Hassan Shmeer, 53, Could Have Survived.
by Brian Wood in Palestine
May 30, 2002

Hassan Shreem, 53, owns a bakery in Jenin City. On Tuesday morning
around 3:30, he was walking from his house to the bakery to begin his
work for the day. His walk to work was more dangerous on this day
because the Israeli military came with jeeps, tanks, and APCs into
Jenin and the Jenin Refugee Camp an hour earlier. Nonetheless, Hassan
had to go to work to support his family in these most difficult times
for the average Palestinian (more than half of the 3.2 million
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza now live below the poverty
line and many of these have no income at all. This is due to the
strict closures of the past year and a half imposed on all
Palestinian villages and cities, which do not allow the people to
move from city to city, even when they never cross Israeli
territory).

As Hassan walked, he was shot by the soldiers in his leg. He fell to
the ground, bleeding, screaming for help. His cries were heard and an
ambulance attempted to rescue him. However, the soldiers would not
allow the ambulance or anyone to get near to Hassan, so he continued
bleeding in the street by himself. For three hours the Israeli
military held back any help that tried to get to Hassan, shooting and
hollaring at them. After these three hours, Hassan had lost too much
blood and finally died.

It was clear that a gunshot wound in the leg was not life
threatening. He could have been treated at the hospital and survived.
He died due to the Israeli military forbidding any medical services
to reach Hassan, a common practice in recent months of Israel's self-
declared 'war on terrorism.'

Hassan was a bakery owner, a father, a brother, and a friend. He was
not on anyone's wanted list. He makes bread for a living and died on
the street alone.

This was the third time in 11 days the Israeli military has invaded
Jenin and the Jenin Refugee Camp. The ruins of the camp remain from
the massive operation of the Israeli military from 3-18 April and
many people still do not know where there relatives are. Are they
dead? Are they in prison? Are they still buried under the rubble? One-
third of the camp lost their homes when over 800 of them were
bulldozed, rocketed, or shelled. As to date, no one knows the total
number of people killed in the camp or the number of missing persons,
though estimates range from 3-400 and 120-150 respectively.

This is not a war on terrorism; this is a war on a civilian
population to put down any resistance to Israeli's continued
colonization of Palestine.


* Brian Wood is a member of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace and part
of the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine working to end Israel's
illegal military occupation.  More on Brian and CCMEP at:
www.ccmep.org/palestine.html