Oakland Activist Injured in West Bank
by Lisa Hix
Tristan Anderson, a 38-year-old Oakland resident, is in stable condition today after he was critically injured in the aftermath of a protest in Israel's West Bank on Friday when he was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister launched by Israel Defense Forces. He had to undergo brain surgery and have part of his frontal lobe removed, and is now in the ICU at the Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv, with his girlfriend Gabrielle Silverman, of Oakland, who was with him we he was shot.
Unarmed demonstrators had gathered in the village of Ni'lin to protest the construction of a barrier designed to separate the West Bank from the rest of Israel, which was deemed illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice and will cost the village valuable agricultural land. According to the International Solidarity Movement Palestine, during Friday's protest, a Ni'lin resident was shot in the leg and three others suffered minor injuries. Already in the past year four village residents have died in demonstrations against this wall, ages 10, 17, 20 and 22.
One of the tree-sitters trying to protect an oak grove next to UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium, Anderson is known as an activist and IndyBay reporter who is committed to certain types of social justice and environmentalism in the U.S. and in hot-button locales like Oaxaca, Iraq, and Palestine.
According to a report by Anarchists Against the Wall:
Tristan was hit while standing with a fellow protester inside the village, several hours after the army initially attacked a protest march of Ni’ilin’s residents (joined by Israeli and international activists) who attempted to march onto their own lands in the vicinity of the wall. As opposed to previous demonstrations, this week protesters managed to actually reach the road on which the wall is currently being built, and even caused damage to parts of the razor-wire protecting the site, as well as to the newly erected fence segments of the barrier. Israeli troops dispersed demonstrators by using large amounts of teargas and rubber coated steel bullets, driving everyone back into the village. Soldiers then followed the crowd and proceeded to shoot concussion grenades, teargas canisters, rubber coated steel bullets and even live ammunition into the village, to which many of Ni’ilin’s youth responded with slingshots, trying to drive the army away from the outskirts of the village.
According a story on YNet:
Jonathan Polack, a left-wing activist who is sitting by Anderson's bedside at the hospital, said ... that the protestors clashed with the soldiers, but noted that "the firing incident took place inside the village and not next to the fence. There were clashed in the earlier hours, but he wasn't part of them. He didn't throw stones and wasn’t standing next to the stone throwers.
"There was really no reason to fire at them."
Silverman told KTVU and Bay City News that the Israeli forces prevented Anderson from receiving help from Palestinian medics.
Palestinian medics immediately came to their rescue and attempted to place Anderson onto a stretcher. But even then, Silverman said, "The army began firing tear gas directly at us ... again and again and again."
"Tear gas was falling at our feet as were loading him onto the stretcher," Silverman said.
When the medics had successfully situated Anderson, an Israeli soldier stood in front of the ambulance and would not allow it to move, Silverman said.
Today, friends and supporters of Anderson will gather at 4 p.m. at the San Francisco Israeli Consulate to express their outrage and grief over this situation. If this kind of think is a priority to you, feel free to join them.
For updates, check International Solidarity Movement's page on the incident and Solidarity for Tristan Anderson.
See Tristan's work on IndyBay.
Solidarity with Tristan Anderson // 4-7 p.m. // Israeli Consulate (456 Montgomery, at Sacramento)