Sad news today. The military industrial complex claims yet another victim in Israel. The following is quoted from http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5324

13th Friday 2009, Ni’lin Village: An American citizen has been critically injured in the village of Ni’lin after Israeli forces shot him in the head with a tear-gas canister.

Tristan Anderson from California USA, 37 years old, has been taken to Israeli hospital Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. Anderson is unconscious and has been bleeding heavily from the nose and mouth. He sustained a large hole in his forehead where he was struck by the canister. He is currently being operated on.

"Tristan was shot by the new tear-gas canisters that can be shot up to 500m. I ran over as I saw someone had been shot, while the Israeli forces continued to fire tear-gas at us. When an ambulance came, the Israeli soldiers refused to allow the ambulance through the checkpoint just outside the village. After 5 minutes of arguing with the soldiers, the ambulance passed."

– Teah Lunqvist (Sweden) - International Solidarity Movement

The Israeli army began using to use a high velocity tear gas canister in December 2008. The black canister, labeled in Hebrew as “40mm bullet special/long range,” can shoot over 400 meters. The gas canister does not make a noise when fired or emit a smoke tail. A combination of the canister’s high velocity and silence is extremely dangerous and has caused numerous injuries, including a Palestinian male whose leg was broken in January 2009.

Please Contact:

Adam Taylor (English), ISM Media Office +972 8503948

Sasha Solanas (English), ISM Media Office - +972 549032981

Woody Berch (English), at Tel Hashomer hospital +972 548053082

Tristan Anderson was shot as Israeli forces attacked a demonstration against the construction of the annexation wall through the village of Ni’lin’s land. Another resident from Ni’lin was shot in the leg with live ammunition.

Four Ni’lin residents have been killed during demonstrations against the confiscation of their land.

Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29th July 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira (17) was shot twice with rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week later on 4 August 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), was the third Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the back with live ammunition on 28 December 2008. That same day, Mohammed Khawaje (20), was shot in the head with live ammunition, leaving him brain dead. He died three days in a Ramallah hospital.

Residents in the village of Ni’lin have been demonstrating against the construction of the Apartheid Wall, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004. Ni’lin will lose approximately 2500 dunums of agricultural land when the construction of the Wall is completed. Ni’lin was 57,000 dunums in 1948, reduced to 33,000 dunums in 1967, currently is 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after the construction of the Wall.

Updates:

Orly Levi, a spokeswoman at the Tel Hashomer hospital, tells Ha’aretz:

He’s in critical condition, anesthetized and on a ventilator and undergoing imaging tests,” She described Anderson’s condition as life-threatening.

Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack told Ynet:

"… the firing incident took place inside the village and not next to the fence. There were clashes in the earlier hours, but he wasn’t part of them. He didn’t throw stones and wasn’t standing next to the stone throwers."

"There was really no reason to fire at them. The Dutch girl standing next to him was not hurt. It only injured him, like a bullet."

Update 11:50pm March 13: Tristan is sedated and in surgery, being seen by an ophthalmologist, and will likely be in surgery for some time.

Driving across North Dakota today was amazing. The ground was white with snow, and the sky was the same color. It looked to be snowing always in the distance, but never where I was. Driving through valleys, past buttes and rivers, I thought about the people who used to live here, who trekked through the snow with their bands of other humans, and animals. Wow!

Episode #37 of "Stories from the Road" is now available for download!

Today held a lot of amazingness for me. I slept late, always nice, but shortly after waking up I received a call from the group home where I’ve been working. I am on call three days this week, and the call was to ask me to come in today. The group home provides a full time home for 5 residents, and there are 3 crisis stabilization beds as well.
The amazingness comes into play in the interactions I had with the two persons who are currently occupying crisis beds. I felt so much respect for both of them, and was able to do some good listening and some good sharing with both of them. It’s really amazing to me how my life has provided me with experiences that, through sharing, can offer valuable perspective to others. I know part of the value is in how I share, and it is very pleasing to me to see how much I’ve learned in that context. I left the group home tonight feeling really good about the people I’d spent time with today and about how I handled myself. It’s nice to feel good about one’s work...and by work I do not mean “job” work but the work of one’s life. It's also powerful to learn about people's lives, what they've gone through, and how they are digesting their life experiences.

I just gave notice at my job. I plan to head east by March 13 or so at the latest.

Now that I've made the decision I feel some relief, and still some disappointment over what happened with the person here who I thought was a friend. I also feel excited. This just isn't the place for me to settle long term, which I knew, and since the main project I came to work on has fallen through, I'm going to redirect my energies into other projects elsewhere.

Packing and shipping are now the name of the game.