During a demonstration in An Nabi Saleh today, US citizen and International Solidarity Movement volunteer Ellen Stark was shot from less than four meters away with a rubber bullet, which lodged in her arm left arm, breaking her wrist. Omar Saleh Tamimi, Amjad Abed Alkhafeez Tamimi and International Solidarity Movement co-founder Huwaida Arraf were arrested as they asked Israeli military personnel to stop firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at Stark as she was helped to safety. Alkhatib Mahmud Tamimi, 87, was hit with a rubber bullet in the arm and Nariman Tamimi, mother of four, with a gas canister. Both were treated in ambulances on site. 17-year-old Raaft Ahmad was shot above the eye with a rubber bullet later in the demonstration and is currently in the hospital. The group was standing away from the main demonstration area with two medics when a military jeep sped up the main road and stopped in front of them. Soldiers jumped out of the jeep and targeted the un-armed, peaceful group with a barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets from a dangerously close range. According to Ellen, “we were standing on Palestinian land, in support of the village who’s land has been confiscated but we weren’t even demonstrating yet. We were standing with medics who were also shot with tear gas.†Eyewitness Robin Brown helped Stark to safety. He said “the soldiers started shooting from just three meters away. We did nothing to provoke the attack.†This incident comes as the Israeli government intensifies repression of the un-armed, popular resistance to the occupation of the West Bank, illegal land confiscation by settlements such as Halamish and construction of the illegal apartheid wall. Two weeks ago in An Nabi Saleh 14-year-old Ehab Fadel Beir Ghouthi’s skull was fractured as a rubber bullet shot by the Israeli military lodged in his brain. Today and every Friday since January, around 100 un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which boarders land confiscated by Jewish settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades. The Halamish Settlement has confiscated nearly half of An Nabi Saleh’s orchard and farmland since it was founded in 1977. According to village residents the settlement confiscates more land each year without consent or compensation of the landowners. Seven years ago this week, Rachel Corrie, also a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement from Stark’s home state of Washington was killed when an Israeli bulldozer ran her over in Rafah, Gaza. ISM
