An Irish cameraman was shot in the arm earlier today by the Israeli military while filming a protest in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank.
Tommy Donnellan from Galway, who travelled to the West Bank last month, said he sustained a wound from a rubber-coated steel bullet which punctured his upper right arm.
Mr Donnellan said he had been filming the protest when he was shot in the arm by an Israeli soldier almost 40ft away. Nabi Saleh is a village with a population of 550, 20km northwest of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“I think I was deliberately targeted as a journalist, as my video camera was plainly visible and there was no stone-throwing going on anywhere near me. After being hit I remonstrated with the soldier who fired on me. He then went back down on to his knee adopting a firing position; luckily I was able to run to the cover of a nearby wall.”
Mr Donnellan said Palestinians were injured by these bullets “almost every day” and many had been killed by “so called non-lethal weapons”.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Irish Embassy in Tel Aviv had been in contact with Mr Donnellan to see if he required any consular assistance.
Fri, Mar 29, 2013, 22:39
First published:
Fri, Mar 29, 2013, 22:21

Sean Downes who was shot dead by a plastic bullet fired by an RUC reserve officer during an internment commemoration rally in August 1984. The circle on the victim's chest is the mark of the bullet. He is pictured being given the Last Rites by a visiting American Priest. The rally ended in violence after the RUC attempted to arrest one of the speakers, Martin Galvin.

Galvin, director of the US-based NORAID (Irish Northern Aid Committee), had succeeded in entering Belfast despite being banned from the UK. Galvin had already appeared at a rally in Derry on 9 August. When he appeared again on 12 August outside Connolly House, Sinn Fein's headquarters in Andersonstown, the RUC moved in to arrest him. During an ensuing altercation with the crowd the RUC discharged plastic baton rounds, killing Mr Downes. The incident sparked international coverage as television cameras had captured images of an RUC reserve constable firing the plastic bullet at Mr Downes's chest from a six-foot range, after the victim had run at the officer with a thin white stick.

The incident generated huge controversy over alleged misuse of plastic bullets by the security forces. Fresh controversy broke out in 1986 when the officer who fired the bullet was acquitted of a manslaughter charge.

One view could be that Mr. Donnellan was blessed by encountering an Israeli soldier who was a bad shot.

Even better, Mr. Donnellan's Guardian Angel protected him from a fatal wound.