Every Friday since December 2009, residents of the town of Nabi Salih, not far from the booming Palestinian city of Ramallah, gather together with journalists, supporters, and onlookers from around the world to march down the hillside in protest of the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
And each and every Friday, Israeli soldiers congregate at the bottom of the hill, waiting to push back the protests.
Journalists frequent the weekly protests, and while visiting Ramallah last month to learn more about what it's like to live and work there, I joined them for Business Insider. Armed with only a camera and sunglasses, I got a ride out to the small town before the action began, stationing myself at a gas station on the road down from the center of town.
Click here to see my experience in the protest >
The protests began in December 2009, when settlers from the nearby Israeli settlement of Halamish seized control of and barred Palestinians from Ein al-Kaws, a spring on land traditionally owned by the most prominent family in Nabi Salih. The settlers have been ordered to stop construction on the land, but Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that they continue to construct generally tourism-related objects around it and prevent Palestinian access.
However, a resident of a nearby town suggested that the continuing protests—which criticize the occupation of Palestinian territory rather than the spring alone—have dissuaded Israeli soldiers from taking stronger action to halt the settlers' projects.
With the issue of the spring still unresolved—not to mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general—these protests have now become routine. Palestinians march down the hill and block it with stones, Israeli soldiers push them back by spewing sewage, firing tear gas canisters, and shooting rubber bullets.
The Palestinian protestors unambiguously suffer the greatest casualties. Late last year, 28-year-old Mustafa Tamimi was killed after being hit by a tear gas canister at close range. According to human rights organization B'Tselem, Israeli soldiers entered villagers homes in the middle of the night to photograph children over the age of 10, which could make it difficult for them to obtain documentation to move about the country later on. Soldiers have also been known to raid the village and arrest anyone involved in illegal protests, particularly activist Bassem el-Tamimi, who garnered international attention after the Israeli authorities accused him of inciting violence.
Palestinians, on the other hand, are not completely without fault. Younger protestors—generally children and young men—do throw stones at the soldiers, antagonizing if generally not harming them. While they argue that the Israeli response to these actions is unwarranted, it nonetheless feeds arguments that such demonstrations are violent on both sides.
From an economic standpoint, these protests belie a deep inefficiency in the West Bank that will not be resolved until many of the problems of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are resolved. While Friday is considered a weekend day, the weekly conflicts nonetheless restrict travel and commerce throughout the West Bank. Inputs of time and material by both Palestinians and Israelis are enormous. And the continuing strife does little to mitigate ongoing tensions between the two sides.
The demonstration marked the only time that I felt uncomfortable and unsafe during my stay in the West Bank.
This report is part of a Business Insider series on the Palestinian economy and the state of the Isreali-Palestinian conflict.
Demonstrations begin at the town's central square. Luckily, I met some foreign journalists and observers who had done this before, and walked with them to join the group.
Residents of Nabi Salih and outside protestors began the demonstration by marching down the road leading down the hill from the center of town. There wasn't a huge turnout on June 22.
A large percentage of the protesters were children. Other reporters and I followed and stood to the side.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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