What you are about to see is not graphic, nor is it sensational. However, when you understand what it is, and why it occurred, you will realize the need for both a disclaimer and this diary.
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In a post titled "Watch: IDF terrorizes a Palestinian village" at +972 Magazine, Noam Sheizaf writes before presenting the video (embedded below):
I try not to use loaded words like “terrorizes” in my writing, but there is simply no other way to describe this video, showing four army vehicles enter the small village of Nabi Saleh (West Bank) in the middle of the night, throw stun grenades and shoot tear gas at the homes of the sleeping Palestinians.
Nabi Saleh has been the site of weekly unarmed protests by Palestinians, international activists and Israelis against the confiscation of the village’s land by a nearby settlement. You can read about it here.
There are no demonstrations at nights.
Below, I am going to present the video to you, and will explain, after the break, the context, what happened, and how we are partially to blame for it occurring.
But first, the video, in which you will see a military convoy enter a tiny village of 500 people in the middle of the night, when everyone is sleeping. You will see soldiers throw stun grenades by hand, and you will both hear and see the flash of gas grenades being launched at the houses.
The soldiers in the video above, firing canisters at the village of Nabi Saleh, were not responding to an incident. No, the stun grenades and tear gas were being fired as a punishment. As punative. As a way to wake everyone up, and keep them up, for having the audacity to protest, nonviolently, for return of land that was stolen from them by a nearby settlement.
Allow me to explain:
For over a year, every Friday afternoon, the residents of Nabi Saleh – all of them, men, women, children, the young and old alike – engage in a nonviolent protest. What are they protesting? A freshwater spring that was appropriated from them by a nearby settlement.
Their protests are not violent. They are not dangerous. And yet, every Friday, the IDF brutally suppresses them, often trying to stop them before they even begin. Here, Idan Landau explains:
The army does not even wait for the demonstrators to get out of the village. The Israeli army simply goes into the village and starts shooting at anything that moves – rubber-coated metal pellets, gas canisters, and other things. Sometimes it sprays entire streets with putrid skunk water: the houses, the windows, the potable water stored on the roofs. Not only is this collective punishment, this policy exposes the true provocateur: Village residents, who demonstrate without threatening any Israeli? Or the army, which invades their streets? (A quote from the testimony of Hedva Isscar: “The first gas canister was shot at us before we had time to get out of the village.”)
"The objects seen in the picture: a magazine (Rifle-Launched Anti-Protesters Grenade) attached to a Tavor gun, and a human skull, attached to a neck. The gun is vertical; the neck is horizontal. You could say they’ve made contact."
— from +972 Magazine, photo by Tamimi Press
The Tavor gun seen above, which is being pressed against a nonviolent protestor in Nabi Saleh, was acquired by the Israeli army thanks to military funding from the United States.*
The United States will give Israel over $3 billion in military aid this fiscal year in order for Israel to maintain its qualitative military edge (QME) with regard to its neighbors in all theaters.
In other words: we partially fund this.
Now, let me be clear: I support U.S. military aid to Israel. I support the Iron Domes being supplied to protect Israeli citizens from rocket attacks, and the F-35 Joint Striker Fighters that will keep Israel's air force superior to Iran's and Syria's.
However, I do not support unconditional military aid. (The U.S. has a 10-year military aid agreement that will provide Israel with over #3 billion in funding through 2018.) I do not support having that aid remain fully intact when military transgressions, such as the one in Nabi Saleh, continue to occur.
I do not support Congress threatening to withhold from the Palestinians the $470 million dollars it receives from the U.S. simply for attempting to declare statehood through the U.N. while Israel receives unconditional funding.
Now, before I go on, let me say something important: this diary is not meant to be a vilification of Israel as a whole in any way, and I hope people in the comments will refrain from any emotional generalizations based upon this diary, the sole purpose of which is to expose the actions of a military belonging to a democratic country which we heavily subsidize.
As many saw in my previous diary, Israelis have much to be proud of, particularly with the slow resurgence of its progressive left.
However, what Israelis cannot be proud of is their current conservative ruling class, both in the halls of the Knesset and in the upper echelon of the military, a class that allows for and commands the types of actions seen in Nabi Saleh.
My goal in this diary is not to spark a pie fight here. My goal is to educate, to expose a painful truth, and to inspire us to compel our lawmakers to, in turn, compel Israel to change its actions or risk a downsizing in the military funding it receives.
If you feel strongly about this, then I urge you to contact your representatives in the House and Senate and express such an opinion, and I urge you, if you live in the States, to join J Street.
* Regarding the Tavor gun, this from Wiki:
Tavor carbine was first seen at the 2002 SHOT Show, when agreements were announced between IMI and the Barrett Firearms Company to manufacture the Tavor in both its military and civilian variants in the United States.[4] This was probably done in order to allow Israel to procure the Tavor using United States military aid money, since, according to American military assistance agreements, said funds must be spent to purchase US-manufactured equipments.
Author's Note: I wasn't going to include this video, but since Terra Mystica included it in the comments, here it is. This one IS difficult to watch, and is also from a Nabi Saleh nonviolent protest with children in clown costumes: