There will be a news conference at JFK Airport, terminal 8 on Wednesday at 9 p.m. as the activist Amado Sison returns to the U.S. He was recently shot by the Israeli army as they violently dispersed a demonstration in the West Bank village of Beita.

Drop Site News recently reported in “An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered” that “Alice Qaysiya’s family property in the West Bank city of Bethlehem once hosted not just their home but a restaurant they had built. That was before settlers vandalized and demolished it. Now it is home to a makeshift campground the family guards fiercely.

“While the world’s attention drifts from the assault on Gaza, the rapidly accelerating seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank continues in the hidden background, reshaping conditions on the ground and pushing a political settlement to the conflict further away.

“The Qaysiya family isn’t leaving without a fight, and their determined stand has drawn the support of some Israelis and Western activists, who are now putting their bodies on the line to slow the rampage of Israeli settlers.

“The Qaysiya family has gone to court numerous times to try and assert legal protection over the property, only to see those claims ignored on the ground by settler activists guarded by Israeli soldiers. …

“Amado Sison, an activist from New Jersey with the solidarity group Faz3a, joined fellow demonstrators near the West Bank village of Beita. In an interview with Drop Site after being discharged from the hospital, Sison said he was taking part in a ‘protective presence’ exercise aimed at defending Palestinian citizens living in the West Bank from settler and military violence. ‘The Palestinians were holding a rally and doing chants, when Israeli soldiers at a nearby outpost started shooting tear gas and aiming weapons at us,’ said Sison. ‘This was only my second demonstration, but some of the more experienced demonstrators shouted that live rounds were being fired and everyone began to run.’

“Sison and others ran from the gunfire into a nearby olive grove. It was then that he felt a ‘blunt impact’ in the back of his leg. He initially thought he had been hit by a tear gas canister. It turned out to have been a live bullet, which entered his thigh and exited from the front of his leg. In video of the incident taken by Anthony C., an activist with Faz3a, and provided to Drop Site, a group of protesters and local Palestinians can be seen screaming as they attempt to carry a wounded Sison to safety after the shooting.

“Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli volunteer who was at the scene of the shooting, described it as an unprovoked attack on fleeing protesters by IDF soldiers.”

The Drop Site News article contains video. Also see video of Sison here.

For interviews and more information, contact Rob Lipton, who also works with Faz3a at roblipton@gmail.com