Unconfirmed Reports

An-Nabi Saleh, 2 July 2010

Every Friday afternoon, the Israeli Army invades the Palestinian village of An-Nabi Saleh, initiating a passionate, inspiring and somewhat bizarre response from the villagers. What happens each week in An-Nabi Saleh is a powerful model for unarmed resistance to the Occupation.

Like many villages, An-Nabi Saleh has lost land to an illegal Israeli settlement; and to rub salt in the wounds, late in 2009 the fences of this settlement were moved outwards, signifying the extension of the settlement. In December 2009 the people of An-Nabi Saleh began protesting against the extension, joining together to march from their mosque and down the main street after noon prayers each Friday. Israeli soldiers invade the village, usually setting up a roadblock at the village crossroads before any demonstration has even started.

What is most noticeable about the An-Nabi Saleh demonstrations is that the whole village comes out to protest. In other villages, only a few brave people join the protest, with the silent majority afraid of violence or arrests. But for some reason - something about the culture or spirit of this village - in An-Nabi Saleh the people are almost impossible to intimidate. Women are at the forefront of the protest here; the elderly come out of their houses, and though some are too old to march, they sit out by the street and look on. But above all, the children of An-Nabi Saleh are fearsome protestors.

Soon after the soldiers arrive, the villagers march down to meet them. The two sides face off at the crossroads, and the villagers begin chanting and singing more enthusiastically, while the soldiers look on glumly. The children now move to the front line, pushing right up agains the soldiers, singing, laughing and clapping. If soldiers try to reposition themselves, the children chase them, surround them, all the while keeping up their songs.

The soldiers stand in the sun with their flak jackets, helmets and M16s, looking somewhat depressed. Their commander tries to work out what to do. And the children enjoy it more the longer it goes on. I tried to ask one of the soldiers: “Is an M16 the recommended weapon for dealing with six-year-old girls?” But he just replied, “I do not vant to talk to you.”

The soldiers stick around for hours… I cannot fathom why. I am very curious what their briefing might be for this mission - why do they invade a village each Friday, just to be shouted at and hassled by indignant little girls?

As the afternoon wears on, a new phase of the protest begins. The women and children finally begin to tire, and older boys hiding in the olive groves begin to throw stones at the army jeeps.

Perhaps this is what the soldiers come for. The stones do not actually present any danger to them: they are small stones, thrown from so far away that they fall short, or perhaps bounce up to the jeep - and of course the soldiers are armoured anyway. But they respond with tear gas and rubber bullets, and begin to make forays deeper into the village, supposedly pursuing the stone-throwing youths, but never actually getting close to catching them.

The teargas cannisters are shot at body-height, and will cause serious injury or death if they hit one of the protestors. They are supposed to be a crowd-dispersal technique, but here they are used as a weapon. Nonethelesss, the youths whoop and cheer as they dodge the flying cannisters. In quiet moments, some of them show me scars from the times they have been hit.

Throughout the afternoon, shouts and cheers reverberate around the village, and the youths are often on their mobile phones: a strong network of information is maintained, so that everyone in the village knows where the soldiers are at any given time. At one point a particularly big cheer goes up, and I ask what has happened - have the soldiers been ambushed, or perhaps made an arrest? No, the cheer is because Brazil has scored a goal against Holland in the World Cup quarter final. I wonder if the soldiers will leave soon, so that they can catch the second half of the match.

The afternoon goes on and on, with repeated rounds of stone-throwing, followed by teargas and military forays into the village. If the army have some particular aim here, they don’t seem to be achieving it. They respond to stone-throwing with dangerous and unnecessary force, but the stones are only thrown because they have come here and invaded the village. As sundown approaches, the soldiers finally get back into their jeeps and leave, causing great celebration around the village, and farewell stones go bouncing after the departing jeeps.

In the end Holland has won in the football; but An-Nabi Saleh seems to have won against the Israeli Army. The assault unit of six-year-old girls must surely be voted best-on-field.

See also: a report on the demo at Max Blumenthal’s blog.