March 14, 2009

Bethlehem – Ma’an – An American demonstrator shot in the head by the Israeli military Friday remains in life-threatening condition after undergoing surgery overnight.

"His skull is fractured. Fragments of bone went into his brain," said Anderson’s partner, 25-year-old Gabrielle Silverman, originally from Brooklyn, New York, speaking on the phone from Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv Saturday.

Silverman said doctors had removed part of the right frontal lobe of Anderson’s brain and were working to "put his face back together," to address trauma to his eye and forehead. The hospital is refusing to release further details, she said.

"It’s unclear how well he’s going to recover. He could die. He could recover completely. He could be severely brain damaged," said Silverman, adding that Anderson’s parents are on their way to Tel Aviv from San Francisco.

Israeli soldiers shot 37-year-old Tristan Anderson, of Oakland California, in the forehead with a high-velocity teargas canister at a demonstration against the Israeli West Bank separation wall in the village of Ni’lin on Friday.

Palestinians and their international supporters hold demonstrations at noon every Friday in Ni’lin and other villages against the Israeli wall, which, if completed, will snake 723 kilometers through the interior of the West Bank. Israel says the barrier is for its security, but Palestinians see it as one of many means to confiscate their land and further fragment their territory. The wall was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.



Silverman also corroborated reports that Israeli soldiers had shot Anderson without provocation.

"I was only a few feet away when he was shot," at about five in the afternoon, after the main demonstration had wound down. "He was standing on the grass; nothing was happening," she said.

It was, then, "a surprise" when Israeli soldiers fired the teargas canister from an adjacent hillside. A video released by the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, shows a scene of panic, moments after the shooting. Anderson is pictured lying in a stretcher, his face covered in blood.

When a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance evacuated Anderson, they were delayed at an Israeli military checkpoint for 15 minutes, waiting while Anderson bled from his forehead and nose. They also waited for an Israeli ambulance to transport Anderson to Tel Aviv.

Silverman herself came to Israel in early February on the Taglit-Birthright program which offers free trips to Israel for young Jews from around the world. She stayed on after the program ended, planning to spend a month in Israel, a month in the West Bank, and a month travelling in Egypt and Jordan. Anderson later joined her.

"They shot Tristan for one of two reasons; either because they believed he was a Palestinian, or because they were indiscriminately firing. Either way we need serious accountability from the Israeli government," Silverman said.

"As a Jew and as an American I’m very ashamed," she added.