Mourners at the funeral of Mustafa Tamimi were attacked today with teargas, women were beaten and 8 people were arrested, 2 were Israelis and 6 were international solidarity activists, one of the activists at the funeral wrote the following:

“IOF soldiers were savagely beating anybody within their vicinity, three or four soldiers at a time grabbing men and throwing them to the floor, kicking them violently and stamping on their heads. As I stood back from the scene taking photographs, a soldier suddenly lunged towards us entirely unprovoked and threw one of the ISM activists I was with against the barrier of the road, doubling him over it as his body crashed to the ground.” Read more here.

Also, an account of the violence in the Guardian here.

Pause for a moment and imagine the international outrage if this had occurred in Syria. The UN would convene, the Arab League would impose more sanctions, Erdogan would make another speech. But alas it is Palestine and the only hope we have this will ever be addressed in any official capacity is for Matthew Lee from the Associated Press to bring it up with Victoria Nuland. Nick Kristoff will ignore Palestine for the time being and reappear in a few months and ask if we found our Gandhi yet. Susan Rice will scowl down any attempt to criticize Israel over its insane violence. And, Obama will be increasing his financial and moral support to apartheid Israel on a daily basis until the election.

Yesterday activist Linah Alsaafin wrote an incredibly passionate piece on Electronic Intifada about the murder of Tamimi:

The images are tattooed forever inside my eyelids. A bloody pulp on one side of his face. The pool of blood rapidly increasing. (Mama, there was so much blood.) His mouth slightly open, lying supine on the cold road. His sister screaming, her face twisted in grief. The young men weeping, looking like little boys again. I hate them for making us suffer I loathe my enemy. I will never forgive, I will never forget. People who say such hatred transforms a person into a bitter cruel shell know nothing of the Israeli army. This hatred will not cripple me. What does that mean anyway? Do I not continue to write? Do I not continue to protest? Do I not continue to resist? Hating them sustains me, as opposed to normalizing with them. Their hatred of me makes reinforces the truth of their being murderous machines. My hatred of them makes me human. I can’t sleep. The shock flows in and then dissipates, before flooding back in again. I see no justification is implementing such violence on a civilian population, no sense in the point-blank murder of a man whose rights are compromised, and whose land is colonized and occupied.

She was among those beaten today, she is pictured at the bottom of this pile of people that threw themselves on her to prevent her arrest.



(Photo: Activestills.org)

I recently told Linah that I felt Israelis now have her in their sights, she’s becoming a more visible and well known fixture at protests against Israel’s land theft. Here she is confronting Israeli soldiers on November 25, 2011:

I hope Linah makes a quick recovery from what transpired today, her anger is helping to sustain our struggle. Israel is right to fear her.

Below is a letter from activist Abir Kopty to Tamimi: