another day like this. i read there was another martyr from bil’in. i asked my friends whether this was true. i was hoping that this was immature posting, that he was just injured. every time there is the first news of a martyr – especially from the places that i know better – i somehow hope that it’s immature posting and that the person in question is only injured. but this is usually only the cases on days with major national clashes, like nakba day 2011, and then it’s usually only the number of martyrs that ends up being reported higher than it actually is. usually, when there is news of one martyr on an ordinary day, it tends to be true. but my reaction is still hope.
when in palestine, i stay part of the time in bil’in, so reading that there is another martyr from bil’in effects me more, has me more worried. it turns out he was from beit liqya, one of the next villages. so my worry was not that people i love are directly affected because he could be close family, but it still feels too close. they would know him or his family. and they would go (in fact, i saw one close friend in a video), there would be clashes, tear gas, rubber coatest steel bullets at least, maybe heavier stuff. this video seems to be of clashes in bil’in itself.
i have just heard back from a friend and he confirmed that mahmoud assi was actually in the armed resistance as it is alleged. he was “wanted” for a year. at least lately, he seems to have hidden in a cave in the hills. what matters is that he tried to RESIST arrest when the zionist forces invaded – at least kufr ni’ma, maybe his village as well – in full force to arrest him and a few other young men. after they killed him, the occupying soldiers took away his body, which they didn’t return until hours later.
it is written somewhere that he “clashed” with the soldiers when he tried to resist his arrest, am not sure if this is supposed to mean he actually shot back at them. the truth is, this is the zionist army, they do not need to shoot to disarm and injure, shoot only to eliminate immediate danger. they can and frequently do shoot to kill/murder if anyone merely seems suspicious (holding a bottle in his hand, NOT stopping when they ask him to stop, etc). they easily shoot to kill because they CAN and few questions are asked. so even IF he did shoot back at them, just based on experience, i still doubt that his murder would have been inevitable from a “security” standpoint.
a few years ago, they shot dead bassem abu rahme from bil’in, while he was TALKING to the soldiers in hebrew, they shot him from a close distance, straight to the chest with a high velocity tear gas canister that – shot in this way from this distance – could have broken through doors and other barriers. there are actual videos of bassem’s murder, and yet i think TWO reluctant army investigations unsurprisingly found that there was no fault in his murder. no consequences for any soldier or commander.
this is not my immediate reaction, but after hearing he was wanted, after seeing footage of the cave where he hid out, i also start to wonder about the young man. if he indeed fought back, he probably knew – knowing the occupier – that there was a good chance that he would not survive. this might be strange to read to those who do not live in palestine, and it might read like an empty, mindless glorification of “the resistance” to the likes of which i am not prone to, but based on my experience, it does seem courageous to me that he apparently fought back today.
mahmoud assi, the “resistance fighter” – we call them that and it suddenly seems more ok that they were murdered, he was no civilian after all, even though in palestine, a young kid can be called/call himself a resistance fighter for his mere affiliation with a group while having little knowledge and nothing to do with actual armed resistance; in addition, to me, even if someone was an actual armed fighter, that does not necessarily exclude him (or rarely her) from my capacity to sympathize – was younger than me.
AGAIN, i imagine the clashes, the funeral, the mosque, the mother, the father (if they are astill alive), the siblings, friends, women in the family, in a place that feels closest to what is home for me.
here is probably more correct info about his murder, the raids, etc.
http://bilinconference.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/2013-10-22killing-mahmoud-assi.pdf
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and random thoughts: my first demo ever in palestine was in beit liqya, i think it was one of their first, in february 2006, i think. the kids were holding up a poster of another kid, about 16 years old, who was shot dead by soldiers in the hills near where the apartheid wall would be/was the day before or a few days earlier. after the demo, on the way back to ramallah, there were clashes on another hill, i don’t know if it was still beit lyqia or another village, it was friday, no photographers, just a bunch of children and youths, and a few army jeeps that kept firing tear gas at the bunch, who kept going way to clothes to throw stones at soldiers in protected gear and at their armored vehicles.
it was the first time i saw this, and i thought while the army probably things they are in “clashes” – even if in highly unbalanced ones since their fire arm projectiles can inure severely or murder while the stones from this distance can injure lightly at best IF they actually hit a soldier outside of an armored vehicle – these clashes would be over immediately if the soldiers LEFT THESE PALESTINIAN HILLS.
and that’s the gist of it all, whenever anyone tries to immoralize “clashes” between the occupied and occupier in the west bank, at least, and in a lot of places in east jerusalem as well, they disregard the fact that there would not BE clashes if the occupier and their heavy war gear just frkn retreated from these areasmy first demo ever in palestine was in beit liqya, i think it was one of their first, in february 2006, i think. the kids were holding up a poster of another kid, about 16 years old, who was shot dead by soldiers in the hills near where the apartheid wall would be/was the day before or a few days earlier. after the demo, on the way back to ramallah, there were clashes on another hill, i don’t know if it was still beit lyqia or another village, it was friday, no photographers, just a bunch of children and youths, and a few army jeeps that kept firing tear gas at the bunch, who kept going way to clothes to throw stones at soldiers in protected gear and at their armored vehicles.
it was the first time i saw this, and i thought while the army probably things they are in “clashes” – even if in highly unbalanced ones since their fire arm projectiles can inure severely or murder while the stones from this distance can injure lightly at best IF they actually hit a soldier outside of an armored vehicle – these clashes would be over immediately if the soldiers LEFT THESE PALESTINIAN HILLS.
and that’s the gist of it all, whenever anyone tries to immoralize “clashes” between the occupied and occupier in the west bank, at least, and in a lot of places in east jerusalem as well, the fact is there would not BE clashes if the occupier and their heavy war gear just frkn retreated from these areas.