النبي صالح‎

As an outsider, I often wondered why a group of young people my age would demonstrate religiously for this small village in the West Bank. I understood the importance and power of peaceful demonstrations in the occupied territories of Palestine, but every Friday? So, I took it upon myself to do my research on this enchanted village. As the name says 'Nabi Saleh' obviously indicates some sort of religious importance and reference to Islam. I found out that that the village hosts a shrine dedicated to Prophet Saleh that was built during the Ottoman rule in the 19th century.

In my opinion, this reason alone should be motivation enough to stand up to the occupier and protect such an important area in the history of Islam. Even though the village holds such (religious) significance to the Palestinians living in the area, the occupier disregards this and continues to confiscate land from and nearby the village for the Israeli settlement called 'Halamish'. That to me is a slap in the face.

In that respect, what are the young people suppose to do? Watch as Israeli forces continue to crackdown on innocent Palestinian families in order to get their desired piece of land? No.

They choose to counter the Israeli forces peacefully armed with nothing but courage. Of course, the only way Israeli forces know how to deal with unarmed protesters is with teargas canisters. Israeli forces seem to be so intimidated by these unarmed Palestinian youths that their cowardice resulted in the death of Mustafa Tamimi (the first resident of Nabi Saleh to be killed during a demonstration) who was shot close range with a teargas canister.

On that note, I say to the boys and girls in Nabi Saleh, may Allah be with you today and every other day in your lifetime that you will spend countering injustice. 

Love and solidarity.