Saturday 17 April 2010

We will never forget you Bassem

Remembering Bassem Abu Rahma of Bil’in
Contributed by Edna
Hi friends
A new post has been added at Mundo dos Sonhos, in memory of Bassem Abu Rahma of Bil'in Village on the West bank, who was murdered by the IDF on 17 April 2009, during a peaceful protest against the apartheid wall.

Love
Edna

Mundo dos Sonhos

World of Dreams

Remembering Bassem Abu Rahma of Bil’in


Photomontage made on 13 April 2010
Click on image to enlarge
In memory of Bassem Abu Rahma of Bil’in Village, killed by an IDF soldier on 17 April 2009, during a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid wall.
Almost a year earlier in July 2008, Bassem’s brother, Ashraf, survived a close-range shooting by the IDF while detained and blindfolded, which was also filmed...
Read in full here.
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In Memoriam: Bassem Abu Rahma


Above: Mourners carry the body of Abu Rahma through Ramallah.

In this video tape, Bassem Abu Rahma (nick named El-Feel, the elephant, for he was always thought of as a giant among his peers) is seen pleading with Israeli soldiers to wait (saying Raiga in Hebrew) as Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals protested the land confiscation and building of the apartheid fence on vilage land.

The soldiers then shoot Bassem point blank with a high velocity gas grenade which kills him within five minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlbzuZ_50mU

and here is a video of the funeral the next day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F91H8sR64Ro

Pulse

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

It does not devalue the lives or the deaths of white or Western heroes to say that we live in a racist world that refuses to know the names of heroes like Bassem Abu Rahma, that our world honors heroes with the resources to get on a jet-plane, that it honors less heroes that can never afford a jet-plane. A year ago the Israeli army murdered Bassem Abu Rahma for defending his land in Bilin. Remember him.

Mohammad Khatib:
He loved everyone, and because of his sweetness and ability to make us laugh, everyone loved him. Bassem was everyone’s friend: the children talk about how he would play with them, scare them and then make them laugh. He would tend the garden in the playground and bring toys and books to the kindergarten. The old ladies in the village talk about how he used to visit, to ask after them and see if they needed anything. In the village, he seemed to be everywhere at once. He would pop in to say hello, take one puff of the nargila, and be off to his next spot. The morning he was killed he went to the house of Hamis, whose skull had been broken at a previous demonstration three months ago by a tear gas canister projectile – the same weapon that would kill Bassem.
Bassem woke Hamis and gave him his medicine, then off he went to visit another friend in the village who is ill with cancer. Then a little girl from the village wanted a pineapple but couldn’t find any in the local stores. So Bassem went to Ramallah to get a pineapple and was back before noon for the Friday prayers and the weekly demonstration against the theft of our land by the apartheid wall. Pheel never missed a demonstration; he participated in all the activities and creative actions in Bilin. He would always talk to the soldiers as human beings. Before he was hit he was calling for the soldiers to stop shooting because there were goats near the fence and he was worried for them. Then a woman in front of him was hit. He yelled to the commander to stop shooting because someone was wounded. He expected the soldiers to understand and stop shooting. Instead, they shot him too.
Remembering Bassem Abu Rahma, murdered at demonstration in Bil’in, Palestine, last week
Bil’in Commemorates the 1st Anniversary of the Murder of Basem Abu Rahmah (April 16th, 2010)


River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

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