Local News

JERUSALEM (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― A Bay Area man and former tree-sitter at the University of California at Berkeley was critically wounded Friday in a clash between protesters and Israeli troops over Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

Peace activists with the International Solidarity Movement said that Tristan Anderson, 38, of Oakland was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops. The military and the Tel Aviv hospital where Anderson was taken had no details on how he was hurt.

A hospital spokeswoman said Anderson was listed in critical condition.

The protest took place in the West Bank town of Naalin, where Palestinians and international backers frequently gather to demonstrate against the barrier.

Israel began building the barrier in 2002 after an outbreak of Palestinian violence and it has been a source of controversy and protest ever since.

Israel maintains the barrier is necessary to keep Palestinian attackers, most notably suicide bombers, from infiltrating into Israel. But Palestinians view it as a thinly veiled land grab because it juts into the West Bank at multiple points, which they claim is in violation of international law.

Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack said in a telephone interview that he was with Anderson when he was hit with the tear-gas canister.

Pollack, who said he has known Anderson "for many years," said Anderson was hit from "a pretty short distance" by a powerful new type of tear-can canister that can shoot up to a distance of 500 meters.

Pollack said Anderson was struck at about 4:30 p.m. local time toward the end of a lengthy protest that had started about noon.

He alleged that Anderson "was shot for absolutely no reason" because he wasn't threatening anyone and the group of protesters had dwindled from about 400 people to about two dozen people.

Anderson's skull was fractured and some of the bone fragments entered his brain, Pollack said.

Anderson underwent surgery to have part of his frontal lobe removed and it "went relatively well," said Pollack, who was at the Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv to monitor the surgery.

However, Anderson is still unconscious and "his life is still somewhat at risk," Pollack said.

Pollack said Anderson had been in Israel and the West Bank for about a month and participated in other protests before the one in which he was injured on Friday.

Kate Raphael, who said she has known Anderson for six years through their mutual participation in peace rallies, said he suffered a large hole in his forehead from the fired tear gas canister.

Raphael added that Anderson, who has lived in Oakland the past several years and previously lived in San Francisco, was also one of the tree-sitters who protested UC Berkeley's plans to tear down a grove of trees so it could build a new sports training facility next to its football stadium.

Anderson came down from his perch in a tree near UC Berkeley's football stadium on June 19 and was given a stay-away order but was found near the tree the following day.

Attorney William Simpich said Anderson, who used the nickname "Cricket" during his tree-sitting days, resolved the civil case that the university filed against him by pleading guilty to contempt of court charges.

In return, the university agreed not to seek legal costs or jail time from Anderson and other tree-sitters who accepted the deal, Simpich said.

Anderson and the other protesters had to pay fines and perform community service.

Simpich said Anderson had fulfilled all his legal obligations and he was planning to document that in writing next week. The attorney said he was shocked to hear that Anderson was seriously injured in Israel.

Anderson also faced misdemeanor criminal charges for his tree-sitting activities but Simpich wasn't involved in that case and the attorneys who handled the case weren't available for comment Friday.

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