The Palestinian Family That Fought a Soldier to Save Their Son - Diplomacy and Defense - Haaretz - Amira Hass - Sep 03, 2015
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On Sunday afternoon Nariman Tamimi repeated her answer for probably the thousandth time, telling yet another journalist that she had done the natural thing when on August 28 she ran to rescue her 12-year-old son Mohammad from the grip of an Israel Defense Forces soldier at the demonstration in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. To say she “ran” is an exaggeration, as she was hobbling on crutches.
On November 21 of last year, an IDF soldier shot her, wounding her left shin as she was filming soldiers dispersing the weekly demonstration in the village. That same demonstration marked the second anniversary of the death of her brother, Rushdie, whom an IDF soldier shot in the back and killed. An IDF investigation found that on that day the soldiers had fired about 80 bullets, with no justification, to disperse a protest in the village.
When Nariman heard her son’s screams and began limping towards him as fast as she could between the boulders and the thistles, she was thinking about one thing only: What would happen to his broken arm? Last Wednesday, military jeeps drove into the village. Youngsters threw stones at them in protest, the soldiers fired tear gas and people, among them Mohammad who was shopping at the grocery store, fled the gas. He tripped, breaking his left arm.
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Nonetheless, Nariman felt sad for the soldier. “He is a victim of the policy; he himself is a child,” she observed, “but he should ask himself why he is being sent to our home to harm us.”
Bassem, who saw the other soldiers far from their comrade, became afraid that some of the Palestinian youngsters would get closer, the soldier would try to shoot them, someone would get hurt and the youngsters would try to take revenge on the soldier. “I was caught up in the tension between concern for my son and for what was liable to happen,” he said. He shouted to an officer who was standing 70 or 80 meters away to come. “I shouted in Hebrew, in English, in Arabic. If I knew any other language I would have shouted in that too.” The officer came and held the soldier who was sprawled on the ground. When he stood up, the soldier kicked the women and the girl, hit Bassem with his rifle butt and threw a stun grenade.
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