<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"
dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-testing-new-types-tear-gas-bethlehem/22856">https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-testing-new-types-tear-gas-bethlehem/22856</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Is Israel testing new types of tear gas in
Bethlehem?</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Ryan Rodrick Beiler - <span
class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-01-03T20:13:00+00:00">3 January 2018</span></span></div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4"
style="display: block;" dir="ltr">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div class="sumud-region-main">
<article class="node-22856 node node-story view-mode-full
node-is-page image-landscape">
<figure id="file-55311" class="media
media-element-container media-figure file file-image
file-image-jpeg"><source media="(min-width: 72rem)"><figcaption
class="group-caption field-group-html-element"><small
class="credit"><span class="field field-publisher"></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Every resident in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/aida-refugee-camp">Aida
refugee camp</a> – beside the occupied West Bank
city of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/bethlehem">Bethlehem</a>
– may have been exposed to tear gas fired by Israeli
forces, according to a new study.</p>
<p>Conducted by University of California researchers,
the <a
href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NoSafeSpace_full_report22Dec2017.pdf">study</a>
notes Israel’s “widespread, frequent and
indiscriminate” use of tear gas against Palestinians.</p>
<p>The report cites incidents of tear gas as often as
two to three times a week for more than a year, and in
some months, almost every day.</p>
<p>In a November <a
href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/speech-unrwa-commissioner-general-pierre-kr-henb-hl-un-general">speech</a>,
Pierre Krähenbühl, the top official with <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrwa">UNRWA</a>,
the UN agency for Palestine refugees, said such
research suggests that Aida’s residents “are exposed
to more tear gas than any other population surveyed
globally.”</p>
<p>“They’re shooting everywhere in the camp,” Salah
Ajarma, a director at Lajee, the cultural center in
Aida, told The Electronic Intifada. “They don’t care
about where they shoot.”</p>
<p>The new report used a questionnaire tool developed by
the US Centers for Disease Control to survey a sample
of 236 Palestinians living in Aida, which hosts 6,400
residents.</p>
<p>Aida – covering just 0.071 square kilometers – has a
greater population density than some of the world’s
largest cities.</p>
<h2>Dangerous to go outside</h2>
<p>Members of the team which conducted the study,
published by the Human Rights Center at the University
of California, Berkeley, witnessed several tear gas
incidents while conducting their research. They
concluded from their interviews that Israeli forces’
use of tear gas “is not limited to protests or to
those at risk of causing violence.”</p>
<p>“Sometimes it’s dangerous to leave the center when
there is tear gas outside,” said Ajarma. He recalled a
day he confronted soldiers firing tear gas, asking why
they were shooting when no children were throwing
stones.</p>
<p>“They said, ‘Yesterday they [the children] threw
stones and we want to start the tear gas today before
the children start.’ So it’s a kind of practice for
them,” he added.</p>
<p>The University of California report defines tear gas
as a general term for chemical irritants designed for
crowd control. The report also notes that newer forms
of tear gas have been developed in the recent past
that are more potent, last longer and cause more
severe pain and injury, as well as being more water
resistant.</p>
<p>One child interviewed for the report described the
effects of tear gas: “My face burns, I feel dizzy.”</p>
<p>The child added: “It’s hard to breathe. I sneeze. My
throat burns. I can’t open my eyes. Sometimes I
faint.”</p>
<p>The precise type of gas used by Israeli forces in
Aida is unknown. However, the consistent testimonies
provided by the camp’s residents suggest that they are
being exposed to more potent forms of the weapon.</p>
<p>A health care worker quoted in the report stated:
“The old tear gas would be better with some water but
[now] that only makes it worse. Obviously, it’s a
different chemical.”</p>
<p>Mohammad al-Azza, a journalist and camp resident,
told The Electronic Intifada that he agrees that the
gas is now stronger than before.</p>
<p>Al-Azza, who also teaches photography at Lajee
Center, has first-hand experience of Israeli forces’
use of “crowd control” weapons.</p>
<p>In April 2013, as he was photographing Israeli forces
invading the camp, a soldier <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/just-child-shows-how-prison-leaves-mental-scars-palestinian-boy/13095">shot
him in the face at close range</a> with a
rubber-coated steel bullet that shattered his
cheekbone, requiring multiple reconstructive
surgeries.</p>
<p>In addition to tear gas, the new report finds that
most of Aida’s residents have been exposed to stun
grenades, skunk water – a foul-smelling mixture of
unknown chemicals fired from high-pressure water
cannons – and pepper spray. More than 50 percent of
residents interviewed have witnessed the use of
rubber-coated steel bullets, while about six percent
were “directly witness” to live ammunition being shot.</p>
<p>More than 22 percent of people surveyed said they had
been struck directly by a tear gas canister at some
point in their lives.</p>
<p>These findings correspond with my own observations. I
have witnessed numerous instances of Israeli forces
firing tear gas projectiles directly at Palestinian
demonstrators in Aida and elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Lethal</h2>
<p>The new report notes that tear gas and other chemical
irritants are banned from use as a weapon of war by
the 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention, but not for
civil law enforcement “as long as the types and
quantities are consistent with such purposes.”</p>
<p>The report concludes, however, that Israeli forces’
use of tear gas “is in discordance with all publicly
available international guidelines on how it should be
used.”</p>
<p>Aida residents who took part in the survey reported a
number of physical effects from tear gas exposure,
including asthma, rashes and headaches. It also notes
how a 25-year-old woman who took part in the survey
had a miscarriage late in the third trimester of
pregnancy. A tear gas canister had landed on that
woman’s patio several days before she miscarried; she
had severe respiratory systems while being exposed to
tear gas.</p>
<p>Tear gas has proven to be a lethal weapon on a number
of occasions. In April 2014, for example, I attended
the funeral of Noha Katamish – a 45-year-old resident
of Aida – who <a
href="https://972mag.com/photos-tear-gas-kills-woman-in-aida-refugee-camp/89713/">died</a>
from the effects of tear gas that Israeli forces fired
through her living room window.</p>
<p>Salah Ajarma from the Lajee Center described how
homes in the camp offer no refuge from the gas.
“Sometimes [people] go to their neighbors because they
feel it’s safer, but it’s not,” he added.</p>
<p>Many of the psychological impacts of Israeli forces’
use of tear gas stem from its frequency,
unpredictability and the inability to escape its
effects.</p>
<p>One teenager testified in the report: “We don’t feel
safe in our homes. We don’t feel safe anywhere.”</p>
<p>The report states that unpredictability is especially
stress-inducing because raids involving tear gas are
not always tied to specific incidents, creating “a
state of hyper-arousal, fear and worry.”</p>
<h2>Made in US</h2>
<p>Residents testified that peaceful events, such as a
child’s birthday party or family picnics, had been
disrupted by tear gas raids, often captured on video.</p>
<p>One interviewee said Israeli soldiers use tear gas
“when they are bored, when they want to provoke a
clash, or when they want to get into the camp.”</p>
<p>“Sometimes, it feels like they do it just for fun,”
said one elderly resident.</p>
<p>As a result, Aida’s residents report high levels of
anxiety, depression, fear, sleep disturbance and
cognitive dysfunction. According to the report’s
authors, these symptoms are consistent with acute
stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.</p>
<p>According to one teen surveyed, “We have adapted, but
this is not normal. This shouldn’t be how children
live.”</p>
<p>While the report underscores the Israeli military
forces’ responsibility under international law for the
safety of the Palestinian civilians under its control,
it also urges UNRWA to respect its mandate to provide
practical protection and assistance to refugees in
Aida.</p>
<p>“The UN must do something more useful for the people
here,” al-Azza from the Lajee Center said.</p>
<p>Teachers and guards employed by UNRWA have asked for
specific protocols on how to respond to tear gas
attacks, as well as improved facilities, equipment and
protective gear.</p>
<p>“The [Israeli] wall is across the street from the
school,” said one teacher quoted in the report. “We
are the front line.”</p>
<p>Ajarma noted that many families have taken their boys
out of the UNRWA school in Aida and sent them
elsewhere – or moved out of the camp entirely –
because of the constant incursions by Israeli forces.</p>
<p>The US also bears responsibility for the impact of
tear gas on Aida. Al-Azza pointed out that like many
of the weapons used by the Israeli military, tear gas
used in Aida is made in the US.</p>
<p>Shell casings discarded by Israeli forces have
frequently been found bearing <a
href="http://activestills.org/image.php?img=18483">full
contact information</a> for the manufacturer, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/combined-systems-inc">Combined
Systems</a> of Jamestown, Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>In years past, activists have hung <a
href="http://activestills.org/image.php?img=18709">“Made
in the USA”</a> tear gas grenades and shell casings
from trees in Bethlehem’s Manger Square, intentionally
juxtaposing them with nearby banners promoting US
sponsorship of local holiday light displays.</p>
<p>Activists have often used the Christmas holiday and
the camp’s proximity to the Church of the Nativity,
believed by many Christians to be the birthplace of
Jesus, to focus attention on the present realities
faced by Bethlehem-area residents.</p>
<p>Alongside the grenades and shell casings, the
activists hung <a
href="http://activestills.org/image.php?img=18705">signs</a>
reading: “This is the US aid to the Palestinians,” <a
href="http://activestills.org/image.php?img=18708">and</a>
“US military industrial complex, stop making our
Christmas hell by sending us your aid and sending
Israel your guns.”</p>
<p><em>Ryan Rodrick Beiler is a freelance
photojournalist and member of the ActiveStills
collective. Twitter: <a
href="https://twitter.com/RRodrickBeiler">@RRodrickBeiler</a></em></p>
<br>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>