Words from Palestine

Today my team mate and I went to the weekly demonstration at Nabi Salih. It took us almost twice as long to reach the village as the roads leading in were blocked off. We are not sure why, but it appeared they were blocked due to toad work. The narrow, winding back roads took us through picturesque villages and gave us a view of the centuries old olive groves terracing the mountainside.
We arrived early enough to have coffee and tea with our precious friends of the village. Unfortunately there are few internationals on the ground in Palestine at the time, but there were a good number of Israeli activists and press to witness and document the events of the day.

After midday prayers, the march toward the fields began, which was already seen to be an impossibility as soldiers have set up a road block in the village . The march consisted of almost entirely young children, women and elder men of the village. It was a peaceful march with children leading, carrying a banner, waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans in Arabic and English. As the women and children , press and a few male adults led the march the Israeli Occupation forces fired sound bombs and tear gas at the children. Nagee grabbed his 3 year old son in his arms and approached the soldiers, asking them why they were firing on little children.

Nagee was immediately thrown into a military jeep along with his 3 year old son. He was handcuffed and he and his son were in the jeep with machine guns pointed at them for 10-15 minutes. Nagee’s pre-teen daughter came to the scene and was allowed to take her little brother out of custody. At this point, Nagee was taken away and held at the old British fort in Hallamish, the settlement that has expropriated the land of Nabi Salih. My team mate and I did not witness this occurrence.

As the march continued, my team mate and I skirted the main road to get on the other side of the line of soldiers. We were able to get a good view of what was happening and joined the other protesters (again mostly children) when 2 Israeli activists were arrested for an unknown reason.

By this time soldiers had completely surrounded the village. We returned to the village square; there were no further arrests and the soldiers had stopped violent action against the civilian villagers. After we felt assured the children and other villagers were safe we returned to our friend’s house to find out that Nagee had been arrested and his little boy had been held at gunpoint until his young sister got him out of the jeep. We immediately started making phone calls to the authorities to find out where Nagee was being held. While we were making phone calls , Nagee phoned his wife and said that was being released; she went to pick him up and there was great relief in all of us. .

His coming home was a joyful reason for family and friend to visit and hear his story, He said he was held in hancuffs for the entire time he was detained . The welts on his writs confirmed this. However, the happy ending was that he was released and safe at home with his family for the time being. Family and friends gathered at Nagee and Bushra’s home and celebrated his release with comraderie and a delicious feast. Fortunately, there were no reported injuries and, in comparison with other Friday demonstrations, violence on the part of the Occupation Forces was minimal.