The Latest Israeli Settler Violence Report:

Settler Violence Report: November - December 2009

Ahmad Jaradat, Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Palestinians inspecting the remnants of burnt copies of the Koran in a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasouf on 11 December 2009. AIC, January 7, 2010 Palestinians inspecting the remnants of burnt copies of the Koran in a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasouf on 11 December 2009. Hebron and South of West Bank On 10 November, settlers from Kiryat Arba renewed their attacks against the residents of nearby Wadi el-Nasara. In the previous two days, settlers threw stones at the houses and their residents. They generally begin their attacks in the evening hours. The settlers stoned five houses belonging to Kayed Saeed Da’na, Mahmmoud Boutee, Jaber D’na and Na’eem Da’na. On the same day, settlers from the outpost of Ramot Yashai in downtown Hebron stoned houses near the outpost. The houses belong to the Abu Haikal and Abu A’sha families. On 11 November, the brothers Hazem Mofeed al-Sharabatee, 16 years old, and Hatem, 17 years old, received injuries to their faces and hands when the settlers from Ramot Yashai outpost in the downtown area stoned them. The attack occurred while the youth were playing near their house, close to the outpost. Both were taken to 'Alya Hospital in the city for medical treatment. On 26 November, Waseem Osama Miswadi, 21 years old, from the city of Hebron, was seriously injured when a settler ran over him many times. The action occurred after two settlers from Kiryat Arba were stabbed with a knife at a gas station near the settlement. The settlers and the Israeli military blamed Miswadi. According to an eyewitness report given to an al-Haq field worker by Rodaina Bader Jaber, from Hebron, "at 1:30p.m. in the afternoon, while I was sitting in my house, I heard shots fired. I looked through my veranda and saw a young guy was injured and running away. He was injured and fell down on the ground. Two soldiers ran to him and they stood near him. I saw one of them shoot him directly from one meter distance. At the time, many soldiers ran to him also and prevented the ambulances from reaching him for 15 minutes. Then a settler in a Mercedes car, colour grey, arrived at the place where the injured laid on the ground and ran over him three times. The soldiers didn’t stop him. Later, the soldiers removed the settler from the car and took him away. They moved the injured man, who had been lying on the ground near the car, to an Israeli ambulance that took him to the Israeli Hospital in Jerusalem, as we were later informed by his family." On 13 December, settlers from Ramot Yashai outpost in downtown Hebron took possession of 5 dunam of land belonging to the Abu Haikal family and cultivated it. The land was planted with olive trees and located in Tal-Romaida, close to the mentioned outpost. The action took place within full view of the soldiers, who were at the nearby checkpoint. Some years ago, the land was declared a closed military area. The same day, the settlers of the outpost Atsael in the south of the city attacked Palestinian farmers and international activists working the land in the town of al-Samou’. Three people were injured by settler attacks: a physical fight took place between the settlers and the farmers. The soldiers arrested Aiyed Abd-Elqader Badareen, 55 years old. The attacks took place in the context of settlers’ effort to take possession of 200 dunam near the settlement. On 20 December, settlers from Bat Ayin settlement in the north district of Hebron, opened fire on the farmers from the town of Bait Ommar, who were working on their land located close to the settlement. The spokesperson of the Palestinian Solidarity Project in the town, Mohammed Awad, said that "in the afternoon settlers opened fire on the farmers Mohammed Abed el-Qader Ikhlaiel and his brothers Aiyed and Sami, and Ali Ahmed Adi and his son Ahmed. No one was injured; the Israeli soldiers came and asked the farmers to report what happened but they didn’t do anything to the settlers. On 28 December, the resident Khadreh al-Hadaleen from the Omm El-Khair village, in the south-east of the district, was shepherding her goats on her land in the south of the village, when two armed settlers from the nearby Carmel settlement came and opened fire on her. She escaped and fell to the ground, causing injuries to her hands. The Israeli policemen came and took her to the police station in Karyat Arba to investigate and they took her affidavit. On 31 December, the army bulldozers demolished two shelters in Bowaira area in the east of the city of Hebron. The shelters belong to Ghaleb el-Za’taree and he used them to raise his goats and horses. The army claimed that the shelters were built without license. Al-Za’taree said that in this area many houses were demolished before and increasing amounts of land were confiscated for expanding the nearby settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Kharsena. In the last two years, the settlers increased their attacks against us to force us to leave our land. So, I think that what happened to my shelters takes place in the frame of Israeli policy to push us out of the land and expand the mentioned settlements." Nablus and North of West Bank On 11 November, settlers from Yitzhar settlement, in the south of the Nablus district, prevented farmers from Aseera al-Qebliyya from reaching and cultivating their land located near the settlement. The land is around 300 dunams: the names of the sites are al-Beraijeem and al-Daher. The farmers are Adnan Imran Mustafa, Issa Sulaiman Makhluf, Ali Sulaiman Saleh and Mahmoud Abu Khalaf. The settlers pointed guns in the faces of the farmers and told them not to return to the place again. On 12 November, settlers from the Yitzhar settlement, in the south of the Nablus district, cut down 81 olive trees belonging to Akram Imran from the Boreen village. The land that was targeted is located near the settlement. According to Akram "this is not the first time that the settlers have cut or uprooted trees around the mentioned settlement. There is an ongoing aggression from them. We know the aim: to confiscate more of our land, therefore expanding the settlement. They want to fix facts on the ground targeting the trees, preventing us from planting or working in our land." On 20 November, a settler ran over a child with his car. The child's name was Kifaya Jum’a Najjar, nine years old, from Yetma village in the south-east of Nablus. The accident happened on Za’tara junction where the settler was quickly driving his car. Israeli soldiers arrived and the child was taken to the Israeli hospital: her case was described as serious. On 27 November, tens of settlers from many settlements in the Nablus district gathered in the main road near the Hawwara village in the south of the district. They closed the road with stones and their cars. The settlers tried to reach Joseph's Tomb in the east of the city but the soldiers prevented them—this place is under Palestinian Authority control—so the settlers were engaged in a protest action. They closed the road, stoned Palestinian cars and prevented them from driving for two hours until the soldiers forced the settlers to leave. On 28 November, 15 settlers—some of them armed—from Yitzhar settlement in the south of the Nablus district, tried to enter the house of Ayman Taha Soufan from Boreen village. But the residents of the village faced and stopped them; a physical fight took place between people on both sides. The altercation continued until Israeli soldiers came and stopped the clashes. On 6 December, in the early morning, settlers from the settlements in the Nablus district burned two cars and a tractor belonging to Fayez Mohammed Salman Alan and Nader Hashem Mofaddi from Ainabous village in the south of the district. The fire-brigades of the Nablus Municipality came and stopped the fire. The cars and tractor owners raised the case to the Israeli police. On 11 December, in the very early hours of the morning, dozens of settlers from the Tabouh settlement in the Salfeet district entered the Hasan Khader Mosque in Yasouf village, in the east of the district, and burned all materials inside; they also damaged dozens of copies of the holy book of Quran. The settlers’ attacks occurred while the residents were sleeping. Abed-Elkareem Musleh, Mayor of village, reported that "the settlers totally burned the second floor of the Mosque. Later in the morning Israeli Civil Administration officers came to the place and opened an investigation into event. Then they took affidavits from the local people and from the eye-witnesses in the village". It is well known that very close to the village there are two settlements (Tabouh and Ariel), two bypass roads for settler use, and that the settlers from those settlements attack the villagers from time to time. The residents and media also found some papers with threatening words like "we will kill you all" and "we will burn you with fire". On 21 December, settlers from Ornaet settlement in the Qalqeelya district started bringing new mobile houses and building them on the land near the settlement. The settlement is located inside the Separation Wall and belongs to many families from the villages of Azzon Atma, Bait Ameen and Seniria. Local sources in the villages report that the settlers recently expanded the settlement and confiscated more land planted with olive trees. This new confiscation and the expanding of the settlement caused the farmers the loss of one of the main resources they depend on for their income. Sources added that the settlers are working there while the owners of the land face limitations in reaching their land because of the Wall. On 24 December, settlers from Barkan settlement in the south of Nablus attacked an unfinished house belonging to Boorseli Dakheel Abed el-Azeez, 30 years old, resident of the village of Boreen. The settlers attacked in the morning. The house located in the east of the village was targeted many times before. This time 1,000 blocks were totally damaged, as well as water pipes. On 24 December, tens of settlers closed the roads that lead to Annab village in the Tulkarem district. The settlers gathered in the afternoon, they put their cars in the middle of the roads and prevented the Palestinians from passing. They closed the roads for two hours. On the same day, at Annab checkpoint, the settlers blocked the buses used by Palestinian prisoners' families after visiting them in Israeli jails. The settlers pointed guns in the face of the children and people who were inside the buses. The action took place within full view of the soldiers who were already at the checkpoint, but they didn’t stop the settlers. The attacks were organized following the murder of a settler from the area. On 25 December, tens of settlers—some of them armed—came from the Shavei Shomron settlement to the west of the Nablus district damaged a green house belonging to Sameer al- Junaidi from Dair Sharaf village. According to al-Junaidi, the loss was about forty-thousand Shekels. The land of the green house was planted with flowers and small plants. On 26 December, at noon, tens of settlers—some of them armed—from many settlements in the north of the West Bank tried to enter Kufor Hares village in the Salfeet district. The settlers had announced in the days before that they would come to the village to pray, saying that it is a holy site for Jews. However, the residents, in cooperation with many local committees, international and Israeli activists, gathered in the centre of the village to face the settlers. The Israeli army declared the area of the village a closed military zone. Nevertheless, the demonstrators succeed in entering through alternative roads in the mountains. On 31 December, settlers bulldozed and destroyed a water spring called "Nuwaitef Spring" in Qarawet Bani Hassan village in the west of the Salfeet district. The settlers, who came from the nearby settlement of Yakir, attacked in front of soldiers. The soldiers did nothing to stop the attack. When the residents of the village gathered and came to face the settlers, tens of armed settlers and soldiers threatened them, warning that they would shoot them if they did not leave. The previous week, settlers from the same settlement arrived and beat a shepherd, Nayef Ase, while he was shepherding his goats in his land near the settlement.