Since 2010, the Ramallah-district village of Nabi Saleh has been staging weekly demonstrations, in which locals alongside Israeli and international solidarity activists have been taking part. The village is protesting the ongoing expropriation of agricultural lands for the purpose of expanding the nearby settlement of Halamish. This wave of weekly protests was launched after the settlers took over a water spring that belongs to the village, renamed it and have been using it as a recreational site.

In December of 2011, during one of these Friday demonstrations, a young man by the name of Mustafa Tamimi was shot at point blank with a tear gas canister to his head. Although the soldier inside the armoured jeep claimed he never saw Tamimi, photographic evidence suggest otherwise, and moreover, that the shooting was deliberate with the purpose to kill. Tamimi suffered a major head trauma, rushed to a hospital in Israel, but succumbed to his wounds the next morning.

The military police investigation launched after the death of Tamimi dragged on for many months, only to be concluded by the military prosecutor who closed the case, arguing that the shooting was in accordance with proper procedures.