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Posted on 03/16/2009 10:53:33 AM PDT by SmithL
Friends of a Bay Area activist who was critically injured while demonstrating in a village on Palestine's West Bank have organized their own demonstration in downtown San Francisco today as a show of solidarity.
Friends of Tristan Anderson, a former tree-sitter at the UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium oak grove, and supporters of Palestine will gather at 4 p.m. Monday outside the Israeli Consulate at 456 Montgomery St. in San Francisco, said Kate Raphael, a fellow activist and friend of Anderson's.
"Our intent is to give people a chance to talk about Tristan, to focus on the people who have been killed from that village and honor the resistance that continues," Raphael said.
Anderson, 38, of Oakland, was injured Friday evening while protesting construction of a separation barrier in the Palestinian village of Naalin on the West Bank, according to friends. An extended-range tear gas canister weapon fired by Israeli military forces hit Anderson, friends said,
fracturing his skull and causing major trauma to his face.
He underwent surgery in Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, to have part of his frontal lobe removed and remains hospitalized, although the friends organizing the demonstration said he responded to a stimulus test Sunday morning.
"He moved two fingers, so we know he's not brain-dead," Raphael said.
He has lived in Oakland for several years, attended UC Berkeley and previously lived in San Francisco.
Raphael said he was one of the protesters who lived in trees near UC Berkeley's football stadium to resist the university's plans to tear down the grove so it could build a new sports training facility.
He has been in the Middle East for about a month.
Raphael said he traveled to other parts of the Middle East before because he is interested in archaeology, but this is his first time in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
She said she expects Palestine solidarity organizations, Arab community groups and Jewish groups to attend Monday's demonstration.
"Certainly everyone who knew him personally is making an effort to be there," she said of Anderson. She said she expects at least "a couple hundred" people to attend.
"He moved two fingers, so we know he's not brain-dead," Raphael said.
Sorry, Raphael, but Tristan's time in the trees proves you wrong.
That'll probably boost his IQ.
Awwwwwww, look! He can still make a peace sign...
Tree-sitter is a formal job title now?
Libs pulling for someone who is medically worse off than Terri Schaivo was?
It’s amazing there was anything to remove.
Tristan Anderson has an enormous carbon footprint.
More likely it was one finger on each hand.
In Berkeley it’s right up there with “shop steward,” “homeless advocate” and, “homosexual activist.”
What we have here...
is a.....
Rachel Corrie wanna-be.
It is a true shame than an innocent (presumption withstanding) was injured. So long as they are not a threat, I wish no ill will on misguided opponents.
But, such are the risks of inserting yourself into a war zone — particularly when you choose the wrong side.
SnakeDoc
After all the Crap-Bombs he launched from his Beserkeley tree-top perch, it’s only fitting that he should catch one himself.
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Unfortunately he was brain dead BEFORE this incident. Prayers for his parents.
So long as he can cast a vote in 2012, he'll be kept on machines...
Entering a war zone is a risky act.
He’s still alive. That’s unfortunate.
That’s correct.
Do an internet search of the phrase ‘Benjamin Linder’.
Now here was a guy who interjected himself into a conflict and got killed for doing it.
And his family and friends decided that it was the fault of the Reagan Administration and not Mr Linder’s decision to enter into an area where combat operations had occurred and to carry a rifle.
Really? They said Terri Shivo was brain dead and she could move much more than just her fingers?
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