A blood soaked flag

Protesters gather in Ramallah's Manara square to remember Mustafa Tamimi, who died today after being shot at close range by an Israeli tear gas canister.

It is cold in Ramallah tonight, and the sun sets quickly. The traffic is heavy in Manara square as night begins to fall. Emerging from one of Ramallah’s busy streets, a sombre procession circles the square’s proud lion statues, stopping the traffic as they go. Around a hundred people walk behind a man holding high a Palestine flag, stained red with blood: the blood of Mustafa Tamimi.

Mustafa Tamimi, 28, died this morning after being shot in the head from close range with a tear gas canister at the weekly protest in the village of Nabi Saleh.

Every Friday, throughout the West Bank, nonviolent demonstrations are held in protest of Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land for the building of settlements and the wall. And every Friday, Israel’s military forces respond with tear gas and rubber bullets. Protestors are frequently hospitalised for the effects of tear gas, and occasionally some are severely injured.

This Friday, however, was different. According to eyewitnesses, Tamimi was throwing stones at an armoured Israeli jeep when the back door of the jeep opened and a tear gas canister was fired directly into his face, from a range of less than 10 metres. Tamimi died from his wounds this morning in hospital.

Israel’s disproportionate use of force against nonviolent demonstrators is nothing new: I experienced something of it myself at a protest in Bil’in this summer. But to fire a tear gas canister at short range, aimed intentionally at the head of an unarmed protestor, is nothing short of criminal, and is something for which Israel must be held accountable.

At tonight’s small vigil in Ramallah, the mourners chant for an end to occupation. “Hero, martyr,” their banners read. They sing the Palestinian national anthem. "My homeland, my homeland, the youth will not tire till your independence, or they die, or they die," the crowd sings. 

The sun sets on a young man’s life, and another day under Israeli occupation.

Read Linah Alsaafin’s eyewitness account of the shooting here