Rushdi Tamimi

Earlier today, Rushdi Tamimi, age 31, died of a bullet wound sustained on November 17 at a protest against the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. According to tweets from his cousin, Manal Tamimi, Israeli soldiers hit Rushdi repeatedly with rubber-coated steel bullets and, after he had fallen, shot him in the side with a live round. (For a more detailed and disturbing account, see this report.) Beginning just before the four-minute mark, the video above documents events that transpired after Rushdi was shot. He left behind one daughter, four years old. He was the brother of Neriman Tamimi, in whose home I stayed for several weeks in June and July of this past summer. Neriman’s husband, Bassem, has been confined to an Israeli prison since October 24. Rushdi was the second resident of Nabi Saleh to be killed in the last year, and the first Palestinian to die in the protests that have swept the West Bank since the Israeli assault on Gaza began last week. (Another, 22-year-old Hamdi al-Falah, was shot and killed in Hebron later in the day.) I did not know Rushdi, but I know Nabi Saleh well enough to understand how enormous and painful a loss this is for the entire village. My heart goes out to his family and to those who loved him.