Oakland, CA Volunteer Shot by Israeli Army in West Bank, Palestine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPDATE: Oakland, CA Volunteer Shot by Israeli Army in West Bank, Palestine

Please Contact:
Adam Taylor (English), ISM Media Office +972 8503948
Sasha Solanas (English), ISM Media Office - +972 549032981
Woody Berch (English), at Tel Hashomer hospital +972 548053082

13th March 2009, Ni'lin Village: An American citizen has been
critically injured in the village of Ni'lin after Israeli forces shot
him in the head with a tear-gas canister.

Tristan Anderson from California USA, 37 years old, has been taken to
Israeli hospital Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. Anderson is unconscious
and had been bleeding heavily from the nose and mouth. He sustained a
large hole in his forehead where he was struck by the canister. He is
currently being operated on.

"Tristan was shot by the new tear-gas canisters that can be shot up to
500 meters,” reports Teah Lunqvist (Sweden) with the International
Solidarity Movement “I ran over as I saw someone had been shot, while
the Israeli forces continued to fire tear-gas at us. When an ambulance
came, the Israeli soldiers refused to allow the ambulance through the
checkpoint just outside the village. After 5 minutes of arguing with
the soldiers, the ambulance passed."

The Israeli army began using to use a high velocity tear gas canister
in December 2008. The black canister, labeled in Hebrew as "40mm
bullet special/long range," can shoot over 400 meters. The gas
canister does not make a noise when fired or emit a smoke tail. A
combination of the canister's high velocity and silence is extremely
dangerous and has caused numerous injuries, including a Palestinian
male whose leg was broken in January 2009.

Tristan Anderson was shot as Israeli forces attacked a demonstration
against the construction of the annexation wall through the village of
Ni'lin's land. Another resident from Ni'lin was shot in the leg with
live ammunition.

Four Ni’lin residents have been killed during demonstrations against
the confiscation of their land.

Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29th
July 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira (17) was shot twice with
rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week
later on 4 August 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), was the third
Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the
back with live ammunition on 28 December 2008. That same day,
Mohammed Khawaje (20), was shot in the head with live ammunition,
leaving him brain dead. He died three days in a Ramallah hospital.

Residents in the village of Ni'lin have been demonstrating against the
construction of the Apartheid Wall, deemed illegal by the
International Court of Justice in 2004. Ni'lin will lose approximately
2500 dunums of agricultural land when the construction of the Wall is
completed. Ni'lin was 57,000 dunums in 1948, reduced to 33,000 dunums
in 1967, currently is 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after the
construction of the Wall.