Residents of the Palestinian village of Bilin on the West Bank staged a demonstration against the separation barrier being built by Israel in the area. Around 400 protestors including Palestinian, foreign and Israeli activists, marched towards the site where the barrier is being built contrary to the World Court ruling.
The Israeli army arrived in force at the site and managed to disperse the crowd using a new crowd-dispersal device that emits painful bursts of sound at a special frequency. The demonstration had lasted several hours and was becoming increasingly violent when a military vehicle arrived and emitted several bursts of sounds, each burst lasting for about 60 seconds.
Witnesses say that though the sound itself was not loud, it caused some sort of reaction in the assembled people who covered their ears and grabbed their heads in discomfort. The crowd had begun throwing stones at the soldiers prior to this. One soldier was wounded in the eye when a stone hit him. Besides the strange sound machine, Israeli soldiers also used clubs and stun grenades in their attempts to disperse the crowd.
Israeli military officials confirmed that the new sound device was a part of the “nonlethal” tactic in the West Bank to disperse the crowd. Requesting anonymity due to strict army regulations, the officials said that the weapon uses special "voice frequencies" to disperse crowds. The technology was developed over the past four years, but was never used in a live situation before yesterday. They declined to give further details.
Israel has already completed about one-third of the proposed 425-mile barrier, saying that it is necessary to keep out suicide bombers from the West Bank. This is despite the ruling of the World Court which had asked Israel to stop the construction. The Palestinians say that the barrier was like an 'apartheid' wall and encroached into the West Bank in some areas.
