Manal Musa Salem was attempting to reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to pray when Israeli soldiers refused to let her pass the Shuafat Refugee Camp checkpoint and threw a stun grenade at her, severely disfiguring her face.
When Manal Musa Salem, a 28-year-old mother of four from Qaryut village, Nablus region, heard that a woman from her village had managed to visit the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to pray, she decided to realize her dream of doing the same.
On Friday, 18 March, her dream quickly turned into a hellish nightmare. On Friday morning, a bus left her village at 8:00 a.m. with Manal, her 70-year-old mother-in-law, and several other women also en route to Jerusalem to pray. The ride went smoothly until they reached the Shuafat Refugee Camp near Jerusalem. At this point the women were obligated to leave the bus and pass the Israeli checkpoint on foot.
Two Israeli border policemen stopped them and told them that only women 50 years old and older would be allowed to cross and all others must turn back.
Manal took the hand of her 70-year-old mother-in-law and tried to appeal to the humanity of the soldiers, saying her mother-in-law was very old and needed her help to reach the mosque. But the two soldiers still ordered her back. The women argued, but the soldiers threatened to throw stun grenades at them if they did not retreat.
As the women were retreating, Manal heard the sound of two explosions and felt the skin of her face blasted away. She put her hand on her face and cried for help, and the other women asked the policemen to help her. The policemen only responded with the Arabic words for, “Go home, go home.”
After entreating the soldiers for several minutes, they finally agreed to take her to an ambulance, which transferred Manal to an Israeli hospital. But it took 30 minutes of negotiating with the administration of the hospital for the Palestinian woman to be admitted.
Manal underwent three hours of surgery, including skin grafts. The doctor told her that it would take at least three months for her to recover.
The hospital originally refused to release Manal until she paid in full for her surgery, which her family had no money for. A local lawyer worked with the family and the hospital to negotiate her release.
The family also does not have enough money to pay a lawyer to sue the Israeli soldiers or the state for the unprovoked attack. Like thousands of Palestinians in similar situations, they have no way to obtain justice or collect damages for the wrongful and illegal actions against them.
International call out: back to Genova!
