Today a young Palestinian I know was arrested at a West Bank demonstration, put in a prison near Ramallah, and--according to preliminary reports by Palestinian activists on Twitter--charged with pushing an Israeli soldier. The trouble is that there's pretty strong video evidence that pushing a soldier isn't what he was in fact arrested for. He seems to have been arrested for speaking--and, yes, gesticulating animatedly as he spoke, perhaps in a manner that Israeli soldiers found threatening or otherwise excessive.

But judge for yourself: The arrest is at the 3:29 mark on this Facebook video. (The orange stuff on his face is the pepper spray applied as he's first being subdued, shortly before the soldier shoves his abdomen into the rear bumper of the police vehicle.) [Update, 2/26, 5:45 p.m.: A second video of the episode has now surfaced, and here are both videos, along with my assessment.]

Fadi Quran is a remarkable guy. He grew up in the West Bank, graduated from Stanford with a double major in physics and international relations, and then returned to the West Bank. He works in the alternative energy field, and his avocation is nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation. Here's a snippet of a conversation I had with him a few months ago, in which he contends that nonviolent resistance can ultimately succeed, even if it seems to face daunting odds now. Below the video player are some thoughts on the significance of his arrest.