Following is an update on his condition and his continuing struggle against the occupation. Portion below; whole thing here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9687.shtml
Ibrahim Bornat, 25, from the village of Bil'in in the occupied West Bank, was shot three times in the left thigh with dum-dum bullets by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on 13 June 2008. Like he does every week, Ibrahim was protesting against the construction of the separation wall in his village, which will effectively result in the annexation of 58 percent of the lands by Israel. One of the bullets Ibrahim was shot with that day hit the major artery in his leg, expanding and causing major nerve damage. He lost so much of his rare AB+ blood type that an urgent alert was sent out on the radio, the Internet and at local mosques for blood donations. As Ibrahim currently lies in pain at Ramallah Hospital, he does not know if he will ever be able to walk again.
"It felt like they were trying to shoot my leg off," says Ibrahim about the 13 June incident. The Israeli army frequently uses live ammunition at Bil'in, injuring many peace activists, sometimes quite seriously. Ibrahim, by his own admission, had been fired at and hit 77 times prior to this instance, which brings his total number of injuries to 80. Most noticeable on his body is a large gash in the center of his forehead, which comes courtesy of an Israeli soldier firing a tear gas canister at his head from close range. Ibrahim's skull was fractured from the impact and he suffers serious memory problems.
Dum-dum bullets, the type of bullets which caused the injury to Ibrahim's leg, are designed to expand upon impact. These bullets sometimes fragment when they enter the body. This expansion and fragmentation causes a much larger wound than would occur with a regular bullet, and results in greater blood loss and trauma. The use of expanding bullets is banned according to the 1899 Hague Convention. It's extremely painful, save inhumane, for anyone to be hit by a single dum-dum bullet to the body, and in the case of Ibrahim, three of these expanding bullets entered the same area. His doctors have said that it would be a near miracle for him to walk again. On 28 September 2000, the first day of the second Palestinian intifada, Ibrahim's older brother Rani was shot in the neck by an Israeli-fired dum-dum bullet that caused near complete paralysis of his body. Today, Rani can only move his head and left arm.
When Ibrahim was admitted to Ramallah Hospital, there was a shortage of blood reserves of his rare blood type, as well as a shortage of the medications necessary for his treatment. Thanks to the urgent appeal, enough blood was donated to save his life. The medication needed for his recovery costs over 1,300 NIS a week (roughly $400 US). His friends raised the needed funds for the medication in the first few weeks after he was injured. Since then, the hospital has obtained the medications, but it is uncertain how reliable the source will be and Ibrahim now worries about continuing to obtain the resources for his recovery which will likely take a year. "Where is the Palestinian Authority in all of this?" asks Ibrahim, "No official acknowledgment of my sacrifice has come from them. You would think that I acted alone that day, and not for the liberation of all of Palestine."
The Palestinian Authority's (PA) Ministry of Health is supposed to cover the medical expenses of those injured by the IOF. However, the ministry's services are notorious for being far more efficient and generous for those with connections to PA officials. As Ibrahim discusses the shortcomings of health-care under occupation, he points bitterly across the street at the Shaikh Zayid hospital. Named after the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, a mass fundraising campaign was launched in 1996 to build the hospital in the wake of intifadat al-nafaq, a series of battles between Palestinians and the Israeli military over the tunnels dug underneath Jerusalem's Haram al-Sharif that lasted for more than 40 days in 1996. "For weeks the PA had advertisements in every sort of media imaginable to raise money for that hospital," says Ibrahim's brother-in-law who visits him regularly at the hospital. "Everyone I know, including Ibrahim, pitched in one way or another to help build it." The Shaikh Zayid hospital is now a private hospital where, as Ibrahim explained, "even if you're bleeding to death, they ask you for your health insurance before thinking to stop the life from leaving your body. Poor people like us are basically not allowed on the property."
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