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.
The military prosecutor decided to close the case of the murder of Mustafa Tamimi from Nabi Saleh, claiming that the shooting “was legal and according to regulations,” accepting the shooter’s claim that he “did not see Tamimi.”
Yet, if the shooter did not see him, even though Mustafa was standing right in front of him, why did he shoot? how come the prosecutor decided this sort of behaviour is legal when in fact it is reckless and endangers the lives of Palestinian protesters.
Testimony by Haim Schwarczenberg: The killing of Mustafa Tamimi
“The military claimed, according to what I read, that the soldier didn’t see what he was firing on. His claim is implausible, because there was a rock in the direction of the shooting, nothing else, So there was no reason to shoot in that direction unless one can see what one is firing upon”. “We can see the soldier looking at Mustafa falling but not stopping the jeep and not trying to assist”.
Today, two years after an IOF soldier opened the back door of an armoured jeep and fired a tear gas canister directly at the head of Mustafa Tamimi, who died from his injury shortly afterwards and a week after the military prosecutor decided to close the case of the killing of Mustafa Tamimi from Nabi Saleh, claiming that the shooting “was legal and according to regulations,” accepting the shooter’s claim that he “did not see Tamimi.” I share with you this testimony that filmed a few weeks after the incident, on 27.12.2011.
Haim Schwarczenberg, the Israeli photographer who witnessed the killing and documented it, was 10-15 meters away from Mustafa when he was shot.
English and Arabic subtitles can be found on the CC bottom on the video’s toolbar.