Advertisement ICNICN Would you like to advertise on ICN? Click to learn more.

Holy Land: Christian peacemaker teams report increase in settler violence


Soldiers frighten children on their daily walk to school

Soldiers frighten children on their daily walk to school

The month of May saw an increase in settler violence in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron on the West Bank, where Palestinians live in close proximity to aggressive, ideological Israeli Jewish settlers.

On 9 May, a Palestinian woman and her two children from the Abu Shamsiyeh family in Tel Rumeida were on their way to go shopping. Settlers attacked one of her children. A Palestinian man pushed the settlers away from the crying Palestinian child, which made the settlers furious. They wanted the Palestinian man arrested for 'pushing a settler.' When soldiers did not arrest the Palestinian man, the settlers started harassing people and attacked a Palestinian woman trying to film the incident. The harassment went on for over an hour, during which they spit at and pushed people. The soldiers prevented many people from going to their homes. When the woman returned from the shop a while later, soldiers did not allow her to go home for quite some time. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) documented the incident on video and wrote a full report. Read the report and watch the video here: http://palsolidarity.org/2015/05/palestinian-woman-and-her-children-attacked-by-settlers/

On 16 May, a group of settlers attacked the Abu Aisha family and soldiers arrested 19-year-old Ashraf. According to his father, Taysir, settlers told the police that he grabbed a pipe and was going to hit them, when in fact, they were the ones who hit Ashraf with the pipe. Soldiers saw the settlers following them and attacking the Abu Eisha family, however, not only did they neglect to do anything, but they stood by the attackers. Taysir and one his relatives gave an interview to CPT concerning the incident. Watch the video here. www.facebook.com/cptpalestine/videos/901773599885757/

On 17 May, settlers attacked Mervat Abu Eisha. When the settlers pushed his wife, the family who thought she was pregnant, believe she had a miscarriage because she lost so much blood (the hospital later said she had significant blood loss and said she was not pregnant.)

On 23 May, settlers in Tel Rumeida attacked the Azzeh family, who live just below the settlement caravans established in 1984. During the morning, settlers parked a vehicle in front of the family house entrance, leaving only a tight space to pass through. Later, settler children aged ten-twelve threw stones at the family and international volunteers. The daughter was hit and while she was showing the footage of the incident to soldiers, they accused her of stone throwing and were about to arrest her. At the same time, settlers again started throwing stones, this time at the family's home, and the soldiers left to 'check.' The soldiers did not come back and never reprimanded the settlers, much less detained or arrested them for stone throwing. Soldiers have arrested Palestinian children as young as five years old for stone throwing, even though according to Israeli law it is only legal to arrest children when they turn twelve. ISM was present during the incident. Read the full report here.

CPT writes: "This increase in settler violence in Tel Rumeida comes at the time that most right-wing coalition government in the history of the modern nation state of Israel has formed. High levels of impunity for settlers has been a reality since the start of the settlement project in the Occupied Territory, and the prospect for this impunity to decrease seems unlikely at the moment."

For more information on Christian Peacemaker Teams see: www.cpt.org/

Adverts

Your Catholic Legacy

We offer publicity space for Catholic groups/organisations. See our advertising page if you would like more information.

We Need Your Support

ICN aims to provide speedy and accurate news coverage of all subjects of interest to Catholics and the wider Christian community. As our audience increases - so do our costs. We need your help to continue this work.

You can support our journalism by advertising with us or donating to ICN.

Mobile Menu Toggle Icon