Video: Israeli army violence follows funeral of Mustafa Tamimi, "martyr of popular resistance"

A ten-minute video released today by David Reeb shows moving scenes from yesterday’s funeral for Mustafa Tamimi and the Israeli army’s use of force against protesters following the funeral.

Tamimi, 28, died of his injuries after he was shot in the face by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli soldiers during last Friday’s popular demonstration against the occupation and settlements in Nabi Saleh village (read Linah Alsaafin’s searing account of Tamimi’s shooting).

The video shows mourners bidding farewell to Tamimi as he is declared a “martyr of the Palestinian people, a martyr of steadfastness … a martyr of popular resistance.”

It also shows protesters being detained by Israeli soldiers and being loaded into ambulances as Israel uses more brutal force against protesters in Nabi Saleh village, only two days after Mustafa Tamimi was deliberately shot in the face for defending his village against an invading army, armed with nothing but a slingshot and his consciousness.

More documentation of yesterday’s funeral and protest can be found on the photography collective ActiveStills’ Flickr stream.

ActiveStills photographer Anne Paq was also present when Tamimi was shot and reflects on documenting this and other protests on her blog:

The truth is that every week when I go to this protest I think that this is a miracle that no-one was seriously injured or killed. Yesterday there was no miracle [for] Mustafa. He died as the UN was passing by to “observe” and they did not even stop when we told them that somebody was seriously injured and that they should do something. I will always remembered Ola, Mustafa’s sister, who ran to the Israeli soldiers begging them to let her pass so that she can be with her brother (the Israelis stopped the car in which Mustafa was a few meters away after the military gate at the entrance of the village). They did not let her. Her screams are still in my ears.

To set the record straight- Mustafa was killed INSIDE his village, he was protesting against the occupation and colonization of HIS lands. He did not carry a weapon, just stones. Stones against a fully equipped army, a military armored jeep. He had the right to defend his village, even according to international law, and he did it with courage.

Activist Ben Lorber, an occasional contributor to The Electronic Intifada, interviewed eyewitness Ibrahim Bornat, who was next to Tamimi when he was shot by Israeli soldiers. Bornat, no stranger to Israeli repression himself, and who has been hospitalized dozens of times because of injuries sustained during demonstrations, recounts:

Of what I can say about it, it is worse than words can say. The whole half of his face was blown off, and his eye was hanging out, and I tried to push his eye back up. I could see pieces of the inside of his head, and there was a pool of blood gathering under him. His whole body was trembling. It started from his feet, then up to his arms, then it reached his chest, and then his head, and then a gasp came out and I’m sure at that moment he died. He gasped, and let out a bunch of air, and I knew at that moment his soul had left. I have seen many people, not a few, die in front of me, and I know death. Maybe later on they revived his heart, but I knew that his soul had left.

Comments

One thing those young people

Permalink Oliver replied on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 19:41

One thing those young people resisting armed Zionists do not lack is courage. The tragedy is that such courage and determination is not displayed by the leadership. Especially in the PA.