Tag: Mustafa Tamimi

2 Palestinians arrested in Nabi Saleh still in jail for resisting occupation

17 December 2011 | Chroniques de Palestine

In a blatant demonstration of the discriminatory policies used by the Israeli authorities when it comes to deal with protesters; out of the 21 persons who were arrested during the demonstration in Nabi Saleh on 16.12.2011, all the Israeli and internationals were released while two Palestinians are still in custody and are accused with ludicrous charges such as assaulting Israeli settler or throwing stones. This is so outrageous when you see how much the Israeli army kept assaulting the unarmed protesters yesterday, showering them with tear gas canisters and sound bombs directly at heads levels. In response the protesters just kept walking, chanting and shouting slogans, waving Palestinian flags and posters with the portraits of Mustafa Tamimi; killed the week before. Stones were thrown towards the “invaders” after they attack the crowd which was marching towards the entrance of the village.

Mohammad Katib from Bi’lin, one of the leaders of the Palestinian popular resistance, arrested when a group of protesters walked towards the entrace of the Halamish settlement during the weekly demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Salih, 16.12.2011. Photo by: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org/
Mohammad Tamimi, a photographer of the village of Nabi Salih, is seen getting arrested by Israeli soldiers when a group of protesters walked towards the village’s confiscated spring during the weekly demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, 16.12.2011. Photo by: Keren Manor/Activestills.org

Both Palestinians who were arrested were unarmed; they were protesting against the occupation and colonization of their lands. Arrests of human rights defenders and Palestinians involved in the popular resistance is no exceptional this is routine practice from the Israeli Occupying forces which this way attempt to curtail any dissent.

This is not an coincidence that they are trying to charge Mohammad Katib, one the main leaders of popular resistance in Palestine. The fact that he is from Bi’lin and was in Nabi Saleh was also significant, it shows that the struggles of these villages are not disconnected. And this is exactly what Israel fears- that the struggles in those villages grow and take the popular resistance to another level.

Mohammad Tamimi from Nabi Saleh was also arrested when he walked towards the Israeli soldiers who were preventing the protesters to reach the village spring which was confiscated two years ago by the settlers. Mohammad is known to be the photographer of the village.

Both were arrested in doing exactly the same thing as the others 19 who were arrested in the same circumstances. Actually the Israeli army should have arrested all of us- the hundreds of protesters who joined this Friday the villagers of Nabi Saleh to raise our voice against the continuing oppression in Palestinians and to honour Mustafa Tamimi, killed in cold blood the week before by an Israeli soldier courageously half hidden in a military jeep. He shot directly at Mustafa’s face from a distance less than 10 meters.

The details about the charges and proceedings against Mohammad Katib and Mohammad Tamimi will be clearer in the next hours and a campaign is now starting to demand their immediate release. If they are arrested and jailed for what they did yesterday, then we should all be.

21 arrested in Nabi Saleh demonstration commemorating the death of Mustafa Tamimi

16 December 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Soldiers attacked the peaceful demonstration, shooting tear-gas projectiles directly at protesters. 21 were arrested in an attempt to block the entrance to Halamish settlement and to reach the village’s confiscated spring

Hundreds joined the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh today, marking the killing of Mustafa Tamimi (28), who was shot in the face during the weekly protest in the village last Friday. Tamimi was shot from a distance of less than 10 meters behind the semi-open door of an armored military jeep.

The demonstration held today commenced peacefully from the center of the village towards the spring confiscated by the nearby settlement Halamish. Shortly after arriving to the point where Tamimi was shot last week, the march was attacked by a shower tear-gas, shot by Border Police battalions, in both arch direction and directly towards protesters. Massive amounts of tear-gas were shot continuously for approximately 30 minutes, despite the fact that no stone throwing was taking place. In addition, the “Skunk” truck carrying foul-smelling water was used to spray the entire area including the large crews of press present.

During the same time, a group of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists were blocking the entrance to the settlement of Halamish, built adjacent Nabi Saleh, on privately owned Palestinian land. 10 protesters were arrested in this attempt.

In the village, clashes started erupting between local youth and the army. A small group of protesters, who managed to get quite close to the spring, were also arrested. A Palestinian woman was pepper-sprayed by a Border Policemen for no evident reason. Several protesters and media personnel were slightly injured by tear gas canisters. One of them was evacuated to receive medical treatment.

Another group of Palestinian protesters were arrested while already leaving the village, when a taxi going to Ramallah was stopped by the army. All commuters were taken off the car and a number of them were arrested. All arrestees were taken to the Benyamin police station and most of them are charged with road blocking and entrance to close military zone.

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 such practices have already 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.

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 2011, the Israeli Army has carried 76 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 76, 18 were minors. Dozens more were detained for shorter periods.

 

The death of a stone-thrower

by Jonathan Pollak

13 December 2011 | Haaretz

Mustafa Tamimi threw stones. Unapologetically and sometimes fearlessly. Not on that day alone, but nearly every Friday. He also concealed his face. Not for fear of the prison cell, which he had already come to know intimately, but in order to preserve his freedom, so he could continue to throw stones and resist the theft of his land. He continued to do this until the moment of his death.

According to British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, in response to the reports about the shooting of Tamimi, the spokesman of the GOC Southern Command wondered on his Twitter account: “What was Mustafa thinking running after a moving jeep while throwing stones #fail.” Thus, simply and mockingly, the spokesman explained why Tamimi was to blame for his own death.

Mustafa Tamimi, from the village of Nabi Saleh – son to Ikhlas and Abd al-Razak, brother to Saddam and Ziad, to the twins Oudai and Louai and sister Ola – was shot in the head at close range on Friday. Hours later, at 9:21 on Saturday morning, he died of his wounds. A gas grenade was fired at him from an armored military Jeep at a distance of only a few meters. It was not out of fear that the person who did fired the shot hit him. He poked the barrel of the rifle through the door of the armored vehicle and fired with clear intent. The shooter is a soldier. His identity remains unknown and perhaps it will always remain unknown. Maybe this is for the best. Identifying him and punishing him would only serve to whitewash the crimes of the entire system. As if the indifferent Israeli civilian, the sergeant, the company commander, the battalion commander, the brigade commander, the division commander, the defense minister and the prime minister had no part in the shooting.

The army spokesman was right. Mustafa died because he threw stones; he died because he dared to speak a truth, with his hands, in a place where the truth is forbidden. Any discussion of the manner of the shooting, its legality and the orders on opening fire, infers that the landlord is forbidden to expel the trespasser. Indeed, the trespasser is allowed to shoot the landlord.

Mustafa’s body is lying lifeless because he had the courage to throw stones on the 24th anniversary of the first intifada, which begot the Palestinian children of the stones. His brother Oudai is imprisoned at Ofer Prison and was not allowed to attend the funeral, because he too dared to throw stones. And his sister was not allowed to be at his bedside in his final moments, even though she is not suspected of having thrown stones, but because she is a Palestinian.

Mustafa was a brave man killed because he threw stones and refused to be afraid of a soldier bearing arms, sitting safely in the military jeep covered in armor. On the day Mustafa died, the frozen silence roaming the valley was only slightly less chilling than the shrilling sound of his mother’s laments which fell upon it occasionally.

Thousands of stone-throwers followed him at his funeral. He was lowered into his grave and stones covered his body. Soldiers stood at the entrance to his village. Even the anguish and solitude of separation was intolerable for the army, who set their soldiers and arms to shower mourners with teargas as they went down to village lands following the funeral. While the soldier who shot Mustafa is at large, six of the demonstrators were put behind bars.

Mustafa, we walk behind your body with our heads bowed and eyes full of tears. We cherish you, because you died for throwing stones and we did not.

I was Mustafa Tamimi

by Refaat Alareer

12 December 2011 | In Gaza, My Gaza!

Fifteen years ago I was Mustafa Tamimi. Two months before that it was a relative who had his skull smashed by an explosive bullet from an Israeli sniper. Later that same week another neighbor lost his eye. Before and since then, the same situation has been repeating itself again and again: an armored jeep, a soldier armed to teeth, a tiny figure of mere flesh and bones, and a stone smeared with blood on the side of the road. That’s the saga of Palestine. That’s our tale, full of injustice and oppression, whose hero struts and frets and whoever gets in his way is doomed. But we get in his way anyway.

The pain the two rubber-coated bullets caused I can’t feel now. They do not hurt. But the grinning face of the Rambo-like Israeli soldier still does. I was mature enough then to realize that those were enemies, our enemies who are messing up everything in our lives. (I did not need anyone to teach me that by the way because I have eyes that see and ears that hear). Never had I thought then that those soldiers were sometimes doing the occupation thing for “merry sport”. Despite the glaring gazes, the frowns that left their faces wrinkled and the beatings some of my friends and I had for just being there, I had the impression that the Israeli soldiers who hit a Palestinian boy spent their nights mooning about what they did. They apparently did not. And that grin was the proof. And Mustafa Tamimi’s the most recent walking (had not he been put down) evidence.

Yet, I blame Mustafa.

Yes, he is to blame. He is to blame for believing deep in his heart that those trigger-happy soldiers may not shoot directly at him and if they do they might not shoot to kill. He is to blame for not armoring his body with shields of steel. He is to blame for fighting for his rights. 10 thousand dead Palestinians in the past ten years or so prove without doubt that when Israeli soldiers shoot they shoot to kill and when they aim, they aim to hit. And yet again, not once have we heard of a Palestinian quitting his struggle for independence and human rights for that reason. Instead, anger, protests, resistance, and determination would grow day by day and hour by hour. In doing so, Israel seems to be pushing the Palestinians yet again towards a corner whose options are very limited and whose consequences might be devastatingly harmful for both sides.

No peaceful protests. So?

Israel’s aggression against the peaceful protesters in the West Bank (particularly in Nilin, Bilin, and Nabi Saleh) that culminated in the brutally premeditated killing of Mustafa Tamimi is but a powerful expression of Israel’s policy: even peaceful demos are not welcome and are to be met with force and fire. That obviously leaves the doors wide open for Palestinians to think of other possible ways to inflict pain as a reaction to the barbarity of an army that insists on turning a deaf ear to the pleas of the people whose lands, and fields, and properties and houses are being destroyed and/or seized and confiscated forever. That rings a bell?

That reminds us of the projectile of the first and the second intifada.

The Palestinian Intifadas did not start out of the blue, and the next day Palestinian resistance groups were throwing homemade rockets at settlements and Israeli towns. Ten years ago not one single Palestinian (not even those with the wildest imagination) could have foreseen that certain kinds of rockets will be used in the struggle. But Israel made it possible. By crushing stone throwers, Israel was, albeit not directly, saying to the Palestinians, “you better think of other weapons”. And Palestinians did.

 Therefore, the two intifadas developed not according to the laws of necessity and inevitability or in regards to a certain theory of evolution: a stone, a Molotov cocktail, a gun and then homemade rockets. Israel developed it. As we were throwing stones, thinking that that would deter and curb the ills and evils of the occupation, Israel was growing fiercer and fiercer: evolving from shooting to injure, to Rabin’s bone-smashing policy, to shooting to kill, to collective destruction, to mass killings.

A third Intifada is looming in the horizon, I believe. We can see it in the sparks coming out of the barrels of Israeli automatic guns. We can see it in the lifeless, yet full of life, body of Mustafa Tamimi. We can see it in the grins of the soldiers, who while shooting at Palestinians, intend to kill. It is Israel that is making the third intifada inevitable.

Refaat Alareer is a young academic and writer from Gaza who blogs at www.thisisgaza.wordpress.com. You may follow him on twitter at @ThisisGazaVoice

Mourning Mustafa Tamimi as Israeli soldiers escalate violence

by Alistair George

11 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Over two thousand people attended the funeral of Mustafa Tamimi in Nabi Saleh today.  Tamimi was killed during a protest in Nabi Saleh on Friday after he was struck in the face by a tear gas canister fired at close range by the Israeli military.  He was 28 years old.

Mustafa Tamimi (left) a moment before his injury. Circled in red are the barrel of the gun and the projectile that hit him. Picture credit: Haim Scwarczenberg

At least six people were arrested and several people were injured as the Israeli military reacted violently to protests following the funeral.  Despite the nature of Tamimi’s death, the Israeli military continued the practice of  firing tear gas canisters directly at  protesters.  Although it is permissible to fire tear gas canisters in an arc to disperse demonstrations, it is forbidden to use them as weapons by firing them directly at protesters.

 At least seven people were treated by the Red Crescent paramedics and one protester was taken to hospital after suffering from severe tear gas inhalation and respiratory problems.  One protester sustained a wound to the head, which paramedics suggested came from being struck by a tear gas canister.

 Over 100 people gathered at the hospital in Ramallah this morning from 9am.  Just before 10am, Tamimi’s body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, was carried from the hospital through central Ramallah.  The crowd chanted slogans and waved Palestinian flags as they carried his body – some held up posters showing a photograph of Tamimi’s bloodied face; his orbital lobe was smashed where the tear gas canister hit his right eye. Tamimi’s body was then taken in an ambulance to Nabi Saleh, the village 20km north of Ramallah where he lived.  A long procession of cars and taxis followed as people joined from Ramallah for the ceremony.

 Upon reaching Nabi Saleh, mourners gathered and walked up the main road leading to the mosque in the village. The approach was strewn with spent tear gas canisters from previous demonstrations. Tamimi’s body was taken to the family’s house and then to the village’s mosque at around 11:30. The village’s mosque was packed and people performed the noon prayer, followed by the Janazah prayer, customary after a death. Tamimi was then carried to the village’s cemetery where he was buried as mourners chanted and made speeches.  Bouquets of flowers and tributes were laid over his grave.  As the funeral drew to a close, hundreds of demonstrators headed out of the village to protest against the killing, where they were met by several military vehicles and dozens of Israeli soldiers.

 The military fired tear gas canisters and deployed a foul-smelling water cannon at protesters, some of whom threw stones in response.  The military fired tear gas canisters directly into houses and gardens lining the road at the entrance to the village.

The mourning of Mustafa Tamimi - Click here for more images

Several protesters headed out of the village down the slopes towards the Ein al-Qaws spring, which is the focus of the weekly protests in the village.  The spring and surrounding area was taken over by residents of Halamish, a nearby illegal Israeli settlement, in 2009.  Hundreds of protesters have been injured in Nabi Saleh but Tamimi was the first fatality during the demonstrations in the village.  Tamimi was the twentieth person to be killed at similarWest Bankdemonstrations over the past eight years, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

 The protesters confronted Israeli military personnel on the road, demanding to know “who killed Mustafa?”.  The military responded to the peaceful demonstration by violently shoving, choking and kicking Palestinian and international protesters.  Soldiers dragged one protester across the road by his neck and crushed another’s head into the ground with his arm.  One soldier grabbed a poster of Tamimi and tore it up.  They detonated sound bombs in the middle of crowds of protesters, the explosions causing ringing in the ears.  They also fired tear gas canisters directly into crowds of protesters.  At least two international protesters were arrested, including a member of ISM, and four Israeli peace activists were arrested.  They are currently being held at Abu Dis station, near Ramallah.  No Palestinians were arrested.  The Israeli military violently shoved a number of press photographers who were attempting to cover the protest.

 Ibrahim Bornat, 28, was with Tamimi when he died; “We were alone, with the rest of the protest quite far behind.  We were chasing the jeep, telling it to leave the village.”  Bornat says that one jeep waited for them, opened the door and fired two tear gas canisters directly at them, from a distance of around three meters.  When the first tear gas canister was fired, Bornat claims that “Mustafa pushed me so it went over my head, the second one hit him but I didn’t realize…I thought maybe he had passed out from the gas.  I went to him and turned him over and took the cloth off his face.  It’s worse than any words I can say…the side of his face was blown off, the eye was hanging out and I pushed it back but I could see the inside of his head.”

 Bornat says that, although Tamimi’s heart may have been revived later temporarily, he knew he was dead – “When I was holding him, I’m sure that he died in my arms.  He let out a gasp and his soul left.”

 According to Bornat, there were no ambulances around, so they put Tamimi in a service [communal taxi] but the Israeli military stopped it and tried to arrest Tamimi, until they realized how seriously injured he was.  Bornat says that Tamimi lay on the ground for half an hour, receiving treatment by the Israelis, until someone fetched his ID card; “They were doing something but he needed to be taken to hospital right away.”

 Bornat was not surprised at the actions of the Israeli military – “The occupation maintains itself through killing” he said.

 Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).