First Encounter with Israeli Military-Police Forces

The Arabic sign reads "No to Prawer- Racist Plan"

EAST JERUSALEM: On the night of August 1st Muki and I went to an anti-Prawer Plan demonstration outside Damascus Gate.  After a peaceful march Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested at least one person and threw grenades into the crowd, which included non-protesting bystanders.  This demonstration was only one in a string of anti-Prawer Plan actions that happened on the August 1st "Day of Anger" around the West Bank, and that have been happening for the past several weeks. 

Demonstrators carried Palestinian flags, chanted slogans like “from the Negev to the Galil (Galilee) the people will hold their ground” in Arabic and held signs including “No to Prawer- Racist Plan” in Arabic and “Israel, the World is Watching! International Solidarity Against Prawer” in English. There were a dozen or two internationals offering solidarity and capturing the event on many cameras.

The Prawer Plan, which was approved by the Israeli Knesset upon its first reading in June 2013, would displace between 30-40,000 Palestinian Bedouins and destroy dozens of villages in the Naqab (Negev) Desert. In the area cleared, Israeli cities would be erected. If carried out, the Prawer Plan would be a severe human rights violation. (Read more, and more, and more.)

As more protesters gathered, a peaceful march began, filling the streets and blocking traffic. More Palestinians joined, including people whose cars had been blocked by the throngs of demonstrators. Muki and I followed the crowd.

Reaching an intersection there was suddenly chaos- IOForces began running toward the protesters and I heard someone shout, “they got one, they got a little kid.” Everyone fled and somehow I managed to find Muki's hand in the fray. My adrenaline pumped hard. People stayed close, ducking in shops, and soon there were calls for the march to reunite and continue in peace.

Once a critical mass had regrouped the protest continued, and the crowd turned at the intersection blocked off by the IOF, back toward the Damascus Gate.  Demonstrators continued to shout, “From the Negev to Silwan, Palestinians will not be humiliated” and “Palestine is our country, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” in a call and response chant. One of the central callers was a young woman who is seeing impaired.

Back at the main roundabout the chanting continued. Israeli forces, on foot and on horseback, appeared at one side of the circle.  As their presence became more obvious the tension grew.  A few protestors threw small stones and empty paper cups in the direction of the police.  After some minutes of this, the IOF responded by running directly into the middle of the street and throwing flash grenades into the crowd. The grenades flashed sparks with earsplitting explosions, and caused clouds of smoke.

The IOF failed to distinguish between protesters and bystanders, including women, children and infants as they threw the grenades, and screams could be heard from all around.  Muki and I stood on a cement block to the side of the street, videoing the events. Within minutes the IOF had arrested one young man, shown in the footage above, and an I heard that at least one other person, also male, was arrested that night. We also heard that someone had been trampled by one of the IOF's massive horses. The flashing lights of an ambulance in the crowd was the only confirmation we could see. 

The scene calmed down once elderly Palestinian men came between the protestors and the IOF, shooing demonstrators away. One man pleaded with the crowd in Arabic, “young people, please disperse. We don’t want to loose our mothers, our wives, our daughters and our sisters,” probably referring to the bystanders who could be affected if there was further violence.