Emad Bornat, documentary film maker of Bil'in, Palestine, who toured throughout Puerto Rico and the North East US with Tito Kayak, has been in a coma in Tel Aviv Hospital for about a week now. He sustained critical injuries when the brakes and gears of his tractor failed, and he collided into the barbed wire fence of the Israel's occupation wall that cuts the land of his village in two.

According to his wife Sorya he is still in serious condition, but the doctors have hope that he will recover because he is young and was healthy before this accident. He will need to undergo further surgery, and will be weaned off a respirator in the next few days. Sorya said that he opened his eyes for only a few minutes yesterday, but cannot speak yet.

She added that the family's youngest son, Gabreal, was treated for a head wound at Ramallah hospital, but had returned home.

According to another local organizer from Bil'in, the Israeli officer who made the decision to allow Emad to go to the Tel Aviv hospital did so because the road to Ramallah Hospital would have been too bumpy and he wouldn't have survived the trip, because of loss of blood.

The family has a one month pass to enter Israel to go to Tel Aviv to visit Emad. Before this, they had to ask for a pass on a daily basis to travel to see him.

The Popular Committee Against the Wall blames the Israeli construction of the Wall on village land, in violation of international law, and of Israeli High Court decisions, for the tractor accident.

At 5:20 pm on Saturday Bi'lin Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements member, Emad  Burnat, was admitted to the hospital in a very serious condition after his tractor flipped over against Israel's Wall. The wall – which in Bil'in is composed of metal fence and barbed-wire – cuts through the village's farmland. 

The video documenter of the Bi'lin's anti-wall struggle was returning with his children from plowing his fields when he was forced to detour down a steep hill in order to return to the village because the wall separates his home from his land. Loosing control of the tractor on the sharp decline, it overturned directly into the metal mesh and razor wire.

 

While his children were taken to hospital in Ramallah, the army medic who treated Burnat decided to send him to the Tel Aviv hospital out of fear that he wouldn't make it to Ramallah alive. Nevertheless, it still took the ambulance an hour to arrive at the checkpoint and Burnat had to be transferred from a Red Crescent to an Israeli ambulance before being taken to Tel Aviv.

 

"While this is a tragic accident, the blame can be laid directly at the feet of Israel's occupation and land confiscation by the wall, which forces a dangerous burden and risk on Palestinian farmers," says popular committee chairperson and Brother of  Emad, Iyad Burnat.

 

"Israel's checkpoint system only adds to this hardship by preventing speedy medical attention to Palestinians when necessary," he added.

 

At present Burnat's spleen has been removed and doctors have yet to stitch up his wounds because his liver is still bleeding. Doctors are exercising cautious optimism, reporting that he arrived at the hospital in time and was a healthy man. Burnat's children were treated for mild injuries.