- Dec 6, 2009
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When Israeli soldiers entered the embattled Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh on July 2, they were immediately confronted by over a dozen small children.
While the Israeli army is accustomed to firing teargas canisters, percussion grenades, rubber bullets and even live .22 caliber ammunition at adolescent boys, members of the Nahal unit and Kfir infantry brigade tasked with suppressing the weekly Nabi Saleh demonstration were frustrated by the children who surrounded and taunted them. At one point, the division commander became so upset he barked into his radio, I need backup!
The spectacle of seven-year-old children confronting heavily armed and visibly confused soldiers offers one of the clearest perspectives of the lopsided power dynamic that animates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also highlights the reality of life for children in the Occupied Territories. They play soccer and dodgeball between phalanxes of soldiers firing lethal projectiles at their neighbors just a few meters away everyday life is an act of resistance.
Why are children participating in popular protests? Consider the case of Nilin, a Palestinian village engaged in popular struggle against the construction of the separation wall across its privately owned land. The Israeli army is holding three members of its small popular committee the political leadership of the village in harsh conditions in Ofer prison. They were arrested without charges during a night raid, subjected to psychological torture by the Shabak (Israels General Security Service), and are being held indefinitely.
Everyone is scared to protest now, Saeed Amireh, a Ni'lin resident in his early twenties, told me. I can participate in the demonstrations because I am single. But for those of us who have wives and children, going to jail is the worst. How can we work for our families or know what is happening with our wife if we are taken away? Amireh had just returned from a four month stint in Ofer prison which he described as horrible. He is still not sure what crime he was accused of committing. Its bullshit, he said. Im not the one doing any violence.
During Fridays protest in Nabi Saleh, orders could be heard blaring from soldiers radios to photograph some of the older (read: over 10 years old) boys participating in the protest. The photos are used to identify targets for night raids, when soldiers enter the village under cover of darkness, burst into homes and grab the young children and adolescent boys comprising the villages shabab from their beds.
The Battle of Nabi Saleh: Soldiers vs. Kids
While the Israeli army is accustomed to firing teargas canisters, percussion grenades, rubber bullets and even live .22 caliber ammunition at adolescent boys, members of the Nahal unit and Kfir infantry brigade tasked with suppressing the weekly Nabi Saleh demonstration were frustrated by the children who surrounded and taunted them. At one point, the division commander became so upset he barked into his radio, I need backup!
The spectacle of seven-year-old children confronting heavily armed and visibly confused soldiers offers one of the clearest perspectives of the lopsided power dynamic that animates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also highlights the reality of life for children in the Occupied Territories. They play soccer and dodgeball between phalanxes of soldiers firing lethal projectiles at their neighbors just a few meters away everyday life is an act of resistance.
Why are children participating in popular protests? Consider the case of Nilin, a Palestinian village engaged in popular struggle against the construction of the separation wall across its privately owned land. The Israeli army is holding three members of its small popular committee the political leadership of the village in harsh conditions in Ofer prison. They were arrested without charges during a night raid, subjected to psychological torture by the Shabak (Israels General Security Service), and are being held indefinitely.
Everyone is scared to protest now, Saeed Amireh, a Ni'lin resident in his early twenties, told me. I can participate in the demonstrations because I am single. But for those of us who have wives and children, going to jail is the worst. How can we work for our families or know what is happening with our wife if we are taken away? Amireh had just returned from a four month stint in Ofer prison which he described as horrible. He is still not sure what crime he was accused of committing. Its bullshit, he said. Im not the one doing any violence.
During Fridays protest in Nabi Saleh, orders could be heard blaring from soldiers radios to photograph some of the older (read: over 10 years old) boys participating in the protest. The photos are used to identify targets for night raids, when soldiers enter the village under cover of darkness, burst into homes and grab the young children and adolescent boys comprising the villages shabab from their beds.
The Battle of Nabi Saleh: Soldiers vs. Kids
