Photos by: Oren Ziv and Tweet Palestine/Video by David Reeb: 25 Januray 2013
Video by David Reeb
A Palestinian boy aged 16 or 17 years receiving medical treatment after being hit in head by a tear gas shot by Israeli forces, during a weekly demonstration in the village of Nabi Saleh, West Bank, January 25, 2013.
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has written to Israeli army officials protesting the firing of live ammunition against protesters in the West Bank.
Two Palestinians were killed and dozens injured at protests in the West Bank against Israel’s war on Gaza.
B’Tselem executive director Jessica Montell demanded that it be made unequivocally clear to soldiers and commanders that there is an absolute prohibition on shooting live ammunition at stone throwers.
“B’Tselem also demanded that crowd control weapons like tear gas and rubber-coated bullets be utilized in accordance with open-fire regulations and in a manner that does not endanger human life,” the group said in a statement.
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers shot 31-year-old Rushdi Tamimi in Nabi Saleh. He died in a Ramallah hospital two days later. On Monday, Israeli forces shot dead Hamdi al-Falah, 22, in Hebron.
An investigation by B’Tselem found that al-Falah had pointed a laser pen at the soldiers, and that none of the stone throwers were armed.
Sixteen protesters were hit by live bullets, nine people were hit in the head by rubber-coated steel bullets and seven more were hit in the head by tear gas canisters in the West Bank during Israel’s 8-day war on Gaza, B’Tselem said.
A 14-year-old boy was declared clinically dead at al-Ahli hospital in Hebron after an Israeli border policeman fired a tear gas canister at his head, and a 20-year-old man from Bethlehem suffered a fractured skull and cerebral hemorrhaging.
“The serious injuries caused by direct hits from tear gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets are a direct result of existing practices among security forces, including the unlawful firing of these weapons, which B’Tselem has documented extensively in recent years,” the group said.
“Soldiers and border policemen shoot aluminum tear gas canisters directly at people, although military regulations forbid it.”
B’Tselem added: “In addition, security forces fire rubber bullets at shorter ranges than permitted in the regulations and in a manner that makes it impossible to avoid injuring sensitive parts of the body.
Large military forces raided the village of Nabi Saleh last night and maintained presence in the village until dawn, only to conduct another raid during the demonstration today.
Some several dozen protesters, residents of Nabi Saleh, accompanied by Palestinian, Israeli and international supporters participated in the weekly protest in the village this week. Shortly after the Friday prayer, as the demonstration was only beginning to march towards the village’s confiscated lands, the army entered the village with great force.
video by David Reeb
Shooting large amounts of tear-gas projectiles, rubber-coated bullets, soldiers occupied a space at the center of the village and remained there for several hours, effectively imposing a curfew on the village. Protesters were thus blocked with almost inability to move inside, not to mention out of Nabi Saleh. The army also used the “skunk”, a water canon of foul-smelling liquid, spraying it directly and intentionally into residential houses. Small clashed erupted, which ended after the army finally retreated. No arrests or injuries were reported.
Background Nabi Saleh is a small village of approximately 550 people, twenty kilometres north west of Ramallah in the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Israeli colony of Halamish (also known as Neveh Tzuf ) was established on lands belonging to the villages of An Nabi Saleh and Deir Nidham in 1976. In response to the illegal colony being established on their land, the residents of An Nabi Saleh and Deir Nidham began holding demonstrations in opposition to the stealing of their land and the establishment of the colony (whose establishment violates international law). The residents of An Nabi Saleh and Deir Nidham lodged a court case against the colony in Israel’s high court, but were unable to stop the construction the illegal settlement.
Since its establishment in 1977, Halamish colony has continued to expand and steal more Palestinian land. In 2008, the residents of An Nabi Saleh challenged the building of a fence by the colony on private Palestinian land and which prevented Palestinians from accessing their land.
The Israeli courts ruled that the fence was to be dismantled Despite the Israeli court ruling, the colony continued to illegally annex more Palestinian land. In the summer of 2008, the Israeli colonists from Halamish seized control of a number springs, all of which were located on private Palestinian land belonging to residents of An Nabi Saleh. In December 2009, the village began weekly non-violent demonstrations in opposition to the illegal Israeli colony of Halamish annexing of the fresh water springs and stealing of more of the village’s land.
Since An Nabi Saleh began its demonstrations, the Israeli military has brutally sought to repress the non-violent protests, arresting more than 13% of the village, including children. In total, as of 31 March 2011, 64 village residents have been arrested. All but three were tried for participating in the non-violent demonstrations. Of those imprisoned, 29 have been minors under the age of 18 years and 4 have been women.
The Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh was raided last night (Sunday) by the IDF. Nabi Saleh, which has been conducting weekly nonviolent demonstrations since the end of 2009 against Israel’s occupation and the encroaching settlement of Halamish, has been the target of repeated night raids over the last two years.
In the video below, uploaded by Bilal Tamimi, you can hear the IDF shooting stun grenades into the village and see the flashes of light they give off. Towards the end of the video, you can clearly see the IDF jeeps parked in the village, some soldiers firing shots, and then they all drive away.
Video by Bilal Tamimi, Tamimi Press.
While it is difficult to see in the dark, it seems as if the soldiers are shooting in every direction around them, nearly a full 360-degree circle. If the soldiers were being attacked in some way, it is unlikely it would be from literally all sides and besides, if they were really being threatened, they would be probably also use tear gas, not just stun grenades. It is hard to understanding this as anything other than the IDF terrorizing the village, punishing it for holding weekly demonstrations that call attention to Israel’s occupation.
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The village of Ni’lin, which recently marked five years of demonstrations, suffered an especially harsh night raid on Thursday night in which two Palestinian residents were arrested. According to the Ni’lin village website, from Saturday:
At 01:30 on Friday morning more than 120 soldiers surrounded the village of Ni’lin from all sides but the west. Thirty minutes later the soldiers invaded the village on foot accompanied by 14 military jeeps. They proceeded to raid five houses inside the village, the houses of Jameel Srour, Jammal Srour, Yousef Srour, Shukri Kawaja and Mosab Srour.
Video by Jihad Habazi
During the house raids, the families were put in one of the rooms in the house while the soldiers harshly went through their belongings, destroying furniture and leaving chaos in their wake. The five men listed above were all arrested but three of them were released later during the night. The two remaining men, Yousef and Mosab Srour were taken to an as of now unknown Israeli military facility where they are still being held as this is being written.
During the invasion of the house of Mosab Srour one of the soldiers stole NIS 1000 NiS from a moneybox of the youngest brother of Mosab. Mosabs brother had been saving this money for months, little by little from his work as a vegetable farmer and salesman. A laptop was also stolen from the house.
While this has not been verified, Palestinian residents claim that in addition to stun grenades, the IDF shot tear gas straight into civilian houses and that live ammunition was used as well.
The video, filmed on June 1, during the weekly demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, shows an Israeli officer standing in a dominant position, above two protesters, throwing stones and firing live ammunition at them.
Video by Bilal Tamimi
00:08 The first shot of live ammunition is heard, but is not seen.
00:14 An Israeli Army officer is seen throwing stones at two Palestinian youth who are standing on the road beneath him. The two protesters are also throwing stones. Three other soldiers are standing next to the officer.
00:17 After throwing a stone at the two Palestinians, the officer shoots live ammunition at them in a volley of two or three bullets. The officer clearly does not fear for his life, and is standing at a tactically advantageous position. The fact that the officer is using live ammunition and not rubber-coated bullets is evident by the lack of an attachment used for firing rubber-coated bullets on the barrel of his gun. The sound of the shooting is that of live ammo, rather than blanks.
The officer then continues to throw stones, a stun grenade and to shoot live ammunition for more than a minute. He walks to and fro and it is evident that the shooting was not made out of fear of immediate danger to his life.
01:03 The officer runs towards the two protesters and throws the stone at them standing above the two from a very sort distance. He retreats to pick up another stone as the two Palestinians throw stones back at him.
01:16 The officer advances back towards the two protesters, throws another stone and then shoots another bullet at them.
01:18 Immediately after the shot is fired, a cloud of dust can be seen rising from the road, a few inches left of one of the protesters. Since the attachment used for for firing rubber-coated bullets isn’t placed on the barrel of the officer’s gun, there could be no doubt left he is shooting live ammunition.
01:21 another shot is fired. A cloud of dust can be seen rising from the road where the bullet hits, between the two protesters. Seconds after, as the two are running away, another shot is fired and hits the road next to them.
Background Late in 2009, settlers began gradually taking over Ein al-Qaws (the Bow Spring), which rests on lands belonging to Bashir Tamimi, the head of the Nabi Saleh village council. The settlers, abetted by the army, erected a shed over the spring, renamed it Maayan Meir, after a late settler, and began driving away Palestinians who came to use the spring by force – at times throwing stones or even pointing guns at them, threatening to shoot.
While residents of Nabi Saleh have already endured decades of continuous land grab and expulsion to allow for the ever continuing expansion of the Halamish settlement, the takeover of the spring served as the last straw that lead to the beginning of the village’s grassroots protest campaign of weekly demonstrations in demand for the return of their lands.
Protest in the tiny village enjoys the regular support of Palestinians from surrounding areas, as well as that of Israeli and international activists. Demonstrations in Nabi Saleh are also unique in the level of women participation in them, and the role they hold in all their aspects, including organizing. Such participation, which often also includes the participation of children reflects the village’s commitment to a truly popular grassroots mobilization, encompassing all segments of the community.
The response of the Israeli military to the protests has been especially brutal and includes regularly laying complete siege on village every Friday, accompanied by the declaration of the entire village, including the built up area, as a closed military zone. Prior and during the demonstrations themselves, the army often completely occupies the village, in effect enforcing an undeclared curfew. Military nighttime raids and arrest operations are also a common tactic in the army’s strategy of intimidation, often targeting minors.
In order to prevent the villagers and their supporters from exercising their fundamental right to demonstrate and march to their lands, soldiers regularly use disproportional force against the unarmed protesters. The means utilized by the army to hinder demonstrations include, but are not limited to, the use of tear-gas projectiles, banned high-velocity tear-gas projectiles, rubber-coated bullets and, at times, even live ammunition. The use of banned 0.22″ munitions by snipers has also been recorded in Nabi Saleh.
The use of such practices have already brought about the death of Mustafa Tamimi and caused countless injuries, several of them serious, including those of children – the most serious of which is that of 14 year-old Ehab Barghouthi, who was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet from short range on March 5th, 2010 and laid comatose in the hospital for three weeks. Due to the wide-spread nature of the disproportionate use of force, the phenomenon cannot be attributed to the behavior of individual soldiers, and should be viewed as the execution of policy.
Tear-gas, as well as a foul liquid called “The Skunk”, which is shot from a water cannon, is often used inside the built up area of the village, or even directly pointed into houses, in a way that allows no refuge for the uninvolved residents of the village, including children and the elderly. The interior of at least one house caught fire and was severely damaged after soldiers shot a tear-gas projectile through its windows.
Since December 2009, when protest in the village was sparked, hundreds of demonstration-related injuries caused by disproportionate military violence have been recorded in Nabi Saleh.
Between January 2010 and June 2012, the Israeli Army has carried 98 arrests of people detained for 24 hours or more on suspicions related to protest in the village of Nabi Saleh, including those of women and of children as young as 11 years old. Of the 98, 31 were minors. Dozens more were detained for shorter periods. Two of the village’s protest leaders – Bassem and Naji Tamimi – arrested on protest-organizing related charges, were recognized by the European Union as human rights defenders. Bassem Tamimi was also declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, recently denounced his conviction by an Israeli military court and Human Rights Watch warned that he did not receive a fair trial.
Military Court Judge, Major Refael Yemini, ruled that Naji Tamimi, a protest leader from the village of Nabi Saleh is to remain in jail until the end of his trial for having participated in a peaceful demonstration.
Video by Khaled Sabarneh
Naji Tamimi, a 49 year-old activist from the village of Nabi Saleh, was arrested on May 15, during a demonstration at the Ni’ilin Checkpoint to commemorate the Nakba of 1948. Despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration, an Israeli military judge decided on Sunday to accept of the Military Prosecution’s motion to detain Tamimi until the end of legal proceedings against him. An appeal on the decision will be heard on Thursday at 10:30 AM, at the Military Court of Appeals.
Tamimi - who has only recently been released after a year in prison after being convicted of charges related to protest-organizing in his village – is not accused of any violence, but is, nevertheless, possibly facing two years imprisonment under Israel’s complete ban on Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank. Furthermore, during the remand hearing, the military prosecutor admitted that Tamimi has been singled out for prosecution because of who he is and not for what he has done. The prosecutor, Captain Michael Avitan, said, “Had the defendant been someone else, the prosecution would most likely would not have asked to keep him in remand”, exposing the prosecution’s political motivation. The prosecutor also mentioned the presence of journalists at the protest and the fact that protesters were holding flags and signs as an aggravating factor.
During his previous incarceration, between March 2011 to February 2012, Tamimi was recognized as a human rights defender by the European Union.
Under military order 101, practically every Palestinian demonstration in the West Bank is forbidden. A violation of the order, which outlaws any gathering of ten or more people – whether in the public domain or not – unless it was granted a special permit in writing by the military commander, is punishable by ten years imprisonment. Israeli citizens, even when in the West Bank, are not subject to the draconian order. When participating in the same demonstration, Palestinian subjects are tried by military law, while Israeli citizens tried by Israeli criminal law.
Background Naji Tamimi, a father of five and veteran grassroots activist, was born on September 2nd, 1962, in the village of Nabi Saleh. Tamimi studied accounting in Jordan, before completing a bachelor’s degree in history and political science at the Birzeit University, where he later also earned a master’s degree in Arab contemporary studies.
Tamimi comes from a family with long history in the Palestinian liberation struggle. His father was badly injured during the 1947-8 war, while serving under Abd al-Qader al-Husseini in the battle of Latrun. His elder brother, who was a PLO member based in Lebanon, was killed in 1973 during an attack staged by Israeli forces on the refugee camps of Baddawi and Nahr al-Bared. Tamimi himself has lost 17 acres of privately owned land, which were expropriated by Israeli authorities and handed over to the Israeli Jewish-only settlement of Halamish, located adjacent to Nabi Saleh from the south.
Tamimi has written extensively on both Palestinian culture and politics, and is the elected president of the Nabi Saleh cultural club. Prior to his current detention, Tamimi had spent a total of six years in Israeli prisons, in three different periods. As early as 1982, he was involved in the founding of Fatah’s Youth Committees for Social Work (al-Shabibah) in the North Ramallah area. The Shabibah was Fatah’s first serious popular enterprise, and later became one of the driving forces of the First Intifada. His latest imprisonment, a one-year sentence on charges of “incitement” and “organizing unpermitted marches”, ended in February 2012.
Tamimi’s lifelong devotion to justice and liberation remains wedded to his commitment to grassroots community organizing. He is one of the coordinators of the Nabi Saleh popular committee and a key figure in the village’s struggle to regain its lands from the settlement and end Israeli occupation.
In 1992, Tamimi married Bushra Tamimi, with which he fathers five children – two boys and three girls. He employed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, as the manager of the Infrastructure and Land Department.
Tamimi is currently detained at the Ofer Prison near Ramallah, awaiting trial. He is charged with participating in an unpremitted march, obstruction of a soldier and illegally leaving a closed area.
Israeli military judge convicted Tamimi of two charges, but acquitted him of three, based on the testimony of 15 year-old who was instructed to incriminate him. The verdict criticized the police and prosecution on minors’ interrogations
Military judge, Major Eti Adar, read the verdict in the trial of Bassem Tamimi - a prominent protest organizer from the village of Nabi Saleh - at the Ofer military court today, in front of a court room packed with diplomats, journalists and supporters. Tamimi was arrested in March of 2011, indicted on protest-organizing charges, and has spent 13 months in jail before he was granted bail last month. His trial has shed light on systematic violations of Palestinian minors’ right during police interrogations, and the use of their coerced confession to persecute political leadership.
The court acquitted Tamimi of incitement – the central charge in the indictment, as well as from obstruction of justice and failure to attend legal summons charges. However, he was convicted of organizing and participating in illegal marches and of solicitation to throw stones.
On hearing the verdict, Tamimi said, “I spent 13 months in prison for exercising my right to protest, and have now been convicted based on the testimony of a 15 year-old who was instructed by his interrogators to incriminate me. I never had any illusions about the military court and its ability to serve justice – it is, after all, an instrument of the Occupation.”
The bulk of the indictment was based on the testimonies of three youth from the village, aged 15, 19, and most heavily on that of a 14 year-old. The judge ruled the statement given by the 14 year-old, Islam Dar Ayyoub, is unreliable and could not substantiate a conviction. The court therefore acquitted Tamimi of the incitement charge, that included allegations, supported only by Dar Ayyoub’s testimony, that Tamimi had formed battalions who lead the demonstrations.
In regards to the 19 year-old’s statement, the judge ruled after viewing the recording of his interrogation, that the transcript of that was handed to the court was mendacious, and that the interrogators put words in his mouth, leading him to incriminate Tamimi.
The conviction, therefore, was based on the testimony of the 15 year-old, which the judge ruled is credible despite clear video evidence to the contrary. The audio-visual recording of his interrogation proves that he, too, was questioned in an unlawful manner, told to implicate others and was led to believe that doing so may earn him a more lenient treatment by the court. The boy was told, numerous times, “Tell us what happened [...] and who in the village incited you to throw stones. [...] (shouting) you were incited! You…. you are a young boy, incited by people. Grownups, we know. It’s the grownups who incite you, right?”
Tamimi’s trial has become the center on international interest and subject to criticism on the use of military justice to repress civil resistance to the occupation and on the treatment of minors. Following his arrest, Tamimi was recognized as a human rights defender by the European Union and pronounced a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. His verdict today was attended by a dozen diplomats, including the British, Spanish, Dutch, Slovenian and Cypriot Consul Generals, as well as the representative of the European Union. Diplomats from Germany, Sweden, Ireland the USA and the UN were also in attendance.
The Israeli Internal Affairs Division announced today that it decided to close the investigation into the shooting of Israeli activist, Ben Ronen, due to lack of evidence. The decision was reached despite a video that clearly depicts the unlawful shooting.
Israeli activist, Ben Ronen, was informed today that the investigation into his shooting by last May was closed due to lack of evidence by the Israeli Internal Affairs Devision (IAD), which is responsible for investigating crimes committed by officers of the law. Ronen suffered multiple fractures to his hand, after a Border Police officer shot a tear-gas projectile directly at him from close range during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.
In a letter received today, the IAD informed Ronen of their decision to close the case on grounds of insufficient evidence, saying, “An analysis of the evidence and different versions that arise from the case file brought us to the conclusion that a conviction in the case is improbable”.
The decision to not file indictments in the case was reached despite extensive video footage depicting the events preceding the shooting, the shooting itself and what followed it, as well as the officers’ attempts to prevent the documentation.
The footage clearly shows Border Police officers very violently attacking a group of peaceful protesters who were chanting slogans (at 00:55 into the video), especially targeting the women in the group.
Later in the video, at 03:15, the footage shows a Border Police officer who was indiscriminately shooting tear-gas projectiles directly at protesters and Ronen shouting at him to relax. The officer then steps a few meters back to his commander, who orders him to shoot Ronen, which he does. When reviewed frame-by-frame, the projectile can be seen flying towards Ronen.
Both the footage and medical documents attesting to Ronen’s injuries were handed to the IAD by Ronen’s lawyers, as well as testimonies by himself and other eye-witnesses.
Ronen’s lawyer, Adv. Gaby Lasky, said, “In light of such decisions, despite overwhelming evidence, it is impossible to view the Internal Affairs Devision as anything but a whitewash mechanism to enable the continued use of excessive force against Palestinians and their supporters”.
Israeli security forces regularly use tear-gas canister as projectiles, shooting them directly at protesters – as was done in Ronen’s case – when suppressing Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank. On December 9th, 2011, Mustafa Tamimi from Nabi Saleh suffered fatal injuries after an Israeli soldier shoot him in the face with a tear-gas projectile from close range while standing in safety inside an armored military jeep. Last Friday, a French citizen was similarly shoot with a tear-gas projectile in the back of her neck by a Border Police officer during a demonstration in the same village.
On Friday February the 3rd during the weekly popular resistance protests in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, Israeli border police fired tear gas canisters at head level directly at a group of unarmed protesters who were perhaps 25 to 30 meters away from the border police and who were merely chanting, nothing more. It should be noted that the border police are known for their vicious disproportionate and violent reactions to these kinds of protests, more so than the army itself. One tear gas canister lightly grazed the cheek of a Palestinian female protester, before hitting a French activist in the back of her head and, still propelled by its velocity, continued its course to hit a Dutch activist in his waist.
The video above, shot by local activist Nariman Tamimi, clearly captures the moment and leaves no room for doubt as to what hit the French activist, contrary to the lies emitted from the IDF spokesperson and other Israeli officials on Twitter who initially and outrageously claimed that the activist was injured from a rock thrown by a Palestinian.
Firing tear gas canisters at high velocity directly at unarmed protesters has become the staple of the Israeli army’s reaction in popular resistance protests. Two months ago, Nabi Saleh resident 28 year old Mustafa Tamimi was killed after an Israeli soldier opened the back door of the armored jeep and shot a tear gas canister at Mustafa’s face from a distance of three meters. The army has paid lip service to conducting its own investigation within the incident, which if carried out will be anything but impartial.
Today I sat down with the French activist, 20 year old Amicie P. and her Palestinian fiancé Aram S. to discuss the details of the actions that took place yesterday. The injury seemed pretty serious at first, owing to the fact that there was a large amount of blood, so it was a huge relief to see Amicie sitting next to me casually smoking cigarette after cigarette with a bandage swathed around her head.
Do you remember the moments right before the Israeli border police fired at us?
Amicie: “I was discussing with Diederik [the Dutch activist who was injured in his waist] about when we were going to leave to Ramallah. We agreed to stay for five more minutes. I wasn’t aware of when I got shot. I just felt something hit my head. It hurt me so much. I fell down and couldn’t seem to get up. People were carrying me because I wasn’t able to stand on my feet and the Israeli [border police] were still shooting at us. I wasn’t able to run. The medic Muhanad Saleem was screaming at them to stop shooting.
“I was really so afraid. I didn’t know if my injury was serious or not. I saw a lot of blood and thought of Mustafa and how he was killed in December.”
Aram:“I have asthma. I inhaled a lot of tear gas and couldn’t think clearly. I tried to help her then found myself away from her. I went mad when I heard that she was taken to one of the Israeli jeeps but it turned out that that didn’t actually happen. I was afraid they were going to deport her because she didn’t have her passport with her.”
Amicie:“The soldier asked if I were Palestinian. They wanted to take me inside one of the jeeps. They were shocked when they found out I was French. One of the soldiers panicked and took me behind from where the rest of the soldiers were standing, behind a jeep. I didn’t know if he wanted to arrest me or not but he wanted me to go inside the jeep.”
Demonstrators run in a cloud of teargas during a protest against the occupation in the west Bank village of Nabi Saleh, January 27, 2012 Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org
Demonstrators carry an injured photographer during a protest against the occupation in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, January 27, 2012. Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org