By Iyad Hadad, field researcher for B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organisation.
[Editorial note: Everyday life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is one of violence, harassment and intimidation, both by Israeli state forces – the Army and Border Force – and by settlers from nearby Jewish settlements. Observers have noted a sharp increase in violence and the violent deaths of Palestinians this year and with the establishment of an extreme right-wing government, with an anti-Arab racist as ‘security’ minister, this violence is set to continue.]
In mid-June, I went to visit Hajar Ka’abneh in hospital. The 48-year-old mother of nine was lying in the ICU with a fractured skull, a brain haemorrhage and a broken arm. Her face was pale and swollen. Her head was bandaged, her left arm was in a cast and she was hooked up to medical devices. Why? All because of a brutal assault by a group of settlers, who showed up one evening at her home in one of the Bedouin communities in Ras a-Tin.
They burst into the family’s tent, holding clubs and pepper spray and with their faces covered, they beat Hajar, her husband Mustafa and their sons. Soldiers who then arrived fired shots in the air and chased two of the couple’s sons, eventually arresting them. A few hours later, they came back and arrested Mustafa, after he was discharged from hospital.
Like many of their neighbours, the extended Ka’abneh family have been suffering frequent attacks of this kind for a long time. About a month after the last attack, they left and the various family members moved to nearby communities, in search of peace and safety. Dozens of Palestinian communities throughout the West Bank are regularly exposed to such violence, along with other forms of pressure by the Israeli apartheid regime, including home demolitions and banning all development. This raises the concern that they will meet the same fate as the Ka’abneh family.
Settler violence has never been a private initiative; it is situated within the broader context of Israel’s apartheid regime. While the actions are carried out by individuals, they are deeply rooted in the nature of the regime and in its strategic goal: to drive Palestinians out of their land, so Israel can take over and use it for its needs.
One way the state works towards this goal is by establishing “farms” where settlers raise sheep and cattle. In recent years, more than 15 such settlement outposts have been established in the Ramallah area alone, most of them on the eastern slopes of the Jordan Valley. Installing settlers at these vantage points allows for quick and easy takeover of up to thousands of dunams at a time.
The investment is minimal compared to the resources needed to start a new settlement. The method is simple: an individual or a family settle in the heart of a Palestinian area and start raising livestock, protected by the military, which helps them violently prevent Palestinians from accessing the pastureland, fields and water sources they used up until then.
In more than 20 years as B’Tselem’s field researcher in the Ramallah area, I have witnessed and documented countless crimes and human rights violations. But we are now seeing an extreme rise in settler violence against Palestinians, fully backed by the state. The sheer number of incidents documented in the last three months speaks for itself. Since early September, I have documented 42 incidents of settler violence in the Ramallah and al-Birah District.
In seven of them, settlers bodily assaulted Palestinians. In 13, they attacked Palestinian passengers in cars with stones (especially along Route 60). In six, they attacked Palestinian homes with stones, and in three, they torched cars. During this time, settlers vandalized hundreds of trees belonging to Palestinians (mostly olive trees), and this is compounded by 29 cases of damage to other Palestinian property.
In extreme instances, soldiers joined in and attacked Palestinians with live fire – sometimes, at the same time as settlers. For example, in late July, soldiers were deployed to disperse a demonstration of Palestinians from al-Mughayir who were protesting against settler violence and the establishment of outposts in the area.
Soon after the soldiers arrived, several settlers also arrived, some of them armed. One of the settlers started shooting at Palestinians who were throwing stones, while other settlers threw stones themselves – all in the presence of the soldiers, who also opened fire at the Palestinians. Fifteen-year-old Amjad Nasr was killed by live shots fired at him from behind by a soldier or a settler, and two other Palestinians were injured. In another case, settlers went towards the spring in the village of al-Mazra’ah al-Qibliyah. Palestinians confronted them, and then the settlers summoned Border Police and military forces. The soldiers shot and killed Mahdi Ladadwah (17) and injured another Palestinian youth.
The state-backed settler violence reflects the violence of the apartheid regime. This explains why the regime makes no attempt to arrest settlers who cause harm to Palestinians and rarely holds them to account. B’Tselem’s experience shows that even when the victims file complaints with the military or the Israel Police, it is in vain. In the absence of mechanisms in place to protect Palestinians from this violence, the international community must urgently intervene and exert real pressure over Israel to change this reality.
This account comes from a circular from B’Tselem to its supporters. To sign up for e-mail circulars and further information on the ongoing assaults and violence against Palestinians on the West Bank, go to the website of B’Tselem, here.
[All pictures from B’Tselem website]
