Israeli Rampage
By Khaled Amayreh
02 April, 2005
Al-Ahram
The
Palestinian Authority (PA) is calling on the international community,
including the "Quartet" (the US, EU, Russia and the UN), to
pressure Israel to put an end to nearly daily pogrom-like attacks by
messianic Israeli terrorists on defenseless Palestinian villagers throughout
the West Bank.
Attacks have mushroomed
recently as extremist Israeli settlers vow to commit acts of "unprecedented
violence" to thwart Israel's planned "disengagement"
from the Gaza Strip.
"We urge the
international community to intervene immediately to stop this unprovoked
and unjustified aggression against our civilians," said Ahmed Subh,
deputy minister of information in the PA.
In an interview
with Al-Ahram Weekly, Subh accused the Israeli government and army of
"turning a blind eye" to the "daily pogroms and acts
of savagery" by "Israeli settler hoodlums" against unprotected
Palestinian civilians, mainly in the Palestinian countryside.
"Does anybody
in the world believe the mighty Israeli army can't rein in these criminals
who terrorise and attack schoolchildren and old women? It is not a matter
of inability. It is a matter of unwillingness, if not outright complicity.
Inaction by the Israeli government in this respect implies acquiescence,"
Subh remarked.
According to Palestinian
sources and international peace activists monitoring settler violence,
physical attacks and acts of vandalism against Palestinian villages
have been occurring nearly on a daily basis in the past few weeks. On
Friday, 25 March, for example, heavily armed Talmudic settlers from
the Yitzhar settlement near Nablus attacked Palestinians in their homes
in the nearby village of Asira Al-Qibliya. The hoodlums reportedly beat
Palestinian villagers and vandalised their property.
"They wore
black masks and they were screaming, I don't know what they were saying,"
said nine-year-old Samah Ahmed, who, along with her mother and three
brothers, was nearly lynched inside her home by the attacking settlers.
Her mother Suha
described the attackers as "the Nazis of our time".
"The kids and
I were alone at home. The settlers first stoned the windows with big
rocks, forcing us to move from one room to the other for protection
from the incoming stones. Then the attackers tried to force open the
door. This really terrorised us as never before. I was really afraid
they would enter the house and kill my four children."
Suha said the settlers
then left and returned to the settlement upon seeing other villagers
coming to rescue the family.
Hours later, when
Israeli army officers arrived at the scene to investigate the "riot",
settlers erected roadblocks and chased the officers away, preventing
them from entering the settlement. The army remarked in its report on
the incident that the settlers who carried out the rampage against Asira
Al-Qibliya were "drunk", implying they were not responsible
for their actions.
Last week, as many
as 30 settlers ganged up on three Palestinian labourers west of Ramallah,
beating them with hoses and sharp objects. At least one worker sustained
concussion from a sharp blow to the head.
Some of the most
wanton attacks on Palestinians and their property have been taking place
in the southern Hebron hills where bands of masked Israeli settlers
have been terrorising Palestinian villagers in full view of Israeli
army troops stationed in the area. On 21 March, settlers spread poisonous
feed and pellets across a large swathe of grazing land east of Yatta,
10 kilometres southwest of Hebron.
"The pellets
are small and turquoise blue, similar to rodent poison in the United
States. They are spread under bushes and in the grass, pretty much anywhere
the sheep graze," said Kim Lamberty, an American Christian peace
activist who inspected the area.
The next day, several
sheep died and many others were ill after grazing. Palestinians in the
area have also found two dead gazelles.
When locals and
international activists asked the Israeli army to investigate the poisoning
and put an end to settler terror, the army said it would dispatch a
"settler expert" to look into the complaint.
"This malicious
act not only affects the economic livelihood of the area's farmers,
it could have a grave impact on wildlife in the area. The local Palestinian
people along with international activists are currently attempting to
clean up the contaminated site," said Lamberty.
On 24 March, masked
settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds and international peace activists,
including two Americans -- an 18-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man.
The two were injured as settlers tried to prevent them from filming
the attack.
A spokesman for
the Israeli army told the Weekly that responsibility for "keeping
law and order" lied with the police, not the army. A high-ranking
army officer admitted, however, that settlers were upping the ante in
the West Bank. "The situation will only intensify. We see a trend
of radicalisation in the actions of the extremists. Attacks against
Palestinians have increased," he said.
Palestinian official
Subh is worried the worst is yet to come. "We are afraid that the
Israeli government's inaction towards the settlers might embolden them
to commit real massacres against our people."
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