1% Attack, 99% Multiply: Mustafa Tamimi, Tear Gas Fatality

The violent suppression of a demonstration in the West Bank led to death by tear gas canister -- again. In the village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah, Mustafa Tamimi was hit at point blank range in the face by an Israeli soldier shooting at him from within a tank. Canisters were raining down onto a group of perhaps fifty unarmed civilians marching with Palestinian flags and banners in orderly fashion before being attacked. It was on Friday, the 9th day of December, 2011 that Mustafa was hit, and he died at a nearby hospital.

The high points of this amazing video of the events: a terrible glimpse of his shattered face; the UN van that was begged but refused to help;  the sheer amount of tear gas that is fired at the crowd prior to the fatal shot; the crowds that materialize post injury, and the urgency of their chanting, turning grief to determination. Toward the end there is a long moment where protesters make a metal gate cry out against injustice, in a faceoff with an IDF sound machine that seems by comparison a weak mechanism wielded by cowardly bureaucrats.

Especially watch the refusal of fear by a young shero in a pink hoody who is pulled back protectively from the more exposed side of the gate, a girl who goes right on banging, and climbs right up on top of the gate to visually challenge the bullies hiding in tanks.

This young person, and the 20 year old Gazan who rescued his baby cousin from the rubble of her family home, will lodge in my memory of the news that reached me on the International Human Rights Day, 2011.

source: Mondoweiss Ruqaya Izzidien

Migdad Elzalaan responded to air strikes in northern Gaza City yesterday by running to his uncle's house.

According to the account in Mondoweiss:

The attack killed Elzalaan’s uncle and injured 13 of his family members. Israeli authorities claim to have targeted a nearby military base, but the only reported casualties were civilian...Migdad explained, “[My uncle] told me, ‘Look after our family, look after the children. Look after them,’ and then he died, right in my arms.”

You cannot evict an idea whose time has come, such as: Israel is no longer good for Jews.

Such as: Occupy Tear Gas Suppliers. Four days before Mustafa was hit, Egyptians protesting the use of the faux non-lethal weapon in Cairo lay down in front of a plant of the sinisterly bland Combined Systems, Inc. in Jamestown, PA

Such as: When the 1% Attack, the 99% Multiply