A report from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) has released an update on the Danish and Israeli peace activists whose health is deteriorating due to critical wounds they sustained when the Israeli Army attacked the anti-wall demonstration in the village of Bil’in last Friday.
Rina Klauman and Lymor Goldstein are still being hospitalized for their injuries sustained in a demonstration, held weekly in Bil’in village, on Friday, to protest the confiscation of 60% of Bil’in’s farmland by the separation wall and Jewish settlements.
The Danish peace activist, Rina Klauman, from Copenhagen, was transferred last night from Hebron hospital to Hadasa Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem for more extensive tests, International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
ISM reported today that Rina has some small bleeding in her brain from a concussion she received when an Israeli border policeman beat her with his gun at the demonstration.
"She is not able to walk and suffers from vomiting, but can talk and is in stable condition. It is possible that if the bleeding does not subside, however, she may need complicated surgery to drain the blood," ISM said.
The ISM added that an Israeli activist, Lymor Goldstein, formerly of is currently in a stable condition at Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv.
After he was injured, Goldstein was taken for immediate surgery, which took 3 hours. A rubber bullet as well as shards of bone and damaged brain tissue were removed from his head and internal hemorrhaging was stopped. It is feared that he has suffered some permanent brain damage, the extent of which is not yet known..
The injuries of Rina and Lymor are the most serious injuries the army has caused in Bil’in since Ramzi Yassin, who was shot in the head with a plastic-coated steel bullet.
Ramzi, from Bil’in, was handing out water during a demonstration in Bil’in on July 8, 2005, when he was shot in the side of the head. The bullet caused severe bleeding of his brain and he was left unconscious for 7 days and with permanent brain damage which affects his sight. It is likely that he will need several more surgeries to correct his vision
Bil’in village has held protests at least once a week since January 2005 against the separation Wall that cuts through the village, and almost every week non-violent protestors are injured by the military’s violent repression of their demonstrations.
The Israeli Army contention that ‘rubber bullets’, which are in fact, rubber-coated steel bullets, are ‘less lethal’ is disputed by the facts.. In actual practice, permission given to soldiers to fire potentially lethal rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinians to disperse ‘violent riots’ or demonstrations has led to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians who are often shot in the head area.
A report by B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories notes that the Open-Fire Regulations issued by the Israeli Army emphasize that "rubber bullets used for dispersing a riot may cause bodily injury and in certain circumstances also death.".
According to these rules, the minimum range for firing "rubber" bullets is forty meters, and its use is limited to specially trained personnel. The Regulations emphasize that the bullets must be fired only at the individual’s legs, and are not to be fired at children or from a moving vehicle.
