Palestine Today 12 12 2011

A Palestinian was killed in a protest in the West Bank, and Cairo receives their new Israeli ambassador, these stories and more coming up; so stay tuned.

Mustafa Tamimi, a 28 year old Palestinian activist from the village of Nabi Saleh, near the northern West Bank city of Ramallah, was critically injured on Friday December 9th, after an Israeli soldier fired a tear gas canister which struck his face.

The weapon is question, fires high velocity canisters, and can be lethal at the distance he was hit, approximately thirty feet. Whilst they are not supposed to be fired directly at people, Tamimi was hit at this short distance by a soldier sitting in the back of a jeep as it drove away.

Mustafa was taking part in the weekly protest, a grassroots campaign to win back land taken by settlers. The settlement began to gradually expand; with the final straw was the stealing of the nearby Ein al-Qaws spring.

He is the first Palestinian to be killed in the Nabi Saleh protests, and is a resident of the nearby village. He was pronounced dead on Saturday, and a funeral was held on Sunday.

In an official statement, the army have claimed that the solider did not see Mustafa when he fired, and a military official tweet implied that the action was justified because he had a sling shot in his pocket when he was hit.

Protesters held a rally outside the office of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the so-called “Braver Plan”. The plan targets over thirty Bedouin villages, who are to be displaced in the Negev.

The protest was called for by the Higher Follow-Up committee, who represents Arabs in Historic Palestine. The plan is alleged to be confiscating nearly a million Dunams of Bedouin land, and the destruction of dozens of villages.

In other news, Israel’s new ambassador to Egypt arrived in Cairo today, Monday, three months after the previous ambassador was evacuated and the embassy ransacked by angry rioters.

Amitai replaces Yithak Levanon, and will work out of his residence whilst an alternative location is found and enhanced security is put in place, after Israeli security determined the old site insecure from a security standpoint.

That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Monday December 12 daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This was brought to you by George Rishmawi, and me, William Gibson.