Palestinians tear-gassed in West Bank anti-settlement rally


Scores of Palestinians on Friday suffered temporary asphyxiation and rubber bullet injuries after Israeli troops dispersed anti-settlement protests in several parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Israeli forces used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse Palestinians who had gathered in the West Bank town of Bilin to mark ten years since they began holding weekly rallies against ongoing Israeli settlement construction.At least one Palestinian was arrested, another was seen being taken away by ambulance after a blow to the head and several suffered tear gas inhalation."Today we honor the tenth anniversary of our weekly march. We will not let up on our struggle to liberate our land," said Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall in Bilin.Since 2005, Bilin residents have staged weekly rallies each Friday to protest ongoing settlement building by Israel and Israel's separation wall, which snakes through the occupied West Bank isolating several Palestinian communities.In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, meanwhile, there was a violent protest on a different anniversary, that of the massacre of Muslim worshippers by a Jewish settler.On February 25, 1994, Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein gunned down 29 Palestinians praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque.Hebron's main street was partly closed to Palestinians afterwards and later declared a "closed military zone," restricting Palestinian access to residents of the immediate area -- and then on foot only.Hundreds of Palestinians marched after Muslim prayers on Friday to demand the reopening of the street, whose closure has had a domino effect throughout the central commercial district.