Nabi Saleh, Demonstration

Nabi Saleh is a small village northwest of Ramallah with 500 inhabitants. An illegal settlement was built a few steps from the village. In addition to the villagers stealing their land, the army regularly invades the village by shooting anyone who moves; they even harm and arrest children. Over the past year, more than 30% of the population has been wounded, including sixty children. Every Friday they hold a nonviolent demonstration, with participation by activists, Palestinians and internationals. I was there on a Friday with some friends.

To get there, we had to hike for one and a half hours over the hills because the village had been closed by the Israeli soldiers to prevent activists from entering.

  

The demonstration began after Friday prayers. As we approached, the soldiers threw tear gas at us.  This was only the beginning. Then after a while they let us come closer.  There was no violence on our part, just chanting slogans and singing songs against the occupation. 

 
 

But suddenly everything turned bad and there was a race to safety. While I was running, I turned my head and saw one of the protesters falling to the ground, wounded by a can of tear gas.

 

As you can see in the videos, you are blinded by tear gas and you cannot breathe. The skin on the face, hands and arms burns. The white liquid that you see in the video is milk because it acts as an antidote to the tear gas. The negative effects of the tear gas can last several days, leaving the skin burning and continued difficulty in breathing.

The soldiers knew that several people had taken refuge in the house where I was staying. They knew that the wounded were with us. And, they surrounded the house and threw gas at the windows.

We stood helpless in front of the soldiers and their guns - an act of nonviolent resistance. It is important to return again and again, especially when friends are injured, arrested or worse. The wounded boy in the video came back to join us an hour later and continued to protest until the end.

So we went back, and again the soldiers attacked us.  Soldiers were scattered throughout the village and they threw tear gas everywhere.

My friends and I decided to go lower toward a gas station because we could see a group of activists with the soldiers.  But the soldiers attacked us with sounds bombs.
 

 

Later, the soldiers surrounded a group of activists who were in the hills, including a paramedic who was seriously injured. We all went to join forces with them against the soldiers.

Everyone was furious that a paramedic, who was there to help people, was fired at close range by soldiers. The day stretched on for a long time and we were again attacked when the soldiers re-entered the village. We didn’t leave the village until around 8:00 in the evening. On that day two German activists and two Palestinians, one of them a paramedic, were injured by tear gas.  An Israeli activist was also arrested.

These protests are important to the villagers as they face day after day the arrests and attacks by the settlers and the soldiers. They show that the Palestinian land cannot be taken without the community's knowledge. They show the Zionist entity that we, activists of all nationalities, will not abandon our Palestinian brothers and sisters and we will continue to stand with them. We stand beside them and we will fight with them for a Free Palestine.