Here Palestinian children build a roadblock near the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh during their weekly Friday protest against the expansion of Halamish, the nearby Zionist settlement taken in a land grab of Palestinian lands in 1977. In 2009 the settlers fenced off a vital spring which is on land privately owned by Bashir Tamimi, who has long lived in Nabi Saleh & residents of Nabi Saleh began regular protests against the annexation of their farmland. From the beginning, they were committed to holding peaceful protests but were always met by Israeli soldiers using tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, & skunk bombs. Skunk bombs are a chemical weapon made of synthetic skunk liquid which smells like raw sewage. Like skunk spray, the odor is impossible to wash off. While considered non-lethal & an improvement over tear gas & rubber bullets, the Israeli army deploys them all against unarmed Palestinians.
Last December, 28-year-old Mustafa Tamimi (nephew of Bashir), a resident of Nabi Saleh protesting the land grab, died after an Israeli soldier shot him directly in the face with a tear gas canister. It is reported the canister blew off half his face & when other protestors reacted with horror, the Israeli soldiers laughed & taunted, “So?” Bassem Tamimi, a leader of the protests, has been arrested 12 times by Israeli soldiers & was once confined to administrative detention without trial. In March 2011, he was found guilty in an Israeli court of sending youth to throw stones & holding a march without a permit. Boycott all Israeli products (barcode beginning 729) to show solidarity with Palestinians opposing the expropriation of their ancestral lands. (Photo by Majdi Mohammed/AP)
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