By Beth Atim, December 14, 2011
On Friday, December 9, 2011, an Israeli soldier ruthlessly killed Mustafa Tamimi, a Palestinian from the village of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank, Palestine. He was intentionally shot in the face with a tear gas canister from the back of an army jeep just a few yards away during the weekly demonstration against the colonization of his land.
Last Sunday, thousands gathered to mourn his death. Wrapped in a Palestinian flag and keffiyeh, Tamimi was carried through the streets of Ramallah and onto his home village, followed by a long procession of cars moving at the slow pace of a mournful community.
Photos captured of Tamimi just before and after he was hit have circled the globe, bringing feelings of horror to those who see them. One of these images depicts Tamimi’s head being held steady by the desperate hands of a fellow-demonstrator as blood spills out of his gushing wounds and pools below his almost-lifeless body. These are the images that we fear to look at; we gasp in disbelief and are left with a great sense of sadness for humanity.
We cannot help but think of the soldier who made the decision to shoot with such intentionality and precision at Tamimi. The systems of militarization and colonization that the Israeli government implements not only negatively affect the Palestinians, but it also dehumanizes Israeli youth by training and instructing them to occupy, torture, and kill.
This is the reason we do what we do; it is the reason we call on the Minnesota State Board of Investment with great urgency to divest from Israel until they abide by international law.
On Monday December 12th, members of MN Break the Bonds attended the State Board of Investment meeting during which one of the Board members stated, “Whenever I have a difficult situation on any of the boards I serve on, I always go back to my authority and my responsibility as defined by state law and the constitution. And they don’t list morality…”
When public officials so confidently state that their dedication is to the law regardless of morality, it is extremely difficult to believe that they understand the weight of such a statement. We sincerely hope that any such statement was made without full reflection. In light of yet another death at the hands of Israel’s occupation, we must take ownership of the fact that the Israel Bonds in which Minnesota is invested support Israeli settlements which suffocate the West Bank, the Apartheid Wall which cages in a whole society, and the military that occupies it.
Tamimi and the countless others whose lives have been taken by the Israeli Occupation Forces put a face on the struggle for Palestinian liberation. These are the faces we must remember. These are the faces that remind us how critical it is to look at what we finance and why. Minnesota, let us be a state that puts human rights first and divest from the Israeli occupation.
Photo: electronicintifada.net