The body of Arafat Khawaja in Ni'ilin. 28/12/2008
Anarchists Against the Wall
30/12/2008
On Sunday, as the number of dead in Gaza climbed closer to 300 on the second day of Israel’s attack, AATW activists joined a demonstration in the village of Ni’ilin against Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Israeli forces opened fire on stone-throwing youth, killing one protester and leaving another in critical condition. Arafat Rateb Khawaja, 22 years old, was shot in the back with live ammunition, and died at 14:45 in Ramallah Hospital. Mohammed Kasim Khawaja, 20 years old, was shot in the forehead with live ammunition from close range, and remains in a condition of clinical death in Ramallah hospital.
Updated @ 1346 on 31/12/2008
[againstwall updates:]
Mohamad Hawaje,22 , from Nil’in just died.
He was shot on the 28th of December by soldiers who shot live ammunition and shot him in the forehead.
He is the fourth from Nil’in to have been murdered by the army.
and Jonathan Pollack’s testimony of the demo held in Neilin against IDF’s actions in Gaza, a Demo in which 1 Palestinian was shot dead and another is wounded severely.
On Sunday, Dec 28 2008, the residents of the Palestinian village of Ni’lin demonstrated in protest of the massacre in Gaza. The demonstration quickly escalated to confrontations in various places between the Israeli army and border patrol, who shot tear gas and rubber coated metal bullets, and the villagers, who threw stones at the soldiers.
The biggest confrontation front was the main entrance to the village, next to the junction of roads 446 and 4460, where a large border patrol force was gathered. A secondary confrontation took place a little south west to road 4460, in an olive grove next to the village. A chicken coop that marks the end of the village’s built area stands in the grove. The soldiers were on one side of the building, and the demonstrators on the other. There were 15-30 young demonstrators around.
I was standing next to this second confrontation arena, 30-40 meters away from the stone throwers.
For a long while soldiers shot tear gas and rubber coated metal bullets. At a certain point the shooting noises shifted, and I recognised from my experience that these were live metal bullets. The bullets were shot individually. I got close to the stone throwers to warn them that the army started live shooting.
The demonstrators were standing behind a tall pile of rubble, and the soldiers, 4-5 as far as I could see, including an officer, were standing 20 meters away, moving freely back and forth behind a stone barrier. Their behaviour made it clear that they were not in any mortal danger. The live shooting, directed at demonstrators (not in the air), lasted a few minutes.
Due to the danger I started backing off facing the confrontation after having warned a few of the youngsters about the use of live metal bullets. I went backwards about 5 meters, when one of the demonstrators was shot in his leg. I ran to him and was the second to reach him. We evacuated him 15 meters backwards towards a paramedic team that stood by. It lasted about thirty seconds, maybe less.
As we were evacuating the first casualty, we heard people shouting about another one. I ran back, and half way through I saw four people carrying a man, seemingly dead, who had been shot in his back. Later I learned this was Arafat Khwaja.
I was watching the shooting of the demonstrators, a few meters from where I stood, and saw another man collapse. The people standing next to him carried him and cried he was shot in his head. I later learned this was Muhammad Khawaja. The shooting went on. His head was covered with blood flowing in a strong current. The people carrying him were drenched with his blood.
I ran toward Arafat Khwaja, and took the place of one of the people that carried him. I held his left shoulder and his head to keep it steady. My hand holding his back and shoulder was covered with blood. One of the youngsters took over for me. No ambulance was present, so the body was quickly moved into the car of one of the villagers to evacuate him. The ambulance came about a minute later and evacuated all three casualties to the hospital in Ramallah.
I want to emphasise again that the live metal bullet shooting was not brief and did not result from the soldiers’ distress or anything that could be construed in any way as mortal danger, but lasted for several minutes, where the soldiers were behind shelter and not retreating. Furthermore, a short distance away was a much larger force, according to my estimate dozens of border patrol personnel, who never advanced towards the confrontation arena, indicating that the soldiers did not experience any danger.
Arafat Khwaja was shot in his back, which means hs was standing with his back to the soldiers when he was shot, and therefore could not endanger them at all.
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