Mustafa Tamimi was the latest victim of Israel’s barbarism but for every martyr who falls in Palestine there will be one million to take their place

By Roqayah Chamseddine

Mustafa Tamimi, a 28 year old Palestinian activist from Nebi Saleh, died early Saturday morning after being critically injured by an Israeli soldier; a tear-gas canister shot directly at his face less than 10 meters from where he stood.

Mustafa Tamimi had only been critically injured when reports began to flood Twitter, Facebook and other outlets, and activists who were present during the Israeli attack, Linah Alsaafin being one, later confirmed that due to the Israeli forces denying him swift medical treatment Tamimi died in Belinson Hospital, near Tel Aviv.

The brutality of Israel's occupation went as far as to deny Mustafa Tamimi's father a permit to leave the West Bank to go be with his injured son. Ola Tamimi, Mustafa's sister, witnessed him fall to his knees after being struck by the tear-gas canister, the blood pouring out of his wounds; in video's posted by those present activists are heard begging: “Can You help?”,“Can you stop it?” “A man has been shot in the head!" - yet the Israeli soldiers were seen smirking, one even having the audacity to ask “So?”, believing this to be nothing more than a joking matter, as blood continued to drench the ground and stain the Palestinian flag placed near his head.

For some two years protests have taken place in the small village of Nebi Saleh, village so small that it only has an estimated population of 500 people; when Mustafa Tamimi passed away the entire village felt his death, much like a thorn being pressed into their hearts. Mustafa Tamimi stood alongside many Palestinians and international solidarity activists in Nebi Saleh each year, in protest of Israel's theft which prevents Palestinian's from having access to their own land.

Soon after Tamimi's death was confirmed much of the online social media outlets erupted in outrage, horror and sadness. All the while, Israel's official army spokesperson published a picture of slingshot, on Twitter, as the reason for blowing off half of Mustafa Tamimi's head, as a means to defend the killing of a civilian; The Israeli Goliath attempts to blame rock-wielding Palestinian David.

Israel's barbarism did not end with the killing on Mustafa, far from it; as more than 2,000 joined the funeral procession, his body draped in a Palestinian flag seemingly floating above the crowd, tear-gas filled the path of mourners.

Holly Rigby, a British volunteer working on the Right to Education campaign at Birzeit University and a witness there that day, writes: "I heard a loud crack and all around me the silver tear gas canisters that had killed Mustafa were being shot directly at where I was standing with other activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and we ran up the road through clouds of billowing tear gas smoke, desperately trying to avoid the path of these silver bullet-like objects."

Video's released after the attack on Mustafa Tamimi's funeral procession displays the savagery of Israel; women being dragged by their feet, tackled into a headlock by an Israeli soldier, men being kicked and carried away towards armored vehicles. The "only democratic state" in the Middle East, as the baseless adage goes, beat and arrested mourners, those who wept defiantly in the face of Israel's occupation after the martyrdom of the first activist of the fearless village of Nebi Saleh.

Israel attempts to mask the cycle of slaughter of Palestinian under the false flag of "democracy", with impeccable skill and precision the apartheid entity destroys innocent life yet every civilian death is a tragic "accident", a "mistake"; criminals yet to be punished. Israel kills willingly, knowingly and indiscriminately; woman, man and child.

Mustafa Tamimi was the latest victim of Israel's barbarism but for every martyr who falls in Palestine there will be one million to take their place; In Palestine there is only one way forward and that is resistance - resistance until victory.