This, from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee:
- Jawaher Abu Rahmah, 36, was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital after inhaling massive amounts of tear-gas towards protesters in Bil’in earlier today. She is currently in critical condition and is not responding to treatment. Another protester required hospitalization after being hit in the face with a tear-gas projectile shot directly at him.
I can personally attest, from my experience in Bil’in in March 2006 and February 2009, that the tear-gas that the IOF uses there is considerably stronger and more noxious than the tear-gas some of us used to encounter in Europe back in the 1970s. It doesn’t just make you want to tear up, it makes you want to gag and at the same time feels as though it’s burning out the back of your throat and right down into your lungs… and that’s when the canister is still 20 feet away from you… G-d only knows what the effects are if it lands very close to you…
The PSCC report continues:
- Jawaher Abu Rahmah is the sister of Bassem Abu Rahmah, who was shot dead with a high velocity tear-gas projectile during a demonstration in Bil’in on April 17th, 2009.
Over a thousand people heeded to the call issued by the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements today, and joined the weekly demonstration. Despite the siege laid on the village by the Israeli army, activists – Palestinians, Israelis and internationals – swarmed the hills and valleys surrounding Bil’in by the hundreds and managed to join those already in the village.
Among those giving speeches before the demonstration were local leaders, as well as Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, who voiced his support for Bil’in and the popular struggle. The march then proceeded towards the Wall, where it was barraged with tear-gas on sight.
Small organized groups of protesters then spread across the Wall to try and implement the popular committee’s announcement that he last day of the decade will indeed also be the last day of the Wall on Bil’in’s land. An overwhelming number of Israeli soldiers and Border Police officers spread along the path of the Wall, but were not able to stop demonstrators equipped with bolt-cutters from breaching through the Wall in three places.
I strongly suspect that today, as when I saw him at the steadfast Bil’in protests 22 months ago, Fayyad may have left the protest before the tear gas was used. But good for him taking part in even a portion of the action, anyway.
All U.S. government representatives in Washington and elsewhere should be asked direct questions about Pres. Obama’s position on Israel’s use of very dangerous tactics against unarmed, nonviolent Palestinians who are seeking access to their own lands by breaching Israel’s completely illegally Apartheid Wall.
sometimes it drives me crazy thinking about it.
It appears that we may be reaching a point where non-violent civil rights actions become the norm. I believe that this is the most effective tactic now, and the most likely to produce positive results in the international community. Except, of course, the US where the US MSM strives mightily (and generally successfully)to obscure the struggle. This tactic seems to frighten Israel greatly. It also appears that there is a deliberate Israeli overreaction in hopes of stirring up violent counter-reaction which it hopes to use to deflect criticism and try to slow the international delegitimization movement. Unfortunately as this case shows, even non-violent tactics often result in tragedies.