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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)
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So Tristan was a tree sitter, anarchist and professional rabble rouser. Sounds like he put himself in harms way and ended up getting harmed doing what he believed in.
The "apartheid wall" is a messy solution for an even messier problem (that being 'disenfranchised'/'disillusioned' Palestinians blowing up 'occupiers' -- and themselves in the process). Gosh, a casual observer could get really exhausted just absorbing all the propaganda coming from the very angry and seemingly irreconcilable sides.
Speaking of that, there are two sides to this story and we're only hearing (a very biased) one. I wonder what the other side is?
38 years old and still acting like an immature kid?
How is standing up for what you believe in immature?
Using intelligent debate and discussion, that's how. Instead he chose to sit in trees and go to foreign countries to protest their laws?
Well, I'm not a fan of the tree sitting, but I do think going to Israel is reasonable. I think talking AND action are both acceptable and necessary parts of social change. Duh.
So you were the 1 who supported the tree sitters, huh?
Yeah, because Israel is clearly susceptible to intelligent debate and discussion. People seriously need to get beyond this "speak truth to (or with) power" crap. Power does not give a flying noodle about the truth. It cares about perpetuating itself. We can debate the efficacy of treesits and protesting in West Bank villages, but sitting at a table with butchers and "just talking it out" will get nowhere, even in the remote possibility one was offered such an audience. This is particularly true when those butchers have the full backing of--and a "special relationship" with--the world's only superpower.
"flying noodle" is my new favorite term!
seriously. "butchers." uh-huh.
still waiting for the "intelligent debate and discussion" that doesn't begin with "drive the jews into the sea."
"butchers."
Would this be the same superpower that you support with your taxes? Oh, it's just so unfair.
This nut job was in a WAR Zone , so he gets shot... so what what did he think might happen?
Is this guy a retard?
"He didn't throw stones and wasn’t standing next to the stone throwers."
I love how the person who always ends up getting hurt like this is NEVER the person that is doing the wrong thing, its always the OTHER guys. Just like those OTHER guys at the oakland protests of BART, and just like the OTHER guys at critical mass.
darn others
not funny but kind of
You can run across I-880 once a day, every day with the belief that you can get to the other side. And then that one day comes.
You are all horrible, horrible people.
Tristan, we love you!
August, you really should get a Scarlett O'Hara ball gown to go with that flounce.
Oh, & no we don't care for Twisted-trust-fundie-Tristan, not even a little bit.
At least now it is less likely that he will be costing the bay area governments money with further "arbour frottage"/tree sitting idiocy.
Professional whinging twit from the US plops his truly retarded self in the midst of a riotous crowd of rock throwers & terrorists. How can it be a surprise to anyone that he was injured? This idiot put himself in harms way in a manner near suicidal.
Here is a survival tip for any other of *mommy's precious little snowflakes*, you are not special, you are not invulnerable, and if you hang out with dogs you will rise up with fleas. It follows that if you hang out with persons rioting, you will likely get hurt. Hopefully his body will join his brain, in death, albeit that the body will be about 30 years late to the party. Naive American twits putting their noses into conflicts that they have little concept of, & even less familiarity with the cultural context; Darwin awards all around.
This guy was SCUM .... do a google search on him.... hell if he lives he might be President one day!