In the village of Beit Sira Monday night, February 20th, the Israeli forces began tearing up the road connecting the village to the Latroun Area. The Route of the wall in Beit Sira is designed to annex the Makabim settlement and more of Beit Sira's land to Israel. The villagers have responded with continuous non violent resistance and have succeeded in stopping the destruction for considerable lengths of time.
At 8:30 the following morning around 100 villagers gathered near the portion of the road that had been destroyed.
The DCO arrived and informed the people that the road would be destroyed in order to make space to replant some of the several hundred trees which are scheduled to be bulldozed as part of the construction of the annexation wall.
The village responded to this news by setting up a protest tent between the olive trees slated for destruction next to the road.
For most of the day there was little interference from the soldiers. In the afternoon soldiers arrived with an order stating that the road and the land between the road and the path of the wall was a closed military zone and the tent needed to be moved. After some negotiations between members of Beit Sira's Popular Committee and the soldiers, the tent was moved out of the closed military zone and the non-violent demonstration continued.
Eventually the situation escalated with soldiers firing rubber bullets at youth throwing stones. Israeli forces also fired tear gas at non-violent demonstrators after the villagers had ended the demonstration, packed up the tent and were heading back to the village. No one was injured or arrested.
The following day, Wednesday the 22nd, the non-violent protest continued. At 11 am approximately 60 Palestinians, and ten Israeli and international solidarity activists marched from the village to the road. When they reached the road they found bulldozers at work tearing up more of the road. A protest tent was set up in the middle of the road and demonstrators sat in the tent and in the road. The village succeeded in stopping the work of the bulldozers for the entire afternoon.
A group of youth were returning to the village and soldiers began violently pushing them off of the road. While attempting to de-escalate the situation, an Israeli and an international were violently detained. Several soldiers held the international, pushing his face into the gravel road causing his face to bleed. They were released soon after without being charged.
The demonstration was completely non-violent, not a single stone was thrown all afternoon.
On Thursday February 23rd, At 9 in the morning the demonstration began, marching from the village to the road. The demonstration succeeded in stopping the work of the bulldozers on the road. The Israeli army fired live ammunition into the air, threw many sound grenades and violently pushed the peaceful demonstrators. The village continued to peacefully block the road. The peace tent was brought and again set up in the middle of the road.
There was a sort of agreement between the DCO and the village Popular Committee that the bulldozers would leave the site and the villagers would return to the village. The bulldozers left the road, and for a moment seemed to be following the agreement. But they turned into the field of olive trees and began to uproot them.
The villagers returned and attempted to reach the bulldozers, but the soldiers pushed the demonstrators back and beat them with clubs and sticks. The soldiers fired live ammunition into the air and rubber bullets directly into the crowd of people. They shot tear gas as some people dispersed. 10 people were injured by the rubber bullets, including one hit in the back of the head and one in the face. Several Israeli activists were detained and beaten, 2 were released about 20 minutes later, 2 others, Yonatan Polak and Kobi were arrested and held in police custody until the evening. In response to the soldiers extreme use of violence, only 5 or 10 stones were thrown.
Matan, an Israeli activist said of the demonstration 'I have never seen anything like it, accept for when the army attacked us not one stone was thrown. 10 year old boys were watching over the telling 6 year old boys and telling them not to throw stones.'
The villagers regrouped on the road and continued to demonstrate peacefully until the popular committee decided to return to the village and continue the struggle tomorrow.