Israeli forces indicated that they were responding to rock-throwing by protesters, but since the army closed all the village's entrances with checkpoints and forbade the media from entering, Ma'an was not able to independently confirm these allegations.
Dozens of Palestinian and international protestors, including parliamentarian and former Information Minister Mustafa Al-Barghouti, who chairs the Palestinian National Initiative, reportedly suffered tear-gas inhalation as Israeli forces fired canisters at the crowd, which numbered around 100.
...weekly demonstration against Israel's separation barrier, which cuts through the Ramallah-area village to protect a nearby settlement. Demonstrations marking Palestinian Prisoners Day were also held in the nearby villages of Bil'in and Ma'sara.
Video footage of last week's violence in Nil'in:
Israeli officer invading Palestinian village: "Everyone who throws stones we will shoot in the leg. Everyone who throws stones will lose his leg."
An urgent fact-finding mission to Ni'lin was held on Tuesday after the Israeli military began what activists have termed an escalation of repression against human rights defenders in the village. The visit was aimed at raising awareness about "the gravity of the attack on the village and the people's fundamental rights of freedom of expression, assembly and association" and, in turn, to extend protection to Ni'lin.
.....detention of 11 people in less than one week... during night raids by the Israeli military in the village inhabitants are subjected to harassment, intimidation and destruction of property. In at least one case, the army arrested the father of a targeted human rights defender to press him to hand himself over.
......Palestinian political leaders and 11 European diplomats responded to the invitation to learn more about the ongoing arrests and the situation in Nil'in, which has lost over the last 60 years 48,000 of its original 58,000 dunums of land. The wall on the western side, and a military base on the southern side, will strip Ni'lin of a further 2,500 dunums of land by the time it is completed.
In an interview with Ma'an on Tuesday, Barghouthi said Palestinians will begin asking the European Union to take a stand on what he termed Israeli violence against unarmed demonstrators.
"They tell us – don't use violence, not even in self-defense against terrible Israeli violence," he said. "We will tell them: the EU cannot continue to be impartial. The EU has great leverage over Israel, if they want to use it. The least they can do is stop military cooperation."
According to Khalida Jarrah, a parliament member ....... told the 11 EU diplomats that "this message must reach the international community. We haven't seen a strong reaction from the international community. The popular resistance movement is a political movement, which requires a political solution, and political support."
Jarrah concluded by saying the Palestinians' "demands are very simple: to live in freedom." Full story
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