by Esti Na: 20 November 2012
I don’t know what to write, say, do. Last I checked – this morning, the number of martyrs in ghazze was over 90. We were either on the street or at hospital with Rushdie. When there’s a hundred martyrs, among them children, babies, sometimes a whole family wiped out, sometimes several children from one family burned/crushed/blown up/.. it’s seems almost selfish to talk about one martyr. Still.
This evening, Rushdie died. After rollercoaster at fkn ramallah hospital. Rushdie, Nariman Tamimi’s brother, the second martyr in less than a year in Nabi Saleh, Rushdie, relative of pretty much everyone here.
I could try to describe who broke down in which way, who needed medical aid, who needed to be carried away, who is still …. in ways I can’t describe. But I’m spent. I should look up what happened in Gaza and here (reports kept coming in off serious injuries, arrests, etc. in WB) but I’m worn out for tonight. Idon’t know any more. It’s all too much, been too much a good while ago. There’s no break, seems keep coming at this community here, people barely manage to get back on their feet when the next fucked up blow comes. Allah yer7amak, ya Rushdie, u Allah ya3tu alsabr 3ala a7lak.
I’ll repost what I wrote earlier about what happened here Saturday. One correction: we are not sure whether the wound on his forehead was from butt of rifle or from being dragged after getting shot, or perhaps beaten or… there’s different versions. we’ll not know cause no one could film as they were shooting life like hell.I held him in my arms trying while Nariman, Naji Tamimi and Hilme fought with the soldiers who wanted to arrest him and shoot at anyone coming close. I claimed he was my brother so they wouldn’t stop me/shoot me. I held him and asked how he was. He said he couldn’t see.
He was in ICU for two days, but “fine”, “stable”, until this afternoon when it was discovered way too late that he wasn’t, he had three temporary cardiac arrests, perhaps internal bleeding, he was too unstable to transport to Hadassa hospital, everyone had to wait for him to either die or get stabilized, we then heard he was stable, people were preparing the transfer, the transportation, and then came the news. his family has talked to him earlier today. the way the hospital dealt with things….. I‘ll write about that later. I’m tired. It hurts so much to see strong people, people i love, in this much pain AGAIN. i’ll stop here.
Nabi Saleh yesterday
what is happening these days in the rest of Palestine is no comparison to the ongoing massacre in Gaza, but as a friend said today “we’re in war and the West Bank is included” – in the sense that they army is using much more violence here. Several people and groups are trying to gather how many people were seriously injured and arrested on this side, it’s hard to know. i’ll post something about that in a bit.
But here what happened yesterday in Nabi Saleh. I’ve never heard so much life ammo being shot before – the video cut out some parts. When Rushdie brother of Nariman Tamimi, Jiji Tamimi, Noura, Shukri, Shaker, etc., nephew of Naji Tamimi among others, uncle of نعم انا جهاد and Waed Tamimi and Tamimi Ahed among others, cousin of Bilal Tamimi and Manal Tamimi among others was shot, they shot life like crazy. Tamimi Rawan Tamimi first tried to continue filming but they kept shooting. everyone kept crouching. Helmy took the camera and got up and was shot at immediately. Nariman – who was at home, actually counting her blessing that nothing serious happened for on Friday – came out running, grabbed the camera and ran down, while they kept shooting around her (video doesn’t make that clear). She only realized it’s her brother when she arrived.
Then hilme and Naji made it down in spite of threats. The soldiers kept pointing guns, shooting and wanting to arrest Rushdie. He had a head wound, while lying there, he said he couldn’t see, now we can. we thought the wound was from another bullet, but it was actually from the butt of a rifle, they hit him in the head when he was shot.
You can see how much his family had to fight and risk to get him away from the army and to hospital. He’s ok, in the sense, he will survive. he’s in the ICU, the bullet entered his leg (he says he can’t feel his leg) and went into his intestines. his family is at the hospital (again), waiting for news, while everyone is hoping no one will get arrested tonight. Interesting how much soldiers tried to hide their faces from the camera …
Video by Boshra Tamimi
Nabi Saleh Solidarity 