Tag: Tear-Gas Canister

Photo Essay: Demonstration in Nabi-Saleh

by David Langstaff

9th November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Palestinians rallying for the weekly demonstration against the Israeli occupation and the confiscation of land and water resources by Zionist settlers. More than 100 Palestinians and solidarity activists from around the world turned out in support.
Palestinian children at the rally holding photos of a Palestinian political prisoner.
Marching against Israeli occupation and settler encroachment.
Palestinian children participating in the march.
Israeli military forces respond to the march by spraying demonstrators with “skunk water,” a synthetic liquid which gives off a putrid smell that can remain in a victim’s clothing for up to five years.
Israeli military forces used massive amounts of tear gas against Palestinians and solidarity activists throughout the entirety of the demonstration. In addition to tear gas and “skunk water,” the Israeli military fired rubber-coated steel bullets and sound grenades at demonstrators, and at several points used live ammunition.
Demonstrators attempt to construct a barrier to protect them from the repression of the Israeli military forces.
Demonstrators try to evade tear gas as the standoff with the Israeli military drags on.
Backpack of demonstrator protesting Israeli apartheid policies in occupied Hebron (al-Khalil).

2 Internationals hit by tear gas canisters at the Bil’in weekly demonstration

By Vicky Blackwell
Photographs by Vicky Blackwell

9th November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Today, during the weekly demonstration against the separation wall in Bil’in, 2 international activists were struck by tear gas canisters shot by the Israeli army. One Italian activist was struck by a canister in the leg and an American activist was struck by a canister in the foot.
The demonstration started as usual and marched through the olive groves towards the separation wall. There, lies a path running parallel to the wall with razor wire on either side of it. The peaceful demonstration marched up the path next to the wall to a gate at the top, where the army was waiting on the other side and used tear gas and sound bombs to disperse the protest. The protest then moved away from the wall towards the olive groves when the army started firing excessive amounts of tear gas at the protesters, it was at this point that an Italian solidarity activist was struck in the leg with a tear gas canister. Many people also suffered from inhalation of the gas.
Around an hour after the start of the demonstration, people started to leave and head back to the village. It was at this point, when it was clear that people were leaving the demonstration to return home, that the army fired many more rounds of tear gas at the few remaining people in the field. It was then that the American solidarity activist was struck in the foot with a tear gas canister (luckily the footwear of the protester prevented any significant injury).

 

The weekly demonstration starts in Bil’in
The demonstration arrives at the wall in Bil’in
Palestinian activists managed to reach the wall-gate in Bil’in before the army attempted to disperse the crowd using tear gas and sound bombs
Soldiers behind the wall
Soldiers observe the protest from behind the wall
Clouds of tear gas shot at the protestors in Bil’in
A protestor attempts to scale the wall
A protestor sits near to the wall in Bil’in
“The occupation will not remove us from our land” – Bil’in
The Italian activists injury from being stuck by a tear gas canister
A mark showing where an American activist was struck on his shoe by a tear gas canister

 

Vicky Blackwell is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Israeli forces invade Kufr Qaddoum prior to planned protest

By Ben Greene

14 September | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Israeli army and border police blocked a road in the village center. Picture by Ellie Marton

Just after noon on Friday 14th September, Israeli forces invaded the village of Kufr Qaddoum, prior to a demonstration due to begin at 1.15pm. The Israeli army and Border Police blocked a road in the village center, stopping villagers from attending Friday prayers at the mosque – this is the first time that the tactic of pre-emptive invasion has been used to suppress the weekly demonstration in Kufr Qaddoum.

Prayers were held instead outside the mosque, after which chanting commenced as a start to the planned protest. Israeli forces responded immediately with tear gas rounds, advancing further into the village. Further tear gas rounds were fired at head height, directly towards houses in the street where protesters were gathered.

Israeli forces then regrouped in two positions – one group of 11 soldiers on the hill above the village, and a second group on the road leading to the planned site for the demonstration. Israeli forces also brought a bulldozer and a skunk truck to block the road leading the planned demonstration site.

Israeli forces on the hillside sought to isolate groups of protesters by attacking via side streets. The combined effect of the Israeli actions was to cause the demonstration to be pushed into the heart of the village, increasing the danger for civilians.

Following the end of the demonstration, Kufr Qaddoum Popular Committee representative Murad reported that there had been a village invasion at 5pm Thursday 13th September also, by soldiers in jeeps who entered the village and fired tear gas for no reason. He continued, ‘We don’t want to demonstrate for the sake of demonstrating. We don’t want to see our children killed, our houses damaged. Give us our rights. We will demonstrate until then.’

The weekly demonstration in Kufr Qaddoum is to protest against the closure of the main road between the village and Nablus, the nearest city, which is 13 km away. The road closure doubles the distance from Kufr Qaddoum to Nablus.

Israeli tactics at Kufr Qaddoum – invading the village from several sides, meeting demonstrators with immediate excessive force, blocking roads to prevent access, and bringing Border Police to try to arrest international observers – follow a pattern seen throughout the West Bank that aims to systematically deny basic human rights to freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom to protest and freedom of movement, and also violates the obligation of military forces not to use disproportionate force.

Ben Greene is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Israeli Army shoots resident of Nabi Saleh following settler attack

By Paddy Clark

14 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday evening, settlers entered Nabi Saleh village. In clashes that followed Israeli soldiers shot Omar al-Tamini, 25, with live ammunition in the abdomen, and then arrested him and Eyas from inside the ambulance which was taking Omar to Ramallah hospital. On Monday, September 11 at 2:30 a.m., Israeli forces forced entry to homes in Nabi Saleh and arrested Mohammed, and Zeyad, younger brother of martyr, Mustafa Tamini.

Most of the local residents were at home on Monday as a result of the Palestinian general strike. Settlers entered the village in an attempted attack which was reported on PSCC. Residents of Nabi Saleh resisted the intrusion, and then clashes broke out between local youth and the military. Omar al-Tamimi was shot with live ammo during clashes which continued in to the night.

Later that night around 2.30 a.m, Israeli military invaded again (see video here.) They raided the family home of martyr, Mustafa Tamini, who suffered a fatal injury on December 9, 2011, after being shot in the face with a tear gas grenade from a distance of less than 10 meters (see photo here and video here.) Heavily armed soldiers once again, stood in the hall of their home, this time demanding another family member to be taken away to an Israeli jail.

I blog on Palestine and Resistance blogged;

“i feel so so angry that they had the nerve to go into that house once again, that they dared to harrass this family once more. its not even been a month since they released loai (20) from ofer military prison – and already when they had arrested him, in the middle of the night, from inside their home, barely two months after they had shot dead mustafa in cold blood in their own village, i (like so many others) could almost not believe it, felt so so enraged that they would enter their home again with their guns. it still makes me furious that they actually imprisoned loai – FROM INSIDE THEIR HOME – only two months after he saw his eldest brother bleed into the street in their village, before friends carried him into a car and away from him forever. (watch this video: loai, wearing a grey/black checkered jacket, can be first seen at 0:22). I still feel a mixture of rage and pain and i struggle to grasp that they not only murdered mustafa in the way they did, but that they did storm the house of the bereft family so shortly after and violently arrested the brother who actually saw mustafa dying, when they had only released his twin odai from military jail the day of mustafa’s funeral – AFTER the funeral. i still can’t grasp that odai heard in jail that someone in his village was severely injured, heard in jail that the injured young man was his eldest brother, heard in jail that it was a serious injury and that he might lose his eye, heard in jail that he might be fine after all, and heard in jail the next day that his brother was martyred. and that he was denied the right to spend that terrible day with his family and friends, with his twin brother.”

The legal office of Gabi Lasky said yesterday that Zayed and Mohammed were being detained at Ofer prison but was still unaware where Omar and his friend were being held.

For background information about the struggle and further information in Nabi Saleh see blog here

Paddy Clark is an activist and writer living in the West Bank (name has been changed).