I came back from the demonstration at Kafr Qaddum few hours ago completely smashed and broken-hearted. I still have no words to describe what happened today neither report about it. I was hoping I would be able to share a video or upload a picture that would tell at least part of the story but it turned out I hadn't taken any that would transfer even a bit of it:my videos consist of random things while running and show nothing much but my panic and so do my pictures as well.
Today, exactly seven years after the death of the father of the Palestnian nation, Yasser Arafat, the weekly demonstration at Karf Qaddum was completely crushed. We were teargassed like never before and I still don't have exact information how many people got injured. What I saw was houses getting tear-gassed and a child being taken out one of them vomitting. I saw a man who had been hit by a canister in the eye. At this point I didn't care about taking pictures, it felt inhumane. I took in so much tear-gas that I started to choke and felt like I could not walk anymore. My mind almost tried to trick me to sit down and give up at that point.
An ISM activist we had shared a drink with few minutes ago was arrested along with a Palestinian man.
Each demonstration gets more and more violent. It starts to become clear they are trying to disheart us. This time running inside the village didn't feel safe; soldiers walked further inside than any time before and gassed the mosque, the usual place for taking refugee for us. Three of them stood aside on the hillside so they could shoot tear gas from there inside the village as well; sound bombs were heard as well.
After the demonstration was over we had lunch to commemorate the anniversary from Arafat's death and local Palestinians and internationals ate together musakhan , a tasty Palestinian dish. Yes, the demonstration was crushed, yes, so was I, but the Palestinian spirit had endured.
During the meal a message from the ISMer who got arrested was received saying soldiers were taking turns hitting him. The Palestinian was spat on and made to crouch with his head between his legs. There's a video of the ISMer getting arrested; he says he can't feel his wrists because they put the handcuffs on too tight. I will share this one as soon as it's uploaded online by ISM. A precise report on what happened today should be posted on MPT's blog as well soon, once I am back to something like myself.
Found pictures featuring my humble personality and my teammate in this news report in Arabic, if you could read it or wish to see the pictures:
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