Kafr Kaddum clashes

Today, like they do every Friday, the villagers of Kafr Kaddum tried to march on the road that they used to use to travel in and out of their village, that had been taken by the settlers. Once again, the Israeli military invaded the village in an effort to prevent the march and once again, clashes broke out.

When we arrived, stone throwing young men and boys were trying to hit the soldiers who had come to their village. The soldiers initially threw many stun grenades and shot several rubber coated steel bullets. The people moved into a section of the village from where they continued to throw rocks. The soldiers sent a bulldozer to try to plow into the crowd, but it was met with rains of stones and forced to retreat. The same fate befell a skunk truck, although it did spray people's homes, even those of people not involved in the clashes. The military shot two rounds of teargas into the demonstrators, then moved back.

I saw a young boy carried to an ambulance, he was at his home and was overcome by the teargas.

People began to march towards the road, like they always do. Some of the shebab (young men and teens) noticed a military truck that shoots rounds of teargas cannisters at a time, and began to stone it, as well as some Army soldiers that were close to it. The truck fired at least a dozen rounds of teargas into the marchers, both those who were throwing rocks (who separated themselves from the others), and those who weren't. I remembered what we learned during training, and quickly but calmly moved away from the gas cloud. My eyes and throat and nose stung, but I was fine. A fellow ISMer fell down and skinned her knee. Some of the young men set some car tires on fire, and soon afterwards the soldiers began shooting live round in their direction.

At that point, the demonstration was called off.

It was a very violent affair, with people on both sides using violence. I was very uncomfortable to see young children taking part in the clashes, and wish that the organizers were able to keep them from being involved.

However, while it is true there was violence from both sides, it is equally true that the situations of the combatants was different. The people of Kafr Kaddum had rocks, and the occasional bottle filled with paint. The Israeli military had stun grenades, teargas that was fired from a truck with several launchers, a skunk truck, rubber coated steel bullets, live ammunition, and a bulldozer.

More importantly, there was a difference in the reason people on both sides were fighting. The people of Kafr Kaddum were fighting today, as they had been fighting every Friday in the past five years, for the right to use a road to their village which was closed off to them, so it could be used by Israeli settlers of the nearby settlement of Kedumim. The military was there to uphold the illegal occupation of the road.

This is one thing I find most sad about the situation. The people at Kafr Kaddum are not fighting for Hamas. They are not fighting for Fatah, or for any other group. They are not fighting to "destroy Israel" or even to reclaim the West Bank from the military occupation that began in 1967.


They are fighting for the right to use their own road.

To avoid the clashes, all the military has to do is give it back to them. However, they seem to prefer the status quo. The weekly battles, therefore, continue.