Mar 15, 2009 5:01 pm US/Pacific
Injured Cal Tree Sitter's Friends Plan SF Protest
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
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Protesters said Tristan Anderson of Oakland was hit in the head with an Israeli tear gas canister in a West Bank protest on Friday.
IndyBay.org
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 on Monday as a show of solidarity.
Friends of Tristan Anderson, former tree-sitter at the University of California at Berkeley, 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.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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