and Bantustans of the lands of the West Bank, and by severing them completely from both the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
He stressed that Palestinians would not further “compromise on the compromise”, and that they could accept no less than a state on all the lands of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem occupied in 1967 free of all settlements, a just resolution of the refugee issue, and the release of all Palestinian prisoners being held in administrative detention in Israeli prisons.
Dr. Barghouthi added that Israel’s refusal to negotiate with the new parliament, after having branded Yasser Arafat an ‘obstacle to peace’ and having refused to negotiate with president Mahmoud Abbas since his election in 2005, was part of a strategy to buy the Israeli government time in order to impose its own unilateral ‘solution’ to the conflict.
He emphasized that it was the duty of the Palestinian, Israel and international peace movements to bring about the failure of this plan through continued resistance against all manifestations of the occupation, and that non-violent methods were the most effective means of doing so. He cited recent legislative elections as a victory of non-violent struggle, whereby Israel was forced to retreat on threats to prevent elections from taking place in Jerusalem through a combination of peaceful Palestinian resistance and pressure from the international community.
[1] Akiva Eldar. Documents reveal illegal West Bank building project. Haaretz, 3 January 2006.