10 December 2011
The above video depicts Ola Tamimi, Mustafa Tamimi’s sister. You probably haven’t heard of Ola but news of Mustafa’s tragic end has most probably reached you.
Mustafa Tamimi is a 28-year-old Palestinian from Nabi Saleh in the West Bank. Just like any other Palestinian, just like any other human who cannot afford seeing his land forcibly annexed by an alleged state that claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East, Tamimi joined the weekly protest against Israel’s colonial-settler regime in his own village.
Tamimi, armed by bare hands and a few rocks scattered on the ground, was fired at with a tear gas canister from a one-meter distance. He was badly injured in his head; he passed away this morning.
”Beddi ashoofo” screams Mustafa’s sister, Ola. “I want to see him.”
The screams in the video are heart-breaking. But the coldness with which the Israeli soldiers deal with Ola is nauseating.
How did bare-handed Mustafa Tamimi look like a terrorist in the eyes of his murderer?
Neither I nor anyone can give an answer.
I tried to get a statement from 17-year-old Deema Alsaafin, who joined the protest today in Ramallah to mourn Tamimi’s death; the only answer I received from her was this: “I don’t think I’d be able to write anything about him; we’re all in utter shock.”
Today, Palestine mourns another Palestinian stone-thrower, another shocking example of what a racist state can do to protect its supremacist system.
