Today was, unforgettable.
First of all, for those who do not know, I've been living in Palestine for the past month. The first week was traveling with my Jordan buddies, the second two were spent volunteering at Deheisheh Refugee camp outside of Bethlehem. The last two (now) have been spent working with the organization PSP (Palestinian Solidarity Project) in Beit Ummar, a small village between Bethlehem and Hebron in the West Bank. Here I have been teaching both art and English, and attending demonstrations against the wall. I have SO MANY stories to tell from my experiences here this past month and I am SURE you will hear all of them whether you want to or not someday, but now I can only tell about today.
Last night after surviving a rather frightening night after a demonstration in Ni'lin we (Becca, Rachel and I, PSP girls) received a phone call at 11 pm that a 17 year old boy, Mohammed Anwar Al-Alami, was killed in our village by the IDF. We were stuck in Ramallah and could not make it back to Beit Ummar until the morning.
Today involved a major spike in IDF security at the entrance of the village, and once past this we walked into what seemed a ghost town. The village was completely shut down. At noon, the funeral procession began, over 300 men of the village walked to the cemetery to bury the boy. This should have been a normal and private event, like any other funeral, but because the cemetery is located next to the main road, it was a "security threat" and the IDF was posted to control the flow. To protect the fucking settlers driving by, the IDF was posted. over 30 IDF soldiers, the same soldiers present at the death of this 17 year old boy, were actually "controlling" the route of funeral procession. Can you imagine what that must feel like for the friends and family of the boy? The same people who just killed your loved one, are now harassing you on your first day of mourning. What the fuck is wrong with this country? Anyway, we were there to film and be an international presence (which literally saves lives. just being a foreigner...), I am realizing now that I can't explain in writing the rest of the day, I want to tell everyone in person, but until then I will try to explain. The soldiers were yelling, aiming their guns, half were completely in the zone - they had this glazed look almost and the other half were obviously upset, it was so bizarre. This one amazing man from CPT just kept saying "you killed him, you killed this boy. You killed him and his family and friends are now mourning. you have no right to be here, you have no right to be here. You need to realize that Israelis are not the only humans of worth, we are all humans. Palestinians are HUMANS, it's not about land right now, you need to realize we are all the same people, we are all HUMANS", and honestly, some of the soldiers looked on the verge of tears. I can't explain on here. What happened next, briefly, was that some boys began to throw stones at the trucks and the army replied with live ammunition, I shit you not. We all ducked down, people scattered and then the army went into the village. We had to find a way to get back in the village without the soldiers seeing us (they were keeping all internationals out, even though we live here we don't want the Israeli government to know this. If they did know this, we all could be blacklisted and not allowed back into Israel). So we went with this group of 30-40 year old Palestinian men through the woods/farms, it was actually pretty fun, they were having a good time actually. We climbed fences, jumped rocks and crawled over barbwire all while trying to dodge tear gas and rubber bullets... then we stopped for a rest at a fig tree, ate some figs and continued on. Long story short - we decided to go to a main road to make our presence know, which worked for a while, then we started talking behind this house and about 20 little boys started throwing rocks at the army, they didn't know we were there (the IDF) and they just started shooting, first rubber bullets, then live ammunition, we were stuck in the middle, and the bullets started to bounce off the walls, really fucking close to us, Becca was like HERE, JUMP! So we jumped in this ditch type thing next to a house and just waited, we could hear the bullets hitting the wall, it was one of the most frightening moments of my life. The shooting stopped and we RAN. We ran and this family brought us into their home, the rest of the afternoon was spent sitting around with a large Arab family, drinking Tea with mint, the noise of gun-fire in the background.
The worst part is, this 17 year old boy, did nothing. Other boys were throwing stones and glass bottles at the army jeeps that had been driving around the village for the past 2 nights without reason, and he walked out of his home to see what was going on, and then he was shot. Nothing is going to happen to the soldier who shot him. nothing.
I did pretty well all day, not crying. Then I found out that yesterday, before he was shot, he had spent the day painting his family home for his graduation party. Last year, Eric painted our house for his graduation party. I talked to my mom tonight, told her this and could not stop the tears. This occupation is fucking unreal, how could this happen and their be absolutely no consequences for the state of Israel? I don't even care about the soldier, they are all so fucking pathetic, they have no idea what they are doing, I feel sorry for all of them. I just can't believe it.
I'm sorry if this post makes absolutely no sense, but I am having a really hard time writing this all out, I am so fucking pissed off, confused and upset I can't even stand it. I need to process it all, and then maybe I can explain it better. I don't know. I just wanted to let you all know, what happened. I am never going to forget this day, ever.
Here is the report PSP published on the death:
The Israeli military has been slowly escalating its intimidation tactics in Beit Ommar in the last three days, often patrolling the streets at sundown, provoking youth by parking outside of the mosque and waiting for young boys to come and throw stones before shooting tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. The increasing terrorization of the village culminated last night at approximately 9:30 pm when a 17 year old boy, Mohammed Anwar Al-Alami, was shot in the heart and killed.
Soldiers first entered Beit Ommar yesterday at 4pm and began slowly circling the village, often stopping in the center of town, shooting a few tear gas canisters, but otherwise staying in their jeeps. They were not searching houses nor made any other indication that they were engaging in any authorized operation. Shortly after sundown, at approximately 9pm, they began arresting residents. Blindfolding and handcuffing 9 men in total and bringing them to the entrance of the village. Four were later released, five remain in Israeli custody. Several more jeeps and Armored Personnel Carriers (APC’s) entered the village. Young boys began throwing stones and empty bottles which bounced off the armored military vehicles harmlessly. Still, for the Israeli military a rock against reinforced metal is reason enough to end the life of a young man, about to finish his final exams and graduate from high school.
Mohammed was quickly rushed to the hospital, but he had been shot in the chest and the bullet entered his heart, killing him almost instantly.
