Kafr Kaddum

This morning, some ISM activists went to Kafr Kaddum, a Palestinian village that is close to Nablus. The village is surrounded by several Israeli settlements, and in 2003, the road between Kafr Kadum and Nablus was blocked by the Israeli Army, which means that Palestinians in the village must now travel an extra 14 kilometres to get to Nablus. The soldiers tell them that the road is blocked "for the safety of the settlers"... and somehow also for the safety of the villagers themselves.

The people of the village had been protesting since 2011 to get the road reopened. Since then, the Israeli Army had arrested and imprisoned over 175 people, and 44 were injured by live fire. Several have also been killed, though I do not know how many.

The villagers at Kafr Kaddum protest every week by trying to march on their road.

When we arrived at the village for the demonstration, there were already clashes going on. The Israeli Army and Border Police entered the village, and groups of young men and boys, some of them teenagers and others who looked to be as young as ten, were throwing rocks towards them.

The military sprayed them several times with "skunk", shooting the liquid over entire houses and trying to splash the people below. There was a sniper on a rooftop who a group of very young children were trying to throw stones at, although he was out of range. My wife and another ISMer stood by them, putting themselves in line of fire, but doing so in the hope that he would not shoot. There was a cracking noise as the sniper took a shot at one of the boys, but evidently he missed. We heard later from a Palestinian man that a 10 year old boy elsewhere in the village who was taking part in the clashes also, was shot in the head with a rubber bullet.

I was a distance from the clashes, taking videos and photos with my camera. Although I was not close to the people throwing rocks, I could see the intensity of the anger they were feeling towards the military that is making their lives and the lives of their families difficult by enforcing the occupation.

After about half an hour, the military began shooting teargas en masse into the village. The cannisters flew over the roofs of houses, and were fired in bursts from what I assume must have been a truck. The shebab dispersed, only to regroup.


Then, inexplicably, the soldiers withdrew.


The villagers then began marching onto their blocked road, and walked until they could see the settlements. They then stopped, and several youth brought forward tires and after pouring gasoline on them, they set them on fire. The black smoke began drifting over to the settlements.

Interestingly, there was no response from the army and Border Patrol, who barged into this village early in the morning, with the clear intention of starting a fight with the youth. After a few minutes, the protesters left.

Unlike the demonstrators at the Adam settlement yesterday, the protesters at Kafr Kaddum were definitely using violence against the soldiers and police that attacked their village. Many of the people throwing rocks were small children.

Although I am a pacifist, I can't blame the villagers for what they did. According to Ahmed*, an elderly man who had us stick close to him during the demonstration, the Army had been raiding the village on almost a daily basis, coming in at night to arrest young people who they suspect take part in the demonstrations. Also, in addition to this, a large part of the village's land has been confiscated by the settlers.

How much can people put up with? The demonstrations started some eight years after the village road was cut off.


Among the demonstrators who were not Palestinian, there were not only internationals but also a few Israelis. One of them stood with a megaphone, yelling at the soldiers in Hebrew. He asked them what they were doing in the village, and don't they realize that if they weren't occupying Palestinian land, no one would be throwing stones at them.

He was right. The soldiers, by coming into the village and by enforcing what can only be accurately described as a theft from its people, set off the clashes.

I was sad to see that among the people taking part in the clashes and putting their lives in danger, there were children. Some of them were teenagers, and others were clearly around the age of eight or ten. Some looked even younger.
Children should never have to live with war. In Kafr Kaddum and many other Palestinian villages and cities, there is a generation of kids growing up, who have seen little but war and occupation and oppression. Palestinian kids in many parts of the West Bank go to school everyday, seeing armed soldiers and settlers. They live in villages and towns where roads and even wells are deprived to them because of who they are. Many of them go out to confront the army, believing that by throwing stones they will be able to somehow help end the occupation that is paralyzing them in their own land. Many get wounded, and many die.

May God one day bring a peace that is just, and where they and all children in the Holy Land can live without the terrible realities of war.

* name has been changed