“5 BROKEN CAMERAS” STAR IYAD BURNAT AMONG THOSE SHOT BY ZIONIST FORCES

        Bethlehem, 29 Dzulhijjah 1434/3 November 2013 (MINA) – Iyad Burnat, star of the Oscar-nominated film 5 Broken Cameras, was among those shot by Israeli forces during the weekly protest in his village of Bilin on Friday.

        Israeli forces opened fire on a demonstration against the separation wall four in Bilin on Friday afternoon, injuring four individuals including Iyad Burnat and two other members of his family. Dozens of others suffered from excessive tear gas inhalation.

        Iyad was struck by two rubber-coated steel bullets in the thigh, Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting. In a Facebook post on Friday evening, Burnat said that he was “fine.”

        He added in a separate post on Saturday that “the bullet that does not kill us makes us stronger.”

         Iyad Burnat is the brother of Emad Burnat, a Palestinian farmer whose film 5 Broken Cameras was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012. He was the first Palestinian to ever receive that honor.

         Iyad Burnat is a leader of Bilin’s protest movement and was a central protagonist of the documentary film.

         The film follows Bilin villagers as they engage in a campaign of nonviolent resistance against Israeli authorities as they construct the separation wall through their village, confiscating large parts of the village lands in the process.

         Since 2005, Bilin villagers have protested on a weekly basis against the Israeli separation wall that runs through their village on land confiscated from local farmers.

         Previous protests by Bilin activists have forced the Israeli authorities to re-route the wall, but large chunks of the village lands remain inaccessible to residents because of the route.

         Friday’s protest also marked the 96th anniversary of the Balfour declaration, which declared British support for the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

         Palestinians see the declaration as paving the way for the creation of the State of Israel at the expense of the land’s indigenous inhabitants. (T/P015/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)