Protest in the West Bank over wounded American Tristan Anderson

Several hundred people, Palestinians, internationals and Israelis activist gathered in the Palestinian village of Ni'lin on March 20th to protest the life threatening attack on American activist Tristan Anderson by the Israeli forces in Ni'lin a week earlier on March 13th, and the continuing Israeli violence against Palestinians. (Video of the protest)

Anderson was shot at close range with a new type of high velocity tear gas projectile and took a direct hit in the head, necessitating the surgical removal of part of the frontal lobe of his brain. The Israeli army began to use the Ruger rifle and the high velocity tear gas canister in December 2008. The black canister, labeled in Hebrew as “40mm bullet special/long range,” can shoot over 400 meters and weighs 130 grams without the propeller. The gas canister does not make a noise when fired or emit a smoke tail and has a propeller to accelerate the weapon mid-air. A combination of the canister’s high velocity and silence is extremely dangerous and has caused numerous injuries, including a Palestinian male whose leg was broken in January 2009.

Residents in the village of Ni’lin have been demonstrating against the construction of the Apartheid Wall, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004. Ni’lin will lose approximately 2500 dunums of agricultural land when the construction of the Wall is completed. Ni’lin was 57,000 dunums in 1948, reduced to 33,000 dunums in 1967, currently is 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after the Wall is built.

The violence and killing inflicted by the Israeli forces have already taken four lives this year in the town of Ni'lin. The video of the protest posted online by the protesters clearly shows Israeli forces continuing to shoot the high velocity tear gas projectiles aiming directly at people.

A flyer handed out at the rally by Friends of Tristan and Palestine people stated, "We are here to express out love and solidarity with Tristan and with the families of those killed in Nilin protesting the wall: Ahmed Nousa (10), Yousef Amira (17), Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), and Mohammed Khawaje (20). We are here because we are angry at the Israel state for injuring our friend and because we know that families in Palestine are humiliated, injured and killed every day and it goes unreported."