The Demonstration Before Tear Gas. Photo: Joseph Dana/popularstruggle.org

The demonstration was much smaller than the previous weeks. However, there was a television crew from Channel Two present. We were told that they had another crew embedded with the army for a story about the demonstration which would air on a weekend news show. As we marched to the barrier, I was eager to see how the army would handle the demonstration with the presence of such important Israeli media. Would they not fire any tear gas? Would they arrest people?

We arrived at the barrier and the chanting began. The demonstration was in honor of Jonathan Pollak and a number of demonstrators formed a peace sign each holding a photo of Pollak. Twenty minutes into the demonstration there was no tear gas. Soldiers threw a couple of sound bombs and had resorted to spraying demonstrators with the "skunk’, a horrible pertochemical that smells like shit and stays on your skin for weeks, but there was no tear gas. I told one of the Channel Two people that it was unusual that the army had restrained on the gas and the reason was most likely the crews presence.

The Demonstration with Tear Gas. Photo Joseph Dana/popularstruggle.org

As we were talking some Palestinian youth began to throw stones at the barrier and soldiers. Great, I thought to myself, Channel Two is going to paint this whole thing as a violent riot. The Israeli public will eat it up and use it as proof that the army can do no wrong in their treatment of unarmed demonstrations in the West Bank.

The stone throwers were calmed down after a short time by leaders of the popular committee in Bil’in. Mohammad Khatib, the coordinator of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, read a brilliant speech by Gandhi on the megaphone and then informed the crowd in three languages, English, Arabic and Hebrew, that the demonstration was over. He thanked everyone for coming, invited all of us for tea and vowed that we will return next week and the week after and the week after.

Will Channel Two Report the Tear Gas? Photo Joseph Dana/popularstruggle.org

Oren Ziv, the incredible photographer with Activestills, walked next to me as we made our way to the village. "This is a historical event," he said, "there was no tear gas in Bil’in!" Literally as he said those words to me, the gate in the barrier opened behind us and thirty soldiers entered and began chasing the demonstrators. Suddenly, there was tear gas in every direction and big clouds were engulfing parts of the channel two news crew. Without warning and as we were walking back to the village, we were all attacked with gas.

I ran to the Channel Two reporter who I had been chatting with throughout the day. "Do you see?" I asked in a huff. "This is how it normally is here. We just said on the megaphone that the demo is over!" She was in disbelief and clearly shaken by what she had experienced. As if she came out of a shell, she began agreeing with you, "yes yes yes, I will make sure it goes into the report. This is just insane!"

So there you have it. The army seems to never miss an opportunity to attack unarmed demonstrations in the West Bank even when mainstream Israeli news is filming. So, how is Channel Two going to show the events of day?