Palestinian, Toronto-based artist Rehab Nazzal has released a statement that she was shot by a sniper in Bethlehem on Friday afternoon, while photographing a ‘skunk’ truck (a military tank that sprays chemicals with a strong sewage smell for crowd control, used by the Israeli Defence Forces), Canadian Art reports. Nazzal has been in the Palestinian city since July to research the effect of weaponry on senses for her PhD studies in the visual arts department of Western University, Ontario. As she was walking down the streets, she saw people running away from a ‘skunk’ truck, and decided to photograph it as part of her research; that’s when a sniper shot her in the leg. Nazzal is now in stable condition.
The last photographs she took before receiving the bullet (see above) shows a sniper hiding on the ground near the entrance to one of the city’s hotels. ‘What shocked me was the fact that I was alone, with no clashes, no stone throwers, absolutely no one around me, and yet I was intentionally shot by a sniper. This was not an accident,’ says Nazzal.
16 December 2015
