Peace Prize Winner, Nonviolent Marchers Attacked by Israeli Army
Watch the video of the attack
Commentary
By Kathy Kamphoefner and Paul Pierce,
Quaker International Affairs Representatives
What happened?
With sound bombs, tear gas, and rubber bullets, the Israeli army attacked a weekly nonviolent march protesting the Separation Wall in the West Bank town of Bil’in on April 20, 2007. The march followed the second annual Bil’in Conference on Nonviolent Popular Joint Struggle.
During the peaceful demonstration, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who gave the conference’s keynote address, was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet and suffered from severe tear gas inhalation. Two dozen other people were also injured.
More about the march against the Separation Wall
On the morning of Friday, April 20, Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Palestinian Minister of Information Mustafa Barghouti spoke at a press conference at the Separation Wall in Bil’in. The press conference took place after the Bil’in nonviolence conference.
At the press conference, they called for the international community to honor the International Court of Justice’s decision and push for the dismantling of the structure. The two also called for the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who is still missing after two months in Gaza following his kidnapping.
Ironically, the very armed forces Maguire categorized as ”children of God and part of the human family,” interrupted the press conference and declared the area a closed military zone. They ordered the few villagers and many journalists in attendance to leave in five minutes.
While Maguire pointed out the lack of free speech for Palestinians, the Israeli army drove their jeeps through the audience and shot a water canon in the middle of the crowd. The soldiers pushed those gathered out of the area, causing one villager to fall. Half a dozen soldiers then repeatedly bashed him against the ground, and then arrested him.
Two hours later, the weekly march in Bil’in against the Separation Wall began. Well before the peaceful protestors could approach the Wall, Israeli soldiers began firing tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound bombs at them.
In the unprovoked attack, a rubber bullet hit Mairead Corrigan Maguire in the leg and she received such a large dose of tear gas that her nose began to bleed. Maguire said, following her injuries, that, in all her years as a peace activist in Northern Ireland, she had not seen such violence or been the victim of such a brutal attack.
Other marchers had their hands up in the air, asking the soldiers not to shoot them. The Israeli soldiers fired anyway, with rubber bullets. The army’s actions were their all-too-common response to nonviolent demonstrations in the West Bank. By the end of the march two dozen people were injured.
Email this page