"Israeli" Settler Attack Caught on Camera

Source: alalam.ir, 14-06-2008

AL-QUDS--The ‘Israeli' human rights group B'Tselem has released a footage which shows the start of an assault on Palestinian farmers by masked, stick-wielding Zionist settlers.

The video was aired just a week before the UN Security Council is set to consider a resolution condemning the occupying regime's construction of illegal settlements in Palestinian territory.

The footage shows four people with faces swathed in scarves and holding sticks, approaching the farmers near Susya settlement outside Al-Khalil in the West Bank.

One strikes a blow before the camera is dropped and the woman who was filming runs for help, B'Tselem said.

Among those hurt in the incident was a 58-year-old woman, the group said.

B'Tselem has provided about 100 cameras to Palestinians over the past year in a project called "Shooting Back," which attempts to document rights abuses in the West Bank.

The 'Israel' Police said they were investigating the reports of an incident near Susya, but police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said no arrests had been made.

Palestinian farmer Imran al-Nawajah, 31, told Reuters that he and his aunt and uncle, aged 58 and 60, were tending their sheep on Sunday when two illegal settlers told them to leave.

"They said we had 10 minutes to leave but I responded by saying 'This is my land. I'm here to plant trees and feed my sheep,'" Nawajah said.



The two settlers then returned, this time masked, with others and attacked the family, he said.

"They came toward me and they hit me on my head. I fell and they started beating me. They started beating all of us."

Nawajah said he and his uncle were taken to a hospital in Al-Khalil while his aunt, who suffered a broken cheekbone and a gashed arm, was treated at an ‘Israeli' hospital.

B'Tselem said harassment of Palestinians was frequent, but capturing it on video was rare.

The International Middle East Media Center, a joint media effort between Palestinian and international journalists, reports that "attacks by extremist ‘Israeli' Jewish settlers against the indigenous Palestinian population of the West Bank are common".

"The incidents have increased as Israeli settlements have expanded on Palestinian land over the last 15 years," the center warned.