JERUSALEM (JTA) — An American demonstrator seriously injured during a protest against the West Bank security fence is breathing on his own.
Tristan Anderson, 37, remains in critical condition and heavily sedated in an Israeli medical center, but has been removed from a respirator and is responding to voice commands, the Washington Post reported Monday.
Anderson, an International Solidarity Movement activist from the Oakland, Calif., area, was hit in the head March 13 by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops during a protest near the West Bank town of Naalin.
Anderson’s parents arrived Monday in Israel, according to the Post.
Weekly protests against the security fence have taken place around Naalin. Four Palestinians have been killed since the protests began, and 73 police officers and soldiers have been hurt by demonstrators, according to the Post.
Six years ago, another ISM activist, 23-year-old American Rachel Corrie, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to block it from demolishing a Palestinian home. The death was ruled an accident by the Israeli military.
