Young man shot in Madama

On the 27th of April, we read in the news about a man who had been shot in Madama, a village south of Nablus between the villages Asira and Burin. When we went in search of the man just two days after the shooting, there was no answer to our knock on his door. When we re-visited the area on 5th of May, we found out that the young man (17) was back home from the hospital. Mohammed Na'im Faraj was lying in his bed resting when we visited his home. He suffered from pain in the chest but after a while he told us his story.

Mohammed had been to school during the day of the shooting and from there his went to the mosque. After the prayer he walked to his family's land to pick almonds. The land is right next to a settler road and Mohammed was standing approximately 10-15 metres from the road when he suddenly was shot once. He himself did not see anyone but a witness saw a man stepping out of a car to shoot and then left in the car right after the shooting.

The bullet went through the right side of his chest and punctured the lung. Mohammed lost a lot of blood but still managed to walk about 500 metres to call for help. A private car took him to a hospital in Nablus. At the hospital a police report was filed with the Palestinian Authorities, but no one in the house thought this was going to lead anywhere. Mohammed's father told us he has lost about 40 per cent of his land since the settlement of Yitzar was established in the beginning of the 1980's. Now the family will probably not have the courage to go back and farm the land where Mohammed was shot.

Since it is the end of the school term, Mohammed is in a period of many exams. He hopes to be able to continue school next week, and so do we.