Patrick says he is not a nationalist, flags don’t turn him on, and the only reason he was holding one was to show that he wasn’t throwing stones. But even as he held the flag aloft, an Israel Defense Forces soldier took aim and shot him in the chest with a .22-caliber bullet – a “tutu” bullet, as the soldiers call it. It was removed from his body on Tuesday during surgery. Patrick, an Italian peace activist, declined the IDF’s offer to be hospitalized in Israel. No, thanks. It’s not reasonable, he says, that those who apparently wished to kill him should treat him afterward. Since he is using a fake name, Patrick says his parents back home don’t know he was wounded. Indeed, he and other activists from the International Solidarity Movement generally keep their names secret to avert deportation by Israeli authorities. (The ISM, says its website, is a Palestinian-led movement committed to nonviolent resistance to Israel’s occupation.) Another of the group’s activists, Scott, 67, an American who fought in Vietnam as a paratrooper, is also not using his real name. Based on his military experience, Scott is certain that the soldier who shot Patrick intended to kill him – the fact is the bullet struck him in the center of the chest. Various ISM members – Sophie, from Denmark, and Carly, from the United States – are constantly at Patrick’s bedside in the hospital. Israeli-born Neta Golan, a prominent activist in the organization who now lives in Ramallah, is also helping to care for him. We arrived at the impressive medical complex in the center of Ramallah not long after the operation to remove the bullet from Patrick’s chest ended. He recovered quickly. The 30-year-old agronomist from northern Italy has helped Zambians fight off starvation, worked in the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, and a year ago embarked on a bicycle journey following his passion for olive oil. The first part was educational, and included visiting olive-growing in Italy, Spain, Morocco and Greece. Patrick then flew to Israel and launched the second phase: sharing the knowledge he’d acquired with Palestinian farmers to show solidarity with them... haaretz/mobile/.premium-1.630160…
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 22:30:46 +0000
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