Sandy Quintano of Port Huron suffered two broken wrists and a large gash on her head.

LANSING — As home demolitions continue in the West Bank of
Palestine, international solidarity activists have  continued to join in the non-violent resistance movement
against illegal settlement construction and the building of massive concrete
separation walls in the area.

But one such activist from Michigan, 60-year-old Sandra
Quintano of Port Huron, found herself on the receiving end of violence from an
Israeli soldier on Sunday afternoon as nonviolent activists were assaulted
during a demonstration with local villagers.

Quintano suffered two broken wrists including one that will
need surgery (her left wrist) and a large cut on her head according to members
of the Lansing-based Michigan Peace Team, which trains activists to
non-violently resist on assignment in places such as Palestine, where they have
worked for more than eight years, and Juarez, Mexico.

“She was at a demonstration (in the village of Izbet
al-Tabib in the Qalquiliya District of the Palestinian Authority) where the
separation wall is being built and taking up land in order to build it,”
said MPT spokeswoman Sheri Wander. “They were protesting and blocking the
destruction of a home by Israeli forces in the region.”

Another activist asked to see official papers showing that
it was in fact a closed military zone, but he was targeted for potential
violence according to Wander. Quintano linked arms with him as she has been taught
to do through MPT training, but she was either pushed or thrown.

She said she only remembered flying through the air and
hitting the ground according to Wander. Quintano also had to cut her visit
short and will receive further treatment for the injuries.

MPT members had been in the village since Friday of last
week, along with other local community organizers and international activists,
to protest the construction of the separation wall through village land, the
confiscation of agricultural and homestead land to build the wall, and to
protest the scheduled demolition of 31 homes currently owned/occupied by
Palestinian families. Currently 32 of the 45 homes in the village have
demolition orders which can be executed at any time to make way for Israeli
settlements, a practice that has been declared internationally illegal. So far,
45% of their land has been stolen from the villagers.

 The MPT is
continuing their work at MPT’s West Bank location near the city of Nablus.

 Michigan Peace
Team trains volunteers from all walks of life in nonviolent action and
communication, and deploys peace teams to areas of conflict worldwide. MPT
currently maintains a presence of rotating teams in the West Bank. For more
information on MPT, see www.michiganpeaceteam.org, and
MPTinPalestine.blogspot.com. MPT’s main office is located in Lansing, Michigan.

 More
information regarding the injuries and arrest/detainment of at least three
other international activists at the same demonstration can be found on the
International Solidarity Movement website at http://palsolidarity.org.