The enemy, in this case, is the “Separation Obstacle”. It is hard not to rejoice, even when it is a limited joy, a conditional joy, because we have won a battle, not the campaign.
First of all, a part of the land of Bil’in has been redeemed, but not all of it. The new fence will still be far from the Green Line. The length of the section to be dismantled is less than two kilometers.
Second, Bil’in is only one of many villages whose land has been stolen by means of the wall.
Third, the wall is only one of the means of occupation, and the occupation gets worse by the day.
Fourth, in many other places the Supreme Court has confirmed the path of the fence, even though it steals Palestinian land no less than at Bil’in.
Fifth, the Bil’in decision also has a negative side: it gives the court an alibi in the eyes of the world. It confers on the settlers an apparent legitimacy in many other places. It must not be forgotten for a moment that the Supreme Court is essentially an instrument of the occupation, even though it tries sometimes to mitigate it.
As if to underline this point, the court itself hastened this week to issue another ruling, giving retroactive authorization to another neighborhood that has also been built on Bil’in land.