CPTnet
May 25, 2001
HEBRON: Palestinian Gas Masks
By Jane Adas

On May 11, Palestinians from Deir Istya conducted a peaceful demonstration
to protest the expansion of the Israeli settlement of Yakir. More than 100
Palestinians were joined by 20 internationals and Israelis, who had come at
the invitation of Dr. Nafith K. Mansour, the mayor of Deir Istya. Among
them were CPTers Bob Holmes, JoAnne Lingle, and Jane Adas.

Deir Istya is near Nablus in the Salfit district in the northern part of
the West Bank. Its 100,000 dunums (about 25,000 acres) makes it the
largest village in the West Bank. But the Israeli Occupation is whittling
down its
size. There are seven Israeli settlements built on village land, some of
them "James Baker settlements," built every time the then Secretary of
State visited Israel. A recently constructed by-pass road cut off a
further 10% of the land from the village. In the last few months the
Israeli army has uprooted more than 1,500 olive and fruit trees.

Yakir was established in 1982. Its residents frequently harass
Palestinians, both in their fields and in their homes. On May 9, Israeli
soldiers entered the village at night. They set off gas and percussion
bombs and took away a teen-ager, presumably to arrest him.

In the third week of April, settlers from Yakir placed four large caravans
nearly a mile away from their settlement on Deir Istya agricultural land
that has belonged to the same family for generations. This creeping
expansion was the focus of the demonstration, a 3- kilometer march from the
village to the site of the caravans. When the group neared the settlement,
Dr. Nafith paused to remind those present that this was to be a non-violent
protest. Nobody should throw even a pebble. And no one did.

Soon after that, Israeli soldiers fired rounds of tear gas at the
demonstrators, igniting several brush fires. Small groups of people, among
them Bob Holmes and Dr. Nafith, repeatedly tried to approach the soldiers
in order to talk with them, but were driven back with more tear gas and
some percussion bombs. A journalist was lightly injured when he was shot
in the foot with a rubber bullet.

People from the area collected wild sage from adjacent fields and
distributed sprigs to those suffering from burning skin, noses, and
eyes. When crushed and stuffed in nostrils, sage is a surprisingly
effective antidote to tear gas -- the Palestinian version of a gas mask.

After an hour of gassing the demonstrators, five or six soldiers approached
in a
jeep. At that point a sheikh called the noon prayer. When he began to
speak to the men gathered around him, the jeep stopped and soldiers quit
lobbing tear gas canisters. After prayers, the mayor suggested everyone
should peacefully return to the village. And they did.