"Hooligan Activists"

The week that I arrived in Palestine, over 200 activists from the US and Europe were arrested at Ben Gurion airport. Many of those detained belonged to the Freedom Flotilla. These activists initially planned to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza (including food and medicines), however, their flotilla's were conveniently blocked by the Israeli government, hence, their resort to Plan B - flying into Israel. In addition to their arrests, several activists from another social justice initiative called "Welcome to Palestine" were immediately arrested upon landing at Ben Gurion.  The Israeli government labelled the activists as "hooligans" and accused them of "disturbing the peace."

Nevertheless, several activists still made it to Palestine and I participated in a peaceful demonstration alongside them* in Ma'asara on Friday, July 15th. The weekly anti-wall demonstration in Ma'asara is led by a member of the community named Mahmoud. Following a short briefing by Mahmoud we made our way over to the area where Israel plans to build a wall that will cut deep into the village and ultimately take away 60% of their land (unfortunately, a typical story). Trained activists remained peaceful, and at one point we lifted our arms while facing the Israeli soldiers who were blocking our path. The demonstration lasted for about one hour and the soldiers, thankfully, hardly got violent. The demonstrations will go on...

P.S. I encourage you to watch the amazing film Budrus which tells the story of a village that used nonviolent methods to oppose the separation wall that was planned to take parts of their village including olive groves. Through regular & strategic peaceful demonstrations, the villagers succeeded in pushing the planned route of the wall back, closer to the Green Line.

*A majority of the nonviolent activists were Welcome to Palestine participants from France, Spain, and Italy.