this is UPMRC's latest report The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees SPECIAL REPORT Eye Injuries from Israeli Bullets October 5, 2000 Ziad Ahmed Farrah clearly remembers being 100 meters away from Israeli soldiers at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem when one of them fired a rubber-coated steel bullet into his left eye. "I was hit in my eye and my arm," Ziad says, "my friends carried me about 50 meters to the ambulance. I arrived at the eye hospital at exactly 5:30 PM on Saturday." Ziad is one of eighteen patients who have come to St. John's Ophthalmologic Hospital in East Jerusalem since Friday, September 29, with eye injuries sustained in Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians. Seven patients here, including Ziad, have lost their left eyes. The hospital report on Ziad states that the bullet "caused multiple scleral lacerations, and the contents of the eye had already been expelled when he was admitted. He also sustained fractures of the lateral wall of the orbit and frontal sinus." One of the nurses explains, "All we can do for him now is to repair the fractures and fit him for an artificial eye. We will try to match the color of the other eye." Ziad is twenty years old. He will have only one eye to see through for the rest of his life. Yet his spirit is far from broken. A plumber from Deheisheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, he wonders where peace is when Israeli settlements continue to expand while Palestinian refugees here and abroad are forbidden to return home. He went to Rachel's Tomb on Friday and Saturday to protest the Israeli army and police attacks on Palestinians in the Haram Al-Sharif. Those attacks killed six Palestinians and injured hundreds of worshippers who had been praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque. "Our soul is in Al-Aqsa," Ziad explains. Despite his injury, Ziad does not feel sorry for himself. He follows the news closely, and his heart is with Palestinians who have lost even more than he has in Israeli attacks. "I saw the 12-year-old boy who was shot by the Israeli army in Gaza while his father tried to protect him," he says, "This is criminal, dirty." Showing his compassion, Ziad gets up from his bed to cheer up 12-year-old Shaadi who has been in the hospital since Thursday. Shaadi's parents cannot get from Jenin to Jerusalem to visit him since the army has closed off the roads. Another 12-year-old child, Ala' Imad, is at St. John's after being shot in the eye with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The hospital report states that his left eye "was perforated twice, with the contents expelled, and the bullet caused fractures in the medial aspect and floor of the orbit. It has lodged in the maxilliary sinus and could be seen in the upper jaw, protruding behind the teeth." This is the kind of catastrophic damage that 'rubber' bullets inflict when fired from close range at a person's face. The Ophthalmologic Hospital of Gaza is seeing similar injuries among children hit with rubber-coated steel bullets. Eight children are currently in the hospital with injuries from Israeli bullets, and a total of nine patients have lost their eyes. Among them are 15-year-old Ramadan Salwat, who lost one eye while the other was seriously injured by a rubber-coated steel bullet. Doctors are trying to repair the injured eye, but it is likely that Ramadan will remain blind. Other patients shot in the eye include 12-year-old Abdel-Rahman An-Nadi, 12-year-old Ibrahim Abu-Mursa, 12-year-old Amjad Mazeed, 13-year old Taher Awad, and 14-year-old Ahmad Abed. In all of these cases, the doctors say that the injuries could only have been inflicted by bullets aimed directly at the heads of these children. Back in Jerusalem, Ziad Farrah is upset over the loss of his own eye, but even more offended by the continued military assault on Palestinian civilians, many younger than himself. He appeals to a rule of justice and morality that ought to transcend any one religious or nationalistic code. "I want to say to the soldier who shot me, 'You would not want someone to shoot your son, so you should not shoot a young person who is someone else's son.'" One should not need eyes at all to see the justice of Ziad's statement and the massive injustice of hurling brutal and often deadly force against civilians. Yet as the indiscriminate use of military force against Palestinians continues, one wonders if the Israeli army is not blinder than the children who have lost eyes to their bullets. To view all of the UPMRC's Emergency Appeals and updates regarding the Israeli army's use of force against Palestinians over the past eight days, visit the UPMRC website at http://www.upmrc.org. For further information please contact Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi at 050-254218 or the UPMRC office at 02-583-3510/ 02-583-4021. P L E A S E F O R W A R D T H I S N E W S L E T T E R T O E V E R Y O N E Y O U K N O W "Some call them radicals. Others call them the Opposition. President Clinton referred to them on various occasions as the "enemies of peace". Yet, for many Palestinians, they represent the non-compromising segment of the living conscience of Palestine. So before we rush to judge and to condemn, before we describe them as radicals and enemies of peace, we must listen to their story. The story of suffering through Black September, South Lebanon and the Intifadah. Once we listen, I believe, all that we can do is to stand for them and salute, salute them for a heavy price they have paid, rather than those who took the easy way out." - Ramzy Baroud
