Rights Group: Settlers who Assaulted Palestinians Should be Prosecuted

The human rights group "Yesh Din" is demanding that the Shai police district indict four settlers who were filmed attacking Palestinian in the West Bank in the summer of 2008. The police closed the cases against the suspects, despite a police camera having documented them in action.

According to Ha'aretz "Israeli" daily, members of the police Special Patrol Unit observed dozens of settler youths, accompanied by armed adults, from a stakeout near the Alon road in the northern West Bank.

Police footage shows that when the marchers came across a Bedouin tent, they started cursing the Bedouin. An argument ensued and one of the youngsters threw a stick at one of the Palestinian adults. At this stage, both sides began throwing stones at each other.
Only when the settlers retreated, firing shots in the air, did the policemen emerge from their stakeout and detain four of the perpetrators.

Yesh Din attorneys Michael Sfard and Neta Patrick, who are representing the attacked Palestinians, this month, appealed the police's decision to close the cases instead of filing charges against the suspects.

The footage shows one settler firing his rifle at a 60-degree angle. After the police emerged he tried to escape and refused to hand over his rifle. Another settler is seen throwing stones at Palestinians at point-blank range, while retreating and cocking his gun. A policeman who participated in the stakeout identified him with certainty as one of the stone throwers.

A third suspect was identified by policemen and a Palestinian at the scene as another one of the stone throwers. But because in their report police failed to describe his clothes, the suspect could not be identified in the footage.

The fourth suspect was identified by three Palestinians as one of the stone throwers. He remained silent during police questioning.

All four cases were closed by the police.

Yesh Din reprimands the failure of the police operation. "Although the covert operation was a commendable initiative of the Shai Police... the only way to describe it is as a failure of the law enforcement system," the attorneys write in the appeal.