commentary from Israel & the West Bank
More IDF Lies about Israeli Activists in the West Bank
Children confront IDF soldiers in Nabi Salih. 2 July 2010
During the weekly protest yesterday in the West Bank village of Nabi Salih, two Israeli demonstrators were violently arrested by IDF soliders. These activists, Matan Cohen and Yonathan Shapria, were standing among a group of children and other Palestinian and Israeli demonstrators when the army made a brash decision to arrest them. After the arrest, the IDF Spokesman’s unit tweeted, “2 arrested rioters in Nabi Salih who attacked an IDF soldier now in Israeli Police custody, the soldier is uninjured”
Max Blumenthal and I were in Nabi Salih documenting the demonstration. Max’s footage from the arrest shows that neither Matan or Yoanathan were behaving in a dangerous or violent way. The IDF commander in Nabi Salih made the arbitrary decision to arrest these two activists because they were asking why the IDF was firing tear gas at children and then mocked his “brave soldiers”. Max’s account of the day can be found here.
Yesterday’s incident shows that the IDF is threatened by the presence Israeli activists at the weekly Palestinian demonstrations against the occupation. When Israelis are present in these demonstrations, it is more difficult for the IDF to use the most violent forms of repression such as rubber bullets. Yesterday’s blatant lie about the “violent” Israeli activists is part of a general campaign by the IDF to portray activists as terrorists. We saw it with the flotilla and we are now seeing it internally in the West Bank.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Joseph Dana on 03/07/2010 at 08:03, and is filed under West Bank. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
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Around 80 Nabi Saleh residents, other Palestinians and international and Israeli supporters participated in this week’s demonstration against the crippling occupation and the Halamish settlement’s annexation and destruction of a growing amount of land and resources from the village. This Friday saw yet another escalation in the Israeli army’s collective punishment criminal strategy against the
about 2 months ago
these arrests look so unprofessional, not like a bust in crowd-control-actions, more like “you wanna trouble, i´ll show you who the boss is.”
about 2 months ago
those people dont even look as if they were causing trouble, just protesting. the IDF look like bully child soldiers
about 2 months ago
While I do think that “Yesterday’s blatant lie about the “violent” Israeli activists is part of a general campaign by the IDF to portray activists as terrorists,” I have some questions about the language you’ve used to describe the event.
1. The footage doesn’t capture it all (it never can or will), but could you explain why you think that this qualifies as “violently arrested” or a “brutal attack”?
I’ve seen the IDF brutally arrest activists before, throwing them to the ground (not brutal) and then kicking them in the head (brutal). Does this qualify or did the video miss something?
2. “When Israelis are present in these demonstrations, it is more difficult for the IDF to use the most violent forms of repression such as live bullets.”
Do you have examples or links to when the IDF used live bullets in Nebi Saleh? As far as I know live bullets have not been used in Nebi Saleh ever. Correct me if I’m wrong please…
about 2 months ago
You are right about the live bullets, the army has used rubber bullets in Nabi Salih and not live fire, yet. I was confusing Nabi Salih and Nil’in, where live bullets are used often to suppress the protest there. I will make the correction now. This being said, a rubber bullet, almost killed a ten year old boy in Nabi Salih last January and so the difference between live and rubber bullets especially when shot at close range is somewhat silly to talk about. More information about this use of violence in Nabi Salih can be found on the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee website.
The tweet that the IDF spokesman’s unit put out yesterday insinuated that the activists were violent (“soldiers unharmed” is the language they used). The point of our video is to show that the activists were not behaving in a violent or even aggressive matter. I do not think that they were arrested that brutally, the issue is that they were portrayed to be violent towards the army, which they clearly were not. Non-violent protest is a problem for the army to deal with and thus we have there silly accusations like the one on Friday.
I normally do not respond to comments, so consider this a special favor just for you Alison.