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Israeli security sources say the Israeli government will push for a construction plan in the illegal Itamar settlement, south of the West Bank city of Nablus.
Within the next few days, the plans should be approved, the sources said. Prime Minister Netanyahu pledged to carry out the plan in response to the Itamar incident, where a family of five Jewish settlers were stabbed to death. The plans were revealed in a response letter by Israeli national home front minister Matan Vilnai to Knesset member Yaakov Katz, the leader of the extremist National Union party. Vilnai asked Katz on the government's official position on a construction plan covering 13 West Bank settlements. |
Vilnai
said there were currently no active plans in Itamar and that Israeli
war minister Ehud Barack and government agencies had set borders for
Itamar to allow its expansion.
The letter also said that in the next few days, a modified zoning plan would be produced and brought to the government for approval and licensing.
Vilnai also addressed the illegal Rechelim settlement outpost in the letter. The outpost is classified as illegal by the Israeli government and therefore has not been given a zoning plan.
“The government is currently weighing plans to legalize and document Rechelim, but the political leadership still needs to issue an official decision in this regard,” he said.
The letter also referred to the illegal outpost of Naghot near Al-Khalil. He said the matter is currently under legal procedures designed to weigh the possibility of converting it into a “legal settlement”.
Barak considers emergency laws against rightists
Defense Minister looks into emergency regulations in wake of assault on IDF commander.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday instructed his legal adviser to look into the possibility of using old emergency laws to curb rightist attacks on IDF soldiers.
Barak ordered attorney Ahaz Ben Ari "to examine every possible way within the legal framework – including the use of Defence (Emergency) Regulations from 1945 – to stop disturbances and harassment perpetrated against Commander of Judah and Samaria Division Brigadier General Nitzan Alon, his family members and other officers and soldiers."
Some 10 days ago, Brigadier General Alon's vehicle was attacked by several youths at Tapuach Junction in the West Bank. Alon left the scene after right-wing activists encircled his car and began kicking it, while resorting to slurs and chanting "traitor."
IDF officials played down the incident, claiming a handful of female teenagers slightly tapped the car and that Alon, who was on his way to the division headquarters, did not leave the scene.
Speaking at a situation assessment hearing, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "We will not allow a situation whereby extremists injure IDF officers. These officers and commanders protect the residents of Judea and Samaria and all of the State's citizens."
Chief of Staff Benny Gantz also commented on the incident, saying "We must maintain a united IDF, and separate it from any political disagreement, in order to allow our commanders to perform their duty.
"The attempt to undermine the authority of a senior commander is unacceptable, and I expect everyone to continue deploring such acts," he said.
The letter also said that in the next few days, a modified zoning plan would be produced and brought to the government for approval and licensing.
Vilnai also addressed the illegal Rechelim settlement outpost in the letter. The outpost is classified as illegal by the Israeli government and therefore has not been given a zoning plan.
“The government is currently weighing plans to legalize and document Rechelim, but the political leadership still needs to issue an official decision in this regard,” he said.
The letter also referred to the illegal outpost of Naghot near Al-Khalil. He said the matter is currently under legal procedures designed to weigh the possibility of converting it into a “legal settlement”.
Barak considers emergency laws against rightists
Defense Minister looks into emergency regulations in wake of assault on IDF commander.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday instructed his legal adviser to look into the possibility of using old emergency laws to curb rightist attacks on IDF soldiers.
Barak ordered attorney Ahaz Ben Ari "to examine every possible way within the legal framework – including the use of Defence (Emergency) Regulations from 1945 – to stop disturbances and harassment perpetrated against Commander of Judah and Samaria Division Brigadier General Nitzan Alon, his family members and other officers and soldiers."
Some 10 days ago, Brigadier General Alon's vehicle was attacked by several youths at Tapuach Junction in the West Bank. Alon left the scene after right-wing activists encircled his car and began kicking it, while resorting to slurs and chanting "traitor."
IDF officials played down the incident, claiming a handful of female teenagers slightly tapped the car and that Alon, who was on his way to the division headquarters, did not leave the scene.
Speaking at a situation assessment hearing, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "We will not allow a situation whereby extremists injure IDF officers. These officers and commanders protect the residents of Judea and Samaria and all of the State's citizens."
Chief of Staff Benny Gantz also commented on the incident, saying "We must maintain a united IDF, and separate it from any political disagreement, in order to allow our commanders to perform their duty.
"The attempt to undermine the authority of a senior commander is unacceptable, and I expect everyone to continue deploring such acts," he said.
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Orthodox Jews clash with police over tax inspections
Hundreds of ultra-Orthdox Jews clashed with police in a conservative neighborhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday as tax officials tried to carry out inspections, a police spokesman said.
Micky Rosenfeld said several tax authority representatives entered the Mea Shearim neighborhood on Wednesday morning to carry out "examinations, check-ups and closures" of several businesses.
"Disturbances developed involving representatives of the community. Stones and other objects were thrown at police officers," he said.
"Four people have been arrested and police are still at the scene responding to the situation."
Rosenfeld said 200-300 protesters were still clashing with around 40 police on the scene.
Israeli media reported that the protesters were from the Neturei Karta movement, an ultra-Orthodox group that fiercely rejects the authority of a Jewish state.
The reports said that the tax inspectors were seeking to close down an illegal slaughterhouse in the neighborhood.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=404867
Jewish Teenaged Settler Attack Palestinian Shepherds on Palestinian Land
Three teenaged settlers from Havat Ma'on outpost near Tuwani, a village south of Hebron, Wednesday threw stones and shouted insults at two Palestinian shepherds, driving them off of Palestinian land, according to a press release.
The press release said that Kamel Muhammeri and his 12 year-old nephew, were herding Muhammeri's flock on Meshaha hill when the settlers emerged from the trees surrounding the outpost; the shepherds immediately left the area with the sheep, but the youth pursued them and threw stones.
Two international observers from Christian Peacemaker Teams witnessed the attack, said the press release.
It added that after the attack, the settler youth spoke with two adult settlers in a pickup truck; two of the teenagers returned to the post in the truck, and the third on foot.
According to the press release, this attack follows a similar incident on June 25, 2011, in which settlers, armed with stones and knives, attacked two shepherds on Meshaha hill, including Muhammeri's brother Shaadi, who was taken to the hospital with leg injuries sustained during the incident.
Six police officers hurt in clashes with ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem
Residents of Mea She'arim neighborhood hurl rocks at security forces in protest of closing down of illegal slaughterhouse, five arrested.
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox clashed with Israeli security forces in Jerusalem on Wednesday, wounding six police officers.
The clashes began after police had come to the neighborhood of Mea She’arim to close down an illegal slaughterhouse.
Residents of the neighborhood set fire to trash cans and hurled rocks at police officers, wounding six policemen, one of which was transferred to a nearby hospital after he had sustained injuries to his head.
Police forces acted to disperse the demonstration and arrested five protesters.
In recent weeks, ultra-Orthodox activists have been trying to block traffic on a central Jerusalem street every Saturday, with hundreds of religious men often resorting to violence in a bid to prevent cars from desecrating Shabbat.
The protesters have attempted to close off the street using dumpsters, and have been known to attack private cars trying to drive down the usually busy road.
Settlers attack Palestinian car near Jenin
A Palestinian teenager sustained bruises after Israeli settlers pelted his car with stones near the site of the former Israeli settlement of Homesh, which was evacuated in 2005.
One of the car's passengers, Kamal Abu Awwad, said that he and some friends were driving from Nablus to Jenin when they saw a man, who they assumed to be a hitchhiker, waiting by the roadside near the evacuated Homesh settlement.
As they approached he began shouting at them and five armed settlers emerged and began throwing stones at the car, Awwad told Ma'an.
Basim Mousa Al-Khatib was hit in the head with a stone.
“If we had stopped, we would have been killed. We heard them loading their guns which they pointed at us. It was really a narrow escape,” Awwad said.
Al-Khatib was taken to a public hospital in Jenin where medics said that his injury was a superficial wound.
A recent report by the Palestinian Authority found that settler violence against Palestinians had increased 'dramatically' in June 2011.
Annual figures compiled by Israeli rights group Yesh Din have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations about settler offenses fail to lead to a prosecution.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=405046
11 juli 2011
Another Car run down: Settler runs down 6 year old boy, others vandalize farmlands in tense West Bank
A Jewish settler ran down and seriously injured a 6-year-old Palestinian boy on Sunday south of Bethlehem, while other settlers vandalized farmland in Safa village near Beit Ummar in northern Al-Khalil province on Sunday.
The boy, Ismail Shahein, was transported to Haddasa hospital to be treated for serious injuries after being hit by the settler’s car in Beit Sakarya in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, Hassan Zawahira, a local resistance committee head, reported.
In Al-Khalil province, a gang of Jewish settlers reportedly opened fire at Palestinian farmers and burned down fruit trees and cut down vineyards.
Israeli troops intervened with tear gas and rubber bullets after local Palestinian youths responded to the attack with stones.
The force arrested two of the youths in the aftermath of the scuffle.
Locals say the attack came as a prelude to the confiscation of hundreds of dunums of land paving the way for the construction of a section of the apartheid wall in the area, as has happened repeatedly.
2,500 US Jews aim to fill gaps in northern occupied territories
An Israeli organization has announced plans to bring more than 2,500 Jews from North America to the occupied Palestinian territories this summer, as it seeks to resettle the regiment in areas with high Palestinian populations.
The organization, Nefesh B'nefesh, which encourages the migration of Jews from North America and the United Kingdom to the Palestinian territories, said it would cooperate with the Jewish Agency for Israel and Israel's migration ministry to bring 2,500 Jews from the United State and Canada during the summer, according the organization's website.
The first batch of 245 immigrants should land on Tuesday 12 July at the Ben-Gurion airport, the organization said.
Nefesh B'nefesh recently launched a project encouraging resettling the immigrants in the northern region of the territories occupied in 1948, where there is a high concentration of Palestinians, a step observers say is an attempt to change the demographic features of the area.
The project, dubbed “go north”, has cost a total of 10 million US dollars. It aims at settling 1,500 Jews in neighborhoods in the Triangle, Galilee, Marj Ben Amir, as well as Tabariya and Golan.
The formerly Arab city of Haifa and vicinity, which have a Jewish majority, were excluded from the project.
8 juli 2011
IDF to allow organized visits to Joseph's Tomb once every three weeks
Restrictions will be eased for Jewish worshippers.
The Israel Defense Forces is set to increase the frequency of organized visits to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus to once every three weeks. The army has been reviewing its procedures since the killing of worshipper Ben-Yosef Livnat near the site by Palestinian police in April. Livnat was taking part in an unorganized visit.
The IDF prefers to allow access to the tomb once a month, while the settlers want once a week. The settlers say a lack of organized visits increases the motivation to risk visiting the tomb illicitly.
The army says an organized visit once a week would put too much strain on its troops. But it still intends to increase the frequency of visits.
The main advocate for this is Col. Nimrod Aloni, commander of the Samaria Division in charge of Nablus. In the complex relationship between the settlers and the army, Nimrodi is seen as the settlers' friend within the system.
"When I took the job I was told Joseph's Tomb was a headache," Aloni told the local regional council's newsletter three months ago. "I saw that it was really important, and as a secular person who has never been to sages' tombs, it took me a while to learn what people were looking for there. I'm a person who sees things very simply, and I understood that Joseph, with his nationalism and righteousness, symbolizes something big and important.
On the last organized visit, on Sunday night, forces roughly the size of a brigade were deployed in the city, including special forces and a drone that monitored events from above.
The IDF Spokesman's Office says that ever since the killing of Livnat, Central Command has been reviewing the issue of organized visits to the tomb. The army said the work is not yet complete.
Turning Joseph into a Jewish fanatic
1,000 security personnel are needed at Joseph's Tomb - not to protect Jews from terrorists, but to keep the Jews in order.
It was like any other ultra-Orthodox festival, or hilula. An ancient grave, groups of men and women entering from different sides to pray devoutly for health, wealth, righteous offspring or at least a decent match. Occasionally, a venerable rabbi was ushered in with his entourage for a few minutes of private contemplation and in the courtyard, greasy tables piled high with rugelach, slices of peppery-sweet Yerushalmi kugel and bottles of fizzy flavored water in lurid colors. But along with the 1,400 pilgrims, came a thousand soldiers, border police, riot police and plain "blue" police, in dozens of armored vehicles and even an unmanned surveillance plane watching from above. And while the faithful prayed at Joseph's Tomb, from midnight on Sunday until the sun rose on Monday morning over Gerizim, the Mount of the Blessing, the 30,000 inhabitants of Balata refugee camp and much of the rest of the southern neighborhoods of Nablus remained under unofficial curfew.
There are at least two ways to look at the monthly prayers at Joseph's Tomb. The Oslo Accords allow for freedom of worship at all holy sites in the West Bank. As a result, the IDF maintained a permanent presence by the tomb after Nablus was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1995. But following Palestinian attacks on the site in 1996 when six soldiers were killed, and again in 2000 at the start of the second intifada, when Border Police soldier Madhat Yousef bled to death as Israeli and Palestinian officers were trying to negotiate a way to evacuate him, the IDF decided it could not continue securing the site, and on October 7, 2000, abandoned Joseph's Tomb.
Immediately after the evacuation, Palestinian rioters stormed the shrine and set it ablaze. So Jews should certainly be allowed to pray there freely. And if the Palestinians try to hinder them from exercising that right, then it is the job of the IDF to ensure that they can do so safely.
But things are rarely that simple.
As a number of officers of all ranks admitted to me on Monday, the great majority of 1,000 security personnel were there not to protect Jews from terrorists, but to keep the Jews in order.
Some of the soldiers, mainly the teams from the "Duvdevan" unit, discreetly placed in the alleyways around Balata, were stationed in case a terror group tried to shoot or set off a bomb aimed at those coming to prayer, but the rest came mainly to protect the local Palestinians from summary reprisals by the Jews and to protect the Jews from themselves.
They manned dozens of roadblocks that were set up to block people from coming through independently, instead of in one of the convoy of bullet-proof of buses, and made sure that after half an hour of prayer at the tomb, they left peacefully.
From Operation Defensive Shield in early 2002, when the IDF began to gradually re-establish its control over the entire West Bank, the army has been devoting considerable resources to accompanying groups into Nablus for periodic visits to Joseph's Tomb, but for some this has never been enough.
It started in April, 2002 during the operation itself, while the IDF was still fighting in Nablus. Students from the Breslav Yeshiva "Shuvu Banim" in Jerusalem made common cause with the settlers from the area to smuggle themselves inside and reach the tomb. Dozens of young men and women were running around a war zone, trying to evade the army patrols sent to round them up.
Senior officers have tried time and again to warn the leader of Shuvu Banim, renowned mystic Rabbi Eliezer Berland, of the inherent dangers, but to no avail. For the last nine years, they have been playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the security forces, quite often while carrying out acts of random vandalism and violence toward Palestinian civilians.
Arrests, fines, warnings, none of them have had any effect. Neither have at least half a dozen cases in which Palestinian police shot at them as they drove through Nablus at breakneck speed.
Palestinian policemen shot at another convoy of Breslavers near the tomb two months ago, killing Ben-Joseph Livnat and wounding four others, but they still keep coming. Two weeks later, when the IDF coordinated for them a secure visit to the tomb, dozens still tried to run away from the convoy and stay in Nablus after the allocated time of prayer was over.
Security coordination with the Palestinian Authority is close. Allowing Jews into the tomb for regular prayers should be a simple procedure, say IDF officers in the West Bank. If only the Breslavers and groups of "hilltop youths" from the neighboring settlements would play ball. But time and again, they have proved they will not. That is why 1,000 soldiers and police officers had to stay awake around Nablus on Sunday night.
I asked a senior IDF general this week why the army has to spend millions on a brigade-scale operation just to protect a small fanatic and violent group, who have repeatedly failed to cooperate and regularly risk their own and others' lives. His instinctive answer was the standard soldier's refrain: "Those are the orders we have from the political echelon - ask them." But then he added, "not everyone who wants to pray at the tomb are like that. Why should we turn away a woman from Kiryat Ata who wants to come all the way to Nablus to pray to Joseph just because of a small group of idiots? Isn't that what freedom of worship is about?"
He had a point. Not everyone who made the trip on Sunday night were Breslavers or radical settlers. Many of them were "normal" Israelis, swept up in the growing cult of grave-worship, traipsing from shrine to shrine, beseeching the long-dead sages to intercede up above. The hard core were concentrated in the last two buses to arrive, and hundreds of riot-police surrounded the tomb, making sure they left before the sun rose. Another general, a veteran of West Bank dealings was more succinct. "One telephone call to the Palestinian security apparatus is enough to organize regular prayers at the tomb. Instead we have this ridiculous, dangerous and wasteful show, as a result of our weakness in the face of a wave of religious extremism."
Of course, no serious archaeologist or historian believes the sheikh's grave in Nablus is really the final resting place of one of the most fascinating characters of the bible. But when did serious academic research ever count for anything in these matters?
For various mystical reasons, Joseph, son of Jacob, has come to symbolize for certain factions of Orthodoxy, the epitome of Jewish fanaticism (they see that as a good thing ). Though if the bible is anything to go by, he should certainly be seen as the most cosmopolitan of the twelve brothers; living most of his life in Egypt and becoming Pharaoh's right-hand man, marrying a local woman, saving the ancient world from famine. Joseph could have been a unifying figure, a symbol of forgiveness to brothers, a bridge between Jews and the outside world, encompassing tradition and modernity. Instead, we have once again surrendered to the most racist, parochial and violent minority of the Jewish people.
Israel uses Ottoman law to legalize settler outpost
After Israeli authorities confiscation orders to Qaryut villagers for 189 dunams of land on July 1, an Israeli media report said Friday that the authorities were using Ottoman-era law to take land for a settlement outpost.
One week ago, Israeli forces delivered a notification to the Nablus district village council signed by the Israeli Civil Administration declaring the village lands Israeli "state" property.
A report in Israeli daily Haaretz said Friday that authorities used an 1858 land law, still applicable in the West Bank, which allows uncultivated land to be declared in state ownership.
Qaryut, southeast of Nablus, is surrounded by illegal settlements Eli and Shilo, with the outpost Givat Hayovel jutting into village territory. The expropriation of land will retroactively legalize the outpost Ghassan Doughlas, the Palestinian Authority official for monitoring settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an.
Villagers have 45 days to appeal to the military appeals committee, Haaretz reported, noting that Qaryut was the first land expropriation for settlement expansion in three years, in violation of commitments to the US.
Eli's mayor, Kobi Eliraz, told the daily he is glad the state is making progress toward formalizing the status of the Hayovel neighborhood.
Peace Now chairman Yariv Oppenheimer said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were going to great lengths to legalize isolated outposts deep in the territories, even if this involves land expropriations, Haaretz reported.
Givat Hayovel was established in 1998 with the help of nearly $75,000 from the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing. It has 17 permanent homes and 30 caravans.
The Israeli government has been seeking to differentiate between outposts built on private Palestinian land and others built on public land, as continuous pledges -- as committed under the 2003 international "roadmap" peace plan -- to dismantle outposts have not been honored.
A 2005 official Israeli report on settlement outposts said Hayovel was built on private Palestinian land, seemingly disregarded in last week's declaration of Qaryut lands as state property.
Palestinians say all Israeli settlement in the West Bank is in violation of international law and expanding settlement construction has been a major obstacle to the resumption of peace talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=403354
7 juli 2011
PA report: Israeli settler attacks on the rise
Israeli settler violence towards Palestinians increased "dramatically" in June, according to a Palestinian Authority report released Wednesday.
The report documented 139 attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli army and settlers as reported to the government during the month, including demolition of 95 buildings and over 3600 olive trees and vines.
The release highlighted a fire in the village of Madama on Tuesday, and in Aqraba village on Monday, both in the northern Nablus district, which it attributed to Israeli settlers.
"In the first week of June, settlers burnt 350 trees Deir al-Hatab village near Nablus, 20 grape vines in Hebron and uprooted 40 grape vines in Beit Ummar village," the report stated.
A spokesperson from the Palestinian government media center said the incidents “are part of a campaign to terrorize Palestinian farmers and their families.”
“ When settlers destroy trees by burning or bulldozing, they are destroying a family’s means of earning its living.”
The spokesperson highlighted poor accountability for violence by settlers, saying “such attacks are so frequent that the Israeli authorities must be able to take action if they choose to.
“But there is little evidence of settlers being brought to justice. They seem to be above Israeli law.”
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP he was unaware of any statistics indicating a rise in violence in the West Bank.
"Any reports of violence, whether by settlers or by Palestinians, is investigated and dealt with after an official complaint is received," he said.
Annual figures compiled by Israeli rights group Yesh Din about complaints of settler offenses have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations fail to lead to a prosecution.
AFP contributed to this report
More than a half million settlers in West Bank, East Jerusalem
The Israeli Population Registry said Thursday that there are more than 334,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
According to Israeli media outlets, data suggests that the greatest hike in settler population was recorded in Kiryat Sever.
But the figure does not include settlements surrounding occupied Jerusalem. The latest data shows that nearly 180,000 Jews have settled there, placing the number of Jewish settlers in the territories occupied after 1967 at over a half million.
In previous reports published in October 2010, a significant increase in the settler population of the West Bank was highlighted in light of the settlement moratorium that year.
6 juli 2011
West Bank rabbi calls for annexing West Bank to Israel
Fanatic West Bank settler rabbi Dov Lior has called for annexing the West Bank to Israel in order to thwart Palestinian efforts to declare an independent state.
Lior was recently arrested on charges of inciting to kill non-Jewish children.
He said that when Israel annexes the West Bank there would be peace and security in the region.
Meanwhile, Hebron (Al-Khalil) Hills Regional Council head Tzvika Bar-Hai has made calls to attract thousands of Jews to live in the Negev considering its security importance.
Bar-Hai called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to give in to pressure and to allow the Israeli occupation of the land to continue.
He declared that a Palestinian state would not be established west of the Jordan River and said he was convinced that Netanyahu would end the “nightmare of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Jewish nation,” alluding to the West Bank.
Also, international law expert Hana Issa has warned in a fresh press statement that Israel’s Jerusalem municipality’s approval of plans to build 900 settlement units in the Gilo settlement was aimed at splitting the settlement from Bethlehem and eastern West Bank.
That would unilaterally impose Israel’s political occupation of the area, he warned.
Western Wall rabbi targeted
Rabinovitch. 'Radical groups of settlers and haredim trying to hurt him'
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch gets personal bodyguard after being harassed nonstop, receiving threats.
Who is trying to hurt Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch? The Western Wall rabbi received a personal bodyguard several weeks ago after getting telephone threats and being harassed on a regular basis for the past few months.
In the past month, unknown assailants threw stones at the rabbi's car. Luckily, he wasn't hurt. In a separate incident, the car's tires were slashed.
"There are radical groups of settlers and haredim which are trying to hurt the rabbi," says a source involved in the affair. "They opposed his activity at Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's tomb on Mount Meron, when he tried to find a solution for the control struggles around the complex, and the renovation of Joseph's Tomb by Arabs, which the rabbi was responsible for.
"Settlers have been making statements against the rabbi, like 'If you harm the Land of Israel – you'll be harmed."
In the past, the rabbi was attacked by an angry mob, members of the extreme Eda Haredit faction, while leaving the home of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.
The Prime Minister's Office, which the Western Wall rabbi is subject to, is funding Rabinovitch's security expenses following the police's evaluation of the situation.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4091519,00.html
5 juli 2011
Palestinian woman, child run over by Israeli settlers in separate incidents
An Israeli settler driving near Nablus ran over a 40-year old Palestinian woman Sunday, then tried to flee the scene. Separately, an Israeli-plated vehicle ran over a 14-year old boy in Qalqilia and then drove away.
In the first incident, which took place on the main road to Huwwara, southeast of Nablus, an Israeli settler driving at high speed struck a forty-year old woman and then tried to drive away, bdut was stopped by locals who prevented him from leaving before Israeli police arrived.
The unidentified woman was taken to Rafidia hospital with moderate injuries throughout her body, and several fractures.
The incident took place as a group of Israeli settlers were invading nearby Asira and Madama villages, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, and attacking local Palestinians and burning farmland. One young man, Mohammed Ziad, was taken to the hospital with head wounds inflicted by the invading settlers.
Separately, also on Sunday, an unmarked Israeli-plated vehicle ran over a Palestinian boy, Khaled Daoud Abed Al-Karim, 14, after abducting a 40-year old man, Ali Abu Khadejah, from the city of Qalqilia. The vehicle did not stop, and drove quickly away from the area. It is unknown whether the kidnappers were undercover Israeli military forces or Israeli settlers, and the Israeli government has made no comment on the incident.
The 14-year old wound sustained serious head wounds, and was taken to the main hospital in Nablus, where his condition is described as 'critical'.
Ramming incidents such as these, in which unknown Israeli assailants attack Palestinian civilians using their vehicles as weapons, are common in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but are rarely investigated by the Israeli Occupation Forces who have imposed martial law on the region since 1967.
Jewish settlers set Palestinian farmland on fire
Jewish settlers on Tuesday set Palestinian farmland on fire in the village of Madma to the south of Nablus, local sources reported.
They said that settlers of the Yitshar settlement established on part of the Madma village land torched fields to the southwest of the village near to the bypass road inhabited by those settlers.
Settlers attacks have escalated over the past few months against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank and their cultivated fields.
Growing Intensification of Clashes Between Settlers and Palestinians
The Israeli Army has expressed concerns regarding an escalation in clashes between Illegal Israeli settlers and Palestinians; with confrontations expected to increase further as the bid at the UN for Palestinian Statehood in September looms, reports Haaretz.
Israeli daily Haaretz also reported that Israeli army officials and civil servants are steadily becoming more and more harassed by right-wing extremists from Israeli settlements.
The West Bank village of Burin was a focus of such clashes last week when settlers burned a field destroying 400 trees. This act was made in retaliation after a car from the Yitzhar settlement was claimed to have been stolen by residents of the village.
On Sunday Yitzhar settlers were again involved in confrontations as fighting and stone throwing broke out against villagers from Asira a-Kabaliya following a field fire. Haaretz reported that one Palestinian was injured and taken to hospital.
On Saturday there were clashes in the recently built settlement of Gaon Hayarden near Ramallah, which resulted in a settler breaking his leg after stones were thrown.
Other such clashes included the burning of the Mosque in al-Mueir village on June 7th; such arson attacks against mosques are becoming more common place, with four having taken place since the beginning of 2010.
This month, the Israeli state intends to evacuate the illegal Migron outpost after a high court ruling. Such a move is likely to increase actions of right-wing extremists.
Israeli settlers have been stepping up protests in recent weeks; many took part in the rally on Monday in support of two Rabbis who were arrested for endorsing a book that encourages the killing of non-Jews.
Hard-core settlers who reside in outposts throughout the West Bank believe that the Palestinian territories should be part of a larger Jewish Israeli state. For many they see themselves as the frontline in creating such a state.
City council 'fast tracks' Jerusalem settler homes
Plans to build around 900 new homes in Gilo, a settlement neighborhood of annexed east Jerusalem are being fast tracked by the city council, settler watchdog Peace Now charged Tuesday.
Plans to build the homes in Gilo in the southern sector of east Jerusalem were first announced in April but on Monday passed another stage in the bureaucratic process before becoming a reality, a city councillor from the right-wing Likud party said Tuesday.
"The municipal commission on Monday approved a plan to build 900 homes in Gilo," said Elisha Peleg. "The municipality will continue to build in all areas of the city, both for Jews and Arabs according to the overall plan in Gilo and elsewhere."
Peace Now's Hagit Ofran said the plan, which was first made public in April, had been put out for period of public review, and Monday's session had been devoted to examining the objections raised against it.
Following the session, the committee had decided to approve the project in a move normally done by the district committee.
"Politically it means the municipality is eager to push this plan forward. It makes it more likely to happen," Ofran said.
"It means the planning is moving faster than usual, that the municipality wants it to move fast," she said.
"These 800-900 units in Gilo is not a geographical revolution -- it is just a dramatic expansion of an existing settlement, which will bring more Israelis to live there and make compromise harder," she said.
"The biggest significance is the political message it sends -- that Israel is putting all its efforts into building east Jerusalem and not into west Jerusalem to spite the world and the Palestinians."
When the plans were first made public in April, Israel's Jerusalem municipality said it was in addition to an earlier tranche of more than 900 new homes in the same neighborhood which were approved in November 2009.
Gilo lies in mostly Palestinian east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later occupied and annexed in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel considers both halves of the Holy City its "eternal, indivisible" capital, and does not view construction in the east to be settlement activity.
The Palestinians, however, want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and fiercely contest any actions to extend Israel's control over the sector.
Some 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem alongside nearly 270,000 Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402728
Right-Wing Riots Rock Jerusalem
Herzl Boulevard, Jerusalem, was blocked on Monday after right-wing Israelis protested over the recent arrests of Rabbis by Israeli police.
Rioters also successfully closed of a series of roads near Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, as well as attempting to block others. The disruption led briefly to motorists entering Jerusalem for Highway 1 having to be diverted so as to continue their journey.
Police managed to use water cannons and mounted police to disperse the rioters. In total five Right-wing activists were arrested including one minor.
Ynet reported that there had been a rally at the Supreme Court earlier supporting Rabbis Yaakov Yosef and Dov Lior where thousands turned out. The Rabbis had been arrested last week for endorsing the book ‘Kings Torah’; a book that promotes the idea of killing non-Jews.
Rabbi Lior speaking at the rally claimed "the role of rabbis is to guide and instruct the public."
Continuing he said: "By us the prosperity of the Torah and uniqueness of the Torah have not been bridled. The role of Israel's rabbis is to explain the Torah,"
The Rabbis see it as their right to endorse the Torah if they wish.
Union: Settlers burn olive trees near Nablus
The union of agricultural work committees in the village of Aqraba in Nablus said Monday that residents of the illegal Itamar settlement burned 300 olive trees.
A similar incident was alleged to have occurred several months earlier, it said.
The agricultural committees called on Palestinian Authority officials to intervene to stop violations against farmers, "who are exposed every day to operations of sabotage, destruction and displacement."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402295
4 juli 2011
Jewish settler runs down Palestinian woman in Nablus
A Jewish settler ran down a Palestinian woman with his vehicle near Hawara southeast of Nablus city in northern West Bank, locals have reported.
The woman sustained injuries and fractures and was left in a difficult health condition, the sources said.
The woman, in her forties, was hit on the main road in Hawara. The driver tried to flee, but villagers there managed to apprehend him.
She was transported to Rafidia surgical hospital where she is being treated for injuries affecting all parts of her body.
Three local youths also in Asira village south of the city suffered the effects of breathing tear gas fired at them by Israeli occupation soldiers after local youths emerged to confront settler crimes.
Settlers injured Mohammed Ziad from Madama village south of Nablus causing wounds to his head Sunday evening after burning local farmlands in the village and in nearby villages.
Jewish settlers set on fire hundreds of Palestinian olive trees
NJewish settlers torched hundreds of Palestinian olive trees south of Nablus on Sunday night, local sources said.
They said that tens of settlers from Itamar settlement attacked the olive fields of Aqraba village and set them on fire, destroying 450 trees including 150 that are hundreds of years old.
Jewish settlers’ attacks have recently escalated against citizens’ cultivated land lots especially south of Nablus.
1,000 Israelis enter Nablus overnight
Over 1,000 Israelis entered the West Bank city of Nablus overnight Sunday to visit Joseph's Tomb, witnesses and the army said.
Locals said Israeli forces imposed heavy restrictions on the site, where some believe the biblical figure Joseph was buried. Dozens of Israeli soldiers were deployed to the area and Huwwara checkpoint was closed, they said.
An Israeli military spokesman said forces coordinated the visit of 1,000 Israelis on around 20 buses. Witnesses said over 1,000 Israelis prayed at the site until Monday morning.
The Israeli news site Ynet reported that settlers asked the Israeli army to allow 40 buses to visit the tomb, in occupied Palestinian territory.
The report said the army refused due to fears that the settlers would barricade themselves in the tomb, as they have done on previous visits.
An army spokesman said the military had received a request for more than 20 buses, but that only 1,000 visitors were authorized.
He said 20 Israelis were detained for trying to enter the tomb without coordination.
Ynet reported that settlers claimed to have attacked an army vehicle at the Tappuah junction near Nablus. Settlers told the news site that the officer left the area after Israeli youths surrounded and kicked his car.
Over the last decade, visits to Joseph’s Tomb have been coordinated by the army and Palestinian Authority security forces.
Under the Oslo accords, Nablus is in Area A and is part of the 17 percent of the West Bank under Palestinian Authority civil and security control, but the area around the tomb remains in Area C, under Israeli jurisdiction.
Hundreds of settlers attack citizens’ homes in Nablus village
Hundreds of Jewish settlers attacked the homes of Palestinian citizens in Assira Al-Qabaliya village, south of Nablus, on Sunday night, local sources said.
They added that more than 500 settlers attacked the villages under protection of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and threw stones at the houses breaking the windows of many of them.
Witnesses said that the inhabitants retaliated throwing stones at the attackers, adding that the IOF soldiers intervened and fired rubber bullets and gas canisters at the Palestinian citizens causing breathing problems among many of them, some of whom fainted. They said that a woman was among those who received field treatment for gas suffocation.
IOF troops storm Nabi Yusuf tomb to protect Jewish “visitors”
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the Nabi Yusuf tomb in Balata village to the east of Nablus city before midnight Sunday to protect 1000 Jewish settlers who arrived to offer rituals.
Citizens said that IOF soldiers mounting 10 armored vehicles escorted 20 buses which carried 1000 settlers to the tomb, adding that they left by dawn Monday.
They said that the IOF soldiers closed off the eastern area of Nablus especially near the tomb and deployed dozens of soldiers in its vicinity.
IOF soldiers closed the Hawara roadblock and another one to the west of Nablus while measures were tightened on the others.
2 juli 2011
Jerusalemites wounded in clashes with settlers, policemen
A number of citizens in Sheikh Jarah in occupied Jerusalem were treated for injuries and breathing problems after clashes with Israeli occupation police and Jewish settlers on Friday evening, locals reported.
They said that among those injured were two children, adding that the Israeli policemen sprayed gas directly into the faces of citizens.
One of the injured women said that the clashes started after the end of the weekly march by the inhabitants protesting Jewish settlement activity in their neighborhood.
She said that one of her relatives was taken to hospital after a settler hit her in the head.
Jewish settlers burn Palestinian olive trees
Jewish settlers set tens of Palestinian olives trees on fire in Kufr Qaddoum village, near Qalqilia, on Friday as Israeli occupation forces (IOF) wounded six citizens in the same village while quelling a protest march.
The blaze destroyed tens of olive trees before the Palestinian fire brigades managed to extinguish it, local sources reported.
They noted, meanwhile, that IOF soldiers used force to disperse a peaceful march organized by the village’s municipal council to demand opening the northern entrance to the village that connect it to 1948 occupied land.
The sources said that the IOF used teargas to break up the march in which hundreds of citizens participated, adding that six of the participants were treated for breathing difficulty.
3 Palestinians detained after confronting settlers
Israeli police reportedly detained three Palestinian men on Saturday in the Ar-Ras neighborhood of Hebron in the southern West Bank after they tried to confront a group of settlers who had assaulted them.
The detainees were said to be 19-year-old Abed Husni Matariyya, 32-year-old Rami Abdul-Hayy Matariyya, and 34-year-old Muhammad Abdul-Hayy Matariyya, eyewitness Jamal Matariyya told Ma'an.
No Israeli spokesperson was available for comment.
Settler violence in Hebron is commonplace. Around 700 Israeli settlers live protected by the army amongst 30,000 Palestinians in the old city area.
Palestinians frequently complain that the Israeli army does nothing to prevent settler attacks, even when directly witnessing an incident.
Separately, Israeli forces prevented more than 60 farmers and international solidarity activists from working on a land reclamation project in the village of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.
Spokesman for the popular committee against the separation wall in the village Muhammad Ayyad Awad said farmers and solidarity activists wanted to help Hussein Muheisin Awad reclaim part of his land but a settler fired gunshots into the air to scare them.
Israeli forces then arrived and expelled the volunteers, Awad said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=401548
1 juli 2011
Qalqilia: Six Civilians Injured While Settlers Set Fire to Olive Groves
Six Palestinian civilians were injured when Israeli soldiers attacked a peaceful protest that demanded the opening of the north entrance of Qaqila in the northern West Bank. At a seperate incident, settlers set fire to an olive grove near the city.
The protest was organized in the village of Qufer Qadum. Villagers were joined by local activists in the city of Qalqilia and marched up to the checkpoint that seperates Qalqilia from the 1948 border line.
Israeli soldiers shot tear gas at protestors, injuring six participants. Local medics reported that all six sustained light injuries and were treated on location.
As people were protesting, a group of Israeli settlers set fire to a nearby olive grove owned by local farmers. According to witnesses the fire destroyed at least two dozen olive trees before Palestinian firefighters managed to turn it off.
Israeli Settlers and Soldiers Attack Farmers Reclaiming Land Near Hebron
On Friday midday a group of Israeli settlers, along with soldiers, attacked Palestinian farmers of Yatta in southern West Ban, all of whom were trying to reclaim their land that settlers took over earlier this year.
As part of the local committee against the wall and settlements, internationals and Israelis joined farmers from Yatta and went to work their land near the Israeli settlement Kriat Arba.
The settlers took over the land earlier in the year and planted grape vines to supply the winery in the settlement with grapes. Recently the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that this land belongs to local farmers; as a result, on Friday people went and removed the grape vines settlers had planted and started to rehabilitate the land.
Soon the settlers arrived and attacked people; later they were joined by Israeli military police and armed units.
Villagers, in a press release sent to PNN, said that they would continue to go to their land and protect it from being taken over by the settlers. They called upon human rights groups to intervene and help protect the land.
Hundreds of ultra-Orthdox Jews clashed with police in a conservative neighborhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday as tax officials tried to carry out inspections, a police spokesman said.
Micky Rosenfeld said several tax authority representatives entered the Mea Shearim neighborhood on Wednesday morning to carry out "examinations, check-ups and closures" of several businesses.
"Disturbances developed involving representatives of the community. Stones and other objects were thrown at police officers," he said.
"Four people have been arrested and police are still at the scene responding to the situation."
Rosenfeld said 200-300 protesters were still clashing with around 40 police on the scene.
Israeli media reported that the protesters were from the Neturei Karta movement, an ultra-Orthodox group that fiercely rejects the authority of a Jewish state.
The reports said that the tax inspectors were seeking to close down an illegal slaughterhouse in the neighborhood.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=404867
Jewish Teenaged Settler Attack Palestinian Shepherds on Palestinian Land
Three teenaged settlers from Havat Ma'on outpost near Tuwani, a village south of Hebron, Wednesday threw stones and shouted insults at two Palestinian shepherds, driving them off of Palestinian land, according to a press release.
The press release said that Kamel Muhammeri and his 12 year-old nephew, were herding Muhammeri's flock on Meshaha hill when the settlers emerged from the trees surrounding the outpost; the shepherds immediately left the area with the sheep, but the youth pursued them and threw stones.
Two international observers from Christian Peacemaker Teams witnessed the attack, said the press release.
It added that after the attack, the settler youth spoke with two adult settlers in a pickup truck; two of the teenagers returned to the post in the truck, and the third on foot.
According to the press release, this attack follows a similar incident on June 25, 2011, in which settlers, armed with stones and knives, attacked two shepherds on Meshaha hill, including Muhammeri's brother Shaadi, who was taken to the hospital with leg injuries sustained during the incident.
Six police officers hurt in clashes with ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem
Residents of Mea She'arim neighborhood hurl rocks at security forces in protest of closing down of illegal slaughterhouse, five arrested.
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox clashed with Israeli security forces in Jerusalem on Wednesday, wounding six police officers.
The clashes began after police had come to the neighborhood of Mea She’arim to close down an illegal slaughterhouse.
Residents of the neighborhood set fire to trash cans and hurled rocks at police officers, wounding six policemen, one of which was transferred to a nearby hospital after he had sustained injuries to his head.
Police forces acted to disperse the demonstration and arrested five protesters.
In recent weeks, ultra-Orthodox activists have been trying to block traffic on a central Jerusalem street every Saturday, with hundreds of religious men often resorting to violence in a bid to prevent cars from desecrating Shabbat.
The protesters have attempted to close off the street using dumpsters, and have been known to attack private cars trying to drive down the usually busy road.
Settlers attack Palestinian car near Jenin
A Palestinian teenager sustained bruises after Israeli settlers pelted his car with stones near the site of the former Israeli settlement of Homesh, which was evacuated in 2005.
One of the car's passengers, Kamal Abu Awwad, said that he and some friends were driving from Nablus to Jenin when they saw a man, who they assumed to be a hitchhiker, waiting by the roadside near the evacuated Homesh settlement.
As they approached he began shouting at them and five armed settlers emerged and began throwing stones at the car, Awwad told Ma'an.
Basim Mousa Al-Khatib was hit in the head with a stone.
“If we had stopped, we would have been killed. We heard them loading their guns which they pointed at us. It was really a narrow escape,” Awwad said.
Al-Khatib was taken to a public hospital in Jenin where medics said that his injury was a superficial wound.
A recent report by the Palestinian Authority found that settler violence against Palestinians had increased 'dramatically' in June 2011.
Annual figures compiled by Israeli rights group Yesh Din have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations about settler offenses fail to lead to a prosecution.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=405046
11 juli 2011
Another Car run down: Settler runs down 6 year old boy, others vandalize farmlands in tense West Bank
A Jewish settler ran down and seriously injured a 6-year-old Palestinian boy on Sunday south of Bethlehem, while other settlers vandalized farmland in Safa village near Beit Ummar in northern Al-Khalil province on Sunday.
The boy, Ismail Shahein, was transported to Haddasa hospital to be treated for serious injuries after being hit by the settler’s car in Beit Sakarya in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, Hassan Zawahira, a local resistance committee head, reported.
In Al-Khalil province, a gang of Jewish settlers reportedly opened fire at Palestinian farmers and burned down fruit trees and cut down vineyards.
Israeli troops intervened with tear gas and rubber bullets after local Palestinian youths responded to the attack with stones.
The force arrested two of the youths in the aftermath of the scuffle.
Locals say the attack came as a prelude to the confiscation of hundreds of dunums of land paving the way for the construction of a section of the apartheid wall in the area, as has happened repeatedly.
2,500 US Jews aim to fill gaps in northern occupied territories
An Israeli organization has announced plans to bring more than 2,500 Jews from North America to the occupied Palestinian territories this summer, as it seeks to resettle the regiment in areas with high Palestinian populations.
The organization, Nefesh B'nefesh, which encourages the migration of Jews from North America and the United Kingdom to the Palestinian territories, said it would cooperate with the Jewish Agency for Israel and Israel's migration ministry to bring 2,500 Jews from the United State and Canada during the summer, according the organization's website.
The first batch of 245 immigrants should land on Tuesday 12 July at the Ben-Gurion airport, the organization said.
Nefesh B'nefesh recently launched a project encouraging resettling the immigrants in the northern region of the territories occupied in 1948, where there is a high concentration of Palestinians, a step observers say is an attempt to change the demographic features of the area.
The project, dubbed “go north”, has cost a total of 10 million US dollars. It aims at settling 1,500 Jews in neighborhoods in the Triangle, Galilee, Marj Ben Amir, as well as Tabariya and Golan.
The formerly Arab city of Haifa and vicinity, which have a Jewish majority, were excluded from the project.
8 juli 2011
IDF to allow organized visits to Joseph's Tomb once every three weeks
Restrictions will be eased for Jewish worshippers.
The Israel Defense Forces is set to increase the frequency of organized visits to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus to once every three weeks. The army has been reviewing its procedures since the killing of worshipper Ben-Yosef Livnat near the site by Palestinian police in April. Livnat was taking part in an unorganized visit.
The IDF prefers to allow access to the tomb once a month, while the settlers want once a week. The settlers say a lack of organized visits increases the motivation to risk visiting the tomb illicitly.
The army says an organized visit once a week would put too much strain on its troops. But it still intends to increase the frequency of visits.
The main advocate for this is Col. Nimrod Aloni, commander of the Samaria Division in charge of Nablus. In the complex relationship between the settlers and the army, Nimrodi is seen as the settlers' friend within the system.
"When I took the job I was told Joseph's Tomb was a headache," Aloni told the local regional council's newsletter three months ago. "I saw that it was really important, and as a secular person who has never been to sages' tombs, it took me a while to learn what people were looking for there. I'm a person who sees things very simply, and I understood that Joseph, with his nationalism and righteousness, symbolizes something big and important.
On the last organized visit, on Sunday night, forces roughly the size of a brigade were deployed in the city, including special forces and a drone that monitored events from above.
The IDF Spokesman's Office says that ever since the killing of Livnat, Central Command has been reviewing the issue of organized visits to the tomb. The army said the work is not yet complete.
Turning Joseph into a Jewish fanatic
1,000 security personnel are needed at Joseph's Tomb - not to protect Jews from terrorists, but to keep the Jews in order.
It was like any other ultra-Orthodox festival, or hilula. An ancient grave, groups of men and women entering from different sides to pray devoutly for health, wealth, righteous offspring or at least a decent match. Occasionally, a venerable rabbi was ushered in with his entourage for a few minutes of private contemplation and in the courtyard, greasy tables piled high with rugelach, slices of peppery-sweet Yerushalmi kugel and bottles of fizzy flavored water in lurid colors. But along with the 1,400 pilgrims, came a thousand soldiers, border police, riot police and plain "blue" police, in dozens of armored vehicles and even an unmanned surveillance plane watching from above. And while the faithful prayed at Joseph's Tomb, from midnight on Sunday until the sun rose on Monday morning over Gerizim, the Mount of the Blessing, the 30,000 inhabitants of Balata refugee camp and much of the rest of the southern neighborhoods of Nablus remained under unofficial curfew.
There are at least two ways to look at the monthly prayers at Joseph's Tomb. The Oslo Accords allow for freedom of worship at all holy sites in the West Bank. As a result, the IDF maintained a permanent presence by the tomb after Nablus was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in 1995. But following Palestinian attacks on the site in 1996 when six soldiers were killed, and again in 2000 at the start of the second intifada, when Border Police soldier Madhat Yousef bled to death as Israeli and Palestinian officers were trying to negotiate a way to evacuate him, the IDF decided it could not continue securing the site, and on October 7, 2000, abandoned Joseph's Tomb.
Immediately after the evacuation, Palestinian rioters stormed the shrine and set it ablaze. So Jews should certainly be allowed to pray there freely. And if the Palestinians try to hinder them from exercising that right, then it is the job of the IDF to ensure that they can do so safely.
But things are rarely that simple.
As a number of officers of all ranks admitted to me on Monday, the great majority of 1,000 security personnel were there not to protect Jews from terrorists, but to keep the Jews in order.
Some of the soldiers, mainly the teams from the "Duvdevan" unit, discreetly placed in the alleyways around Balata, were stationed in case a terror group tried to shoot or set off a bomb aimed at those coming to prayer, but the rest came mainly to protect the local Palestinians from summary reprisals by the Jews and to protect the Jews from themselves.
They manned dozens of roadblocks that were set up to block people from coming through independently, instead of in one of the convoy of bullet-proof of buses, and made sure that after half an hour of prayer at the tomb, they left peacefully.
From Operation Defensive Shield in early 2002, when the IDF began to gradually re-establish its control over the entire West Bank, the army has been devoting considerable resources to accompanying groups into Nablus for periodic visits to Joseph's Tomb, but for some this has never been enough.
It started in April, 2002 during the operation itself, while the IDF was still fighting in Nablus. Students from the Breslav Yeshiva "Shuvu Banim" in Jerusalem made common cause with the settlers from the area to smuggle themselves inside and reach the tomb. Dozens of young men and women were running around a war zone, trying to evade the army patrols sent to round them up.
Senior officers have tried time and again to warn the leader of Shuvu Banim, renowned mystic Rabbi Eliezer Berland, of the inherent dangers, but to no avail. For the last nine years, they have been playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the security forces, quite often while carrying out acts of random vandalism and violence toward Palestinian civilians.
Arrests, fines, warnings, none of them have had any effect. Neither have at least half a dozen cases in which Palestinian police shot at them as they drove through Nablus at breakneck speed.
Palestinian policemen shot at another convoy of Breslavers near the tomb two months ago, killing Ben-Joseph Livnat and wounding four others, but they still keep coming. Two weeks later, when the IDF coordinated for them a secure visit to the tomb, dozens still tried to run away from the convoy and stay in Nablus after the allocated time of prayer was over.
Security coordination with the Palestinian Authority is close. Allowing Jews into the tomb for regular prayers should be a simple procedure, say IDF officers in the West Bank. If only the Breslavers and groups of "hilltop youths" from the neighboring settlements would play ball. But time and again, they have proved they will not. That is why 1,000 soldiers and police officers had to stay awake around Nablus on Sunday night.
I asked a senior IDF general this week why the army has to spend millions on a brigade-scale operation just to protect a small fanatic and violent group, who have repeatedly failed to cooperate and regularly risk their own and others' lives. His instinctive answer was the standard soldier's refrain: "Those are the orders we have from the political echelon - ask them." But then he added, "not everyone who wants to pray at the tomb are like that. Why should we turn away a woman from Kiryat Ata who wants to come all the way to Nablus to pray to Joseph just because of a small group of idiots? Isn't that what freedom of worship is about?"
He had a point. Not everyone who made the trip on Sunday night were Breslavers or radical settlers. Many of them were "normal" Israelis, swept up in the growing cult of grave-worship, traipsing from shrine to shrine, beseeching the long-dead sages to intercede up above. The hard core were concentrated in the last two buses to arrive, and hundreds of riot-police surrounded the tomb, making sure they left before the sun rose. Another general, a veteran of West Bank dealings was more succinct. "One telephone call to the Palestinian security apparatus is enough to organize regular prayers at the tomb. Instead we have this ridiculous, dangerous and wasteful show, as a result of our weakness in the face of a wave of religious extremism."
Of course, no serious archaeologist or historian believes the sheikh's grave in Nablus is really the final resting place of one of the most fascinating characters of the bible. But when did serious academic research ever count for anything in these matters?
For various mystical reasons, Joseph, son of Jacob, has come to symbolize for certain factions of Orthodoxy, the epitome of Jewish fanaticism (they see that as a good thing ). Though if the bible is anything to go by, he should certainly be seen as the most cosmopolitan of the twelve brothers; living most of his life in Egypt and becoming Pharaoh's right-hand man, marrying a local woman, saving the ancient world from famine. Joseph could have been a unifying figure, a symbol of forgiveness to brothers, a bridge between Jews and the outside world, encompassing tradition and modernity. Instead, we have once again surrendered to the most racist, parochial and violent minority of the Jewish people.
Israel uses Ottoman law to legalize settler outpost
After Israeli authorities confiscation orders to Qaryut villagers for 189 dunams of land on July 1, an Israeli media report said Friday that the authorities were using Ottoman-era law to take land for a settlement outpost.
One week ago, Israeli forces delivered a notification to the Nablus district village council signed by the Israeli Civil Administration declaring the village lands Israeli "state" property.
A report in Israeli daily Haaretz said Friday that authorities used an 1858 land law, still applicable in the West Bank, which allows uncultivated land to be declared in state ownership.
Qaryut, southeast of Nablus, is surrounded by illegal settlements Eli and Shilo, with the outpost Givat Hayovel jutting into village territory. The expropriation of land will retroactively legalize the outpost Ghassan Doughlas, the Palestinian Authority official for monitoring settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an.
Villagers have 45 days to appeal to the military appeals committee, Haaretz reported, noting that Qaryut was the first land expropriation for settlement expansion in three years, in violation of commitments to the US.
Eli's mayor, Kobi Eliraz, told the daily he is glad the state is making progress toward formalizing the status of the Hayovel neighborhood.
Peace Now chairman Yariv Oppenheimer said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were going to great lengths to legalize isolated outposts deep in the territories, even if this involves land expropriations, Haaretz reported.
Givat Hayovel was established in 1998 with the help of nearly $75,000 from the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing. It has 17 permanent homes and 30 caravans.
The Israeli government has been seeking to differentiate between outposts built on private Palestinian land and others built on public land, as continuous pledges -- as committed under the 2003 international "roadmap" peace plan -- to dismantle outposts have not been honored.
A 2005 official Israeli report on settlement outposts said Hayovel was built on private Palestinian land, seemingly disregarded in last week's declaration of Qaryut lands as state property.
Palestinians say all Israeli settlement in the West Bank is in violation of international law and expanding settlement construction has been a major obstacle to the resumption of peace talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=403354
7 juli 2011
PA report: Israeli settler attacks on the rise
Israeli settler violence towards Palestinians increased "dramatically" in June, according to a Palestinian Authority report released Wednesday.
The report documented 139 attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank by the Israeli army and settlers as reported to the government during the month, including demolition of 95 buildings and over 3600 olive trees and vines.
The release highlighted a fire in the village of Madama on Tuesday, and in Aqraba village on Monday, both in the northern Nablus district, which it attributed to Israeli settlers.
"In the first week of June, settlers burnt 350 trees Deir al-Hatab village near Nablus, 20 grape vines in Hebron and uprooted 40 grape vines in Beit Ummar village," the report stated.
A spokesperson from the Palestinian government media center said the incidents “are part of a campaign to terrorize Palestinian farmers and their families.”
“ When settlers destroy trees by burning or bulldozing, they are destroying a family’s means of earning its living.”
The spokesperson highlighted poor accountability for violence by settlers, saying “such attacks are so frequent that the Israeli authorities must be able to take action if they choose to.
“But there is little evidence of settlers being brought to justice. They seem to be above Israeli law.”
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP he was unaware of any statistics indicating a rise in violence in the West Bank.
"Any reports of violence, whether by settlers or by Palestinians, is investigated and dealt with after an official complaint is received," he said.
Annual figures compiled by Israeli rights group Yesh Din about complaints of settler offenses have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations fail to lead to a prosecution.
AFP contributed to this report
More than a half million settlers in West Bank, East Jerusalem
The Israeli Population Registry said Thursday that there are more than 334,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
According to Israeli media outlets, data suggests that the greatest hike in settler population was recorded in Kiryat Sever.
But the figure does not include settlements surrounding occupied Jerusalem. The latest data shows that nearly 180,000 Jews have settled there, placing the number of Jewish settlers in the territories occupied after 1967 at over a half million.
In previous reports published in October 2010, a significant increase in the settler population of the West Bank was highlighted in light of the settlement moratorium that year.
6 juli 2011
West Bank rabbi calls for annexing West Bank to Israel
Fanatic West Bank settler rabbi Dov Lior has called for annexing the West Bank to Israel in order to thwart Palestinian efforts to declare an independent state.
Lior was recently arrested on charges of inciting to kill non-Jewish children.
He said that when Israel annexes the West Bank there would be peace and security in the region.
Meanwhile, Hebron (Al-Khalil) Hills Regional Council head Tzvika Bar-Hai has made calls to attract thousands of Jews to live in the Negev considering its security importance.
Bar-Hai called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to give in to pressure and to allow the Israeli occupation of the land to continue.
He declared that a Palestinian state would not be established west of the Jordan River and said he was convinced that Netanyahu would end the “nightmare of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Jewish nation,” alluding to the West Bank.
Also, international law expert Hana Issa has warned in a fresh press statement that Israel’s Jerusalem municipality’s approval of plans to build 900 settlement units in the Gilo settlement was aimed at splitting the settlement from Bethlehem and eastern West Bank.
That would unilaterally impose Israel’s political occupation of the area, he warned.
Western Wall rabbi targeted
Rabinovitch. 'Radical groups of settlers and haredim trying to hurt him'
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch gets personal bodyguard after being harassed nonstop, receiving threats.
Who is trying to hurt Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch? The Western Wall rabbi received a personal bodyguard several weeks ago after getting telephone threats and being harassed on a regular basis for the past few months.
In the past month, unknown assailants threw stones at the rabbi's car. Luckily, he wasn't hurt. In a separate incident, the car's tires were slashed.
"There are radical groups of settlers and haredim which are trying to hurt the rabbi," says a source involved in the affair. "They opposed his activity at Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's tomb on Mount Meron, when he tried to find a solution for the control struggles around the complex, and the renovation of Joseph's Tomb by Arabs, which the rabbi was responsible for.
"Settlers have been making statements against the rabbi, like 'If you harm the Land of Israel – you'll be harmed."
In the past, the rabbi was attacked by an angry mob, members of the extreme Eda Haredit faction, while leaving the home of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.
The Prime Minister's Office, which the Western Wall rabbi is subject to, is funding Rabinovitch's security expenses following the police's evaluation of the situation.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4091519,00.html
5 juli 2011
Palestinian woman, child run over by Israeli settlers in separate incidents
An Israeli settler driving near Nablus ran over a 40-year old Palestinian woman Sunday, then tried to flee the scene. Separately, an Israeli-plated vehicle ran over a 14-year old boy in Qalqilia and then drove away.
In the first incident, which took place on the main road to Huwwara, southeast of Nablus, an Israeli settler driving at high speed struck a forty-year old woman and then tried to drive away, bdut was stopped by locals who prevented him from leaving before Israeli police arrived.
The unidentified woman was taken to Rafidia hospital with moderate injuries throughout her body, and several fractures.
The incident took place as a group of Israeli settlers were invading nearby Asira and Madama villages, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, and attacking local Palestinians and burning farmland. One young man, Mohammed Ziad, was taken to the hospital with head wounds inflicted by the invading settlers.
Separately, also on Sunday, an unmarked Israeli-plated vehicle ran over a Palestinian boy, Khaled Daoud Abed Al-Karim, 14, after abducting a 40-year old man, Ali Abu Khadejah, from the city of Qalqilia. The vehicle did not stop, and drove quickly away from the area. It is unknown whether the kidnappers were undercover Israeli military forces or Israeli settlers, and the Israeli government has made no comment on the incident.
The 14-year old wound sustained serious head wounds, and was taken to the main hospital in Nablus, where his condition is described as 'critical'.
Ramming incidents such as these, in which unknown Israeli assailants attack Palestinian civilians using their vehicles as weapons, are common in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but are rarely investigated by the Israeli Occupation Forces who have imposed martial law on the region since 1967.
Jewish settlers set Palestinian farmland on fire
Jewish settlers on Tuesday set Palestinian farmland on fire in the village of Madma to the south of Nablus, local sources reported.
They said that settlers of the Yitshar settlement established on part of the Madma village land torched fields to the southwest of the village near to the bypass road inhabited by those settlers.
Settlers attacks have escalated over the past few months against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank and their cultivated fields.
Growing Intensification of Clashes Between Settlers and Palestinians
The Israeli Army has expressed concerns regarding an escalation in clashes between Illegal Israeli settlers and Palestinians; with confrontations expected to increase further as the bid at the UN for Palestinian Statehood in September looms, reports Haaretz.
Israeli daily Haaretz also reported that Israeli army officials and civil servants are steadily becoming more and more harassed by right-wing extremists from Israeli settlements.
The West Bank village of Burin was a focus of such clashes last week when settlers burned a field destroying 400 trees. This act was made in retaliation after a car from the Yitzhar settlement was claimed to have been stolen by residents of the village.
On Sunday Yitzhar settlers were again involved in confrontations as fighting and stone throwing broke out against villagers from Asira a-Kabaliya following a field fire. Haaretz reported that one Palestinian was injured and taken to hospital.
On Saturday there were clashes in the recently built settlement of Gaon Hayarden near Ramallah, which resulted in a settler breaking his leg after stones were thrown.
Other such clashes included the burning of the Mosque in al-Mueir village on June 7th; such arson attacks against mosques are becoming more common place, with four having taken place since the beginning of 2010.
This month, the Israeli state intends to evacuate the illegal Migron outpost after a high court ruling. Such a move is likely to increase actions of right-wing extremists.
Israeli settlers have been stepping up protests in recent weeks; many took part in the rally on Monday in support of two Rabbis who were arrested for endorsing a book that encourages the killing of non-Jews.
Hard-core settlers who reside in outposts throughout the West Bank believe that the Palestinian territories should be part of a larger Jewish Israeli state. For many they see themselves as the frontline in creating such a state.
City council 'fast tracks' Jerusalem settler homes
Plans to build around 900 new homes in Gilo, a settlement neighborhood of annexed east Jerusalem are being fast tracked by the city council, settler watchdog Peace Now charged Tuesday.
Plans to build the homes in Gilo in the southern sector of east Jerusalem were first announced in April but on Monday passed another stage in the bureaucratic process before becoming a reality, a city councillor from the right-wing Likud party said Tuesday.
"The municipal commission on Monday approved a plan to build 900 homes in Gilo," said Elisha Peleg. "The municipality will continue to build in all areas of the city, both for Jews and Arabs according to the overall plan in Gilo and elsewhere."
Peace Now's Hagit Ofran said the plan, which was first made public in April, had been put out for period of public review, and Monday's session had been devoted to examining the objections raised against it.
Following the session, the committee had decided to approve the project in a move normally done by the district committee.
"Politically it means the municipality is eager to push this plan forward. It makes it more likely to happen," Ofran said.
"It means the planning is moving faster than usual, that the municipality wants it to move fast," she said.
"These 800-900 units in Gilo is not a geographical revolution -- it is just a dramatic expansion of an existing settlement, which will bring more Israelis to live there and make compromise harder," she said.
"The biggest significance is the political message it sends -- that Israel is putting all its efforts into building east Jerusalem and not into west Jerusalem to spite the world and the Palestinians."
When the plans were first made public in April, Israel's Jerusalem municipality said it was in addition to an earlier tranche of more than 900 new homes in the same neighborhood which were approved in November 2009.
Gilo lies in mostly Palestinian east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later occupied and annexed in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel considers both halves of the Holy City its "eternal, indivisible" capital, and does not view construction in the east to be settlement activity.
The Palestinians, however, want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and fiercely contest any actions to extend Israel's control over the sector.
Some 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem alongside nearly 270,000 Palestinians.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402728
Right-Wing Riots Rock Jerusalem
Herzl Boulevard, Jerusalem, was blocked on Monday after right-wing Israelis protested over the recent arrests of Rabbis by Israeli police.
Rioters also successfully closed of a series of roads near Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, as well as attempting to block others. The disruption led briefly to motorists entering Jerusalem for Highway 1 having to be diverted so as to continue their journey.
Police managed to use water cannons and mounted police to disperse the rioters. In total five Right-wing activists were arrested including one minor.
Ynet reported that there had been a rally at the Supreme Court earlier supporting Rabbis Yaakov Yosef and Dov Lior where thousands turned out. The Rabbis had been arrested last week for endorsing the book ‘Kings Torah’; a book that promotes the idea of killing non-Jews.
Rabbi Lior speaking at the rally claimed "the role of rabbis is to guide and instruct the public."
Continuing he said: "By us the prosperity of the Torah and uniqueness of the Torah have not been bridled. The role of Israel's rabbis is to explain the Torah,"
The Rabbis see it as their right to endorse the Torah if they wish.
Union: Settlers burn olive trees near Nablus
The union of agricultural work committees in the village of Aqraba in Nablus said Monday that residents of the illegal Itamar settlement burned 300 olive trees.
A similar incident was alleged to have occurred several months earlier, it said.
The agricultural committees called on Palestinian Authority officials to intervene to stop violations against farmers, "who are exposed every day to operations of sabotage, destruction and displacement."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=402295
4 juli 2011
Jewish settler runs down Palestinian woman in Nablus
A Jewish settler ran down a Palestinian woman with his vehicle near Hawara southeast of Nablus city in northern West Bank, locals have reported.
The woman sustained injuries and fractures and was left in a difficult health condition, the sources said.
The woman, in her forties, was hit on the main road in Hawara. The driver tried to flee, but villagers there managed to apprehend him.
She was transported to Rafidia surgical hospital where she is being treated for injuries affecting all parts of her body.
Three local youths also in Asira village south of the city suffered the effects of breathing tear gas fired at them by Israeli occupation soldiers after local youths emerged to confront settler crimes.
Settlers injured Mohammed Ziad from Madama village south of Nablus causing wounds to his head Sunday evening after burning local farmlands in the village and in nearby villages.
Jewish settlers set on fire hundreds of Palestinian olive trees
NJewish settlers torched hundreds of Palestinian olive trees south of Nablus on Sunday night, local sources said.
They said that tens of settlers from Itamar settlement attacked the olive fields of Aqraba village and set them on fire, destroying 450 trees including 150 that are hundreds of years old.
Jewish settlers’ attacks have recently escalated against citizens’ cultivated land lots especially south of Nablus.
1,000 Israelis enter Nablus overnight
Over 1,000 Israelis entered the West Bank city of Nablus overnight Sunday to visit Joseph's Tomb, witnesses and the army said.
Locals said Israeli forces imposed heavy restrictions on the site, where some believe the biblical figure Joseph was buried. Dozens of Israeli soldiers were deployed to the area and Huwwara checkpoint was closed, they said.
An Israeli military spokesman said forces coordinated the visit of 1,000 Israelis on around 20 buses. Witnesses said over 1,000 Israelis prayed at the site until Monday morning.
The Israeli news site Ynet reported that settlers asked the Israeli army to allow 40 buses to visit the tomb, in occupied Palestinian territory.
The report said the army refused due to fears that the settlers would barricade themselves in the tomb, as they have done on previous visits.
An army spokesman said the military had received a request for more than 20 buses, but that only 1,000 visitors were authorized.
He said 20 Israelis were detained for trying to enter the tomb without coordination.
Ynet reported that settlers claimed to have attacked an army vehicle at the Tappuah junction near Nablus. Settlers told the news site that the officer left the area after Israeli youths surrounded and kicked his car.
Over the last decade, visits to Joseph’s Tomb have been coordinated by the army and Palestinian Authority security forces.
Under the Oslo accords, Nablus is in Area A and is part of the 17 percent of the West Bank under Palestinian Authority civil and security control, but the area around the tomb remains in Area C, under Israeli jurisdiction.
Hundreds of settlers attack citizens’ homes in Nablus village
Hundreds of Jewish settlers attacked the homes of Palestinian citizens in Assira Al-Qabaliya village, south of Nablus, on Sunday night, local sources said.
They added that more than 500 settlers attacked the villages under protection of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and threw stones at the houses breaking the windows of many of them.
Witnesses said that the inhabitants retaliated throwing stones at the attackers, adding that the IOF soldiers intervened and fired rubber bullets and gas canisters at the Palestinian citizens causing breathing problems among many of them, some of whom fainted. They said that a woman was among those who received field treatment for gas suffocation.
IOF troops storm Nabi Yusuf tomb to protect Jewish “visitors”
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the Nabi Yusuf tomb in Balata village to the east of Nablus city before midnight Sunday to protect 1000 Jewish settlers who arrived to offer rituals.
Citizens said that IOF soldiers mounting 10 armored vehicles escorted 20 buses which carried 1000 settlers to the tomb, adding that they left by dawn Monday.
They said that the IOF soldiers closed off the eastern area of Nablus especially near the tomb and deployed dozens of soldiers in its vicinity.
IOF soldiers closed the Hawara roadblock and another one to the west of Nablus while measures were tightened on the others.
2 juli 2011
Jerusalemites wounded in clashes with settlers, policemen
A number of citizens in Sheikh Jarah in occupied Jerusalem were treated for injuries and breathing problems after clashes with Israeli occupation police and Jewish settlers on Friday evening, locals reported.
They said that among those injured were two children, adding that the Israeli policemen sprayed gas directly into the faces of citizens.
One of the injured women said that the clashes started after the end of the weekly march by the inhabitants protesting Jewish settlement activity in their neighborhood.
She said that one of her relatives was taken to hospital after a settler hit her in the head.
Jewish settlers burn Palestinian olive trees
Jewish settlers set tens of Palestinian olives trees on fire in Kufr Qaddoum village, near Qalqilia, on Friday as Israeli occupation forces (IOF) wounded six citizens in the same village while quelling a protest march.
The blaze destroyed tens of olive trees before the Palestinian fire brigades managed to extinguish it, local sources reported.
They noted, meanwhile, that IOF soldiers used force to disperse a peaceful march organized by the village’s municipal council to demand opening the northern entrance to the village that connect it to 1948 occupied land.
The sources said that the IOF used teargas to break up the march in which hundreds of citizens participated, adding that six of the participants were treated for breathing difficulty.
3 Palestinians detained after confronting settlers
Israeli police reportedly detained three Palestinian men on Saturday in the Ar-Ras neighborhood of Hebron in the southern West Bank after they tried to confront a group of settlers who had assaulted them.
The detainees were said to be 19-year-old Abed Husni Matariyya, 32-year-old Rami Abdul-Hayy Matariyya, and 34-year-old Muhammad Abdul-Hayy Matariyya, eyewitness Jamal Matariyya told Ma'an.
No Israeli spokesperson was available for comment.
Settler violence in Hebron is commonplace. Around 700 Israeli settlers live protected by the army amongst 30,000 Palestinians in the old city area.
Palestinians frequently complain that the Israeli army does nothing to prevent settler attacks, even when directly witnessing an incident.
Separately, Israeli forces prevented more than 60 farmers and international solidarity activists from working on a land reclamation project in the village of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.
Spokesman for the popular committee against the separation wall in the village Muhammad Ayyad Awad said farmers and solidarity activists wanted to help Hussein Muheisin Awad reclaim part of his land but a settler fired gunshots into the air to scare them.
Israeli forces then arrived and expelled the volunteers, Awad said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=401548
1 juli 2011
Qalqilia: Six Civilians Injured While Settlers Set Fire to Olive Groves
Six Palestinian civilians were injured when Israeli soldiers attacked a peaceful protest that demanded the opening of the north entrance of Qaqila in the northern West Bank. At a seperate incident, settlers set fire to an olive grove near the city.
The protest was organized in the village of Qufer Qadum. Villagers were joined by local activists in the city of Qalqilia and marched up to the checkpoint that seperates Qalqilia from the 1948 border line.
Israeli soldiers shot tear gas at protestors, injuring six participants. Local medics reported that all six sustained light injuries and were treated on location.
As people were protesting, a group of Israeli settlers set fire to a nearby olive grove owned by local farmers. According to witnesses the fire destroyed at least two dozen olive trees before Palestinian firefighters managed to turn it off.
Israeli Settlers and Soldiers Attack Farmers Reclaiming Land Near Hebron
On Friday midday a group of Israeli settlers, along with soldiers, attacked Palestinian farmers of Yatta in southern West Ban, all of whom were trying to reclaim their land that settlers took over earlier this year.
As part of the local committee against the wall and settlements, internationals and Israelis joined farmers from Yatta and went to work their land near the Israeli settlement Kriat Arba.
The settlers took over the land earlier in the year and planted grape vines to supply the winery in the settlement with grapes. Recently the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that this land belongs to local farmers; as a result, on Friday people went and removed the grape vines settlers had planted and started to rehabilitate the land.
Soon the settlers arrived and attacked people; later they were joined by Israeli military police and armed units.
Villagers, in a press release sent to PNN, said that they would continue to go to their land and protect it from being taken over by the settlers. They called upon human rights groups to intervene and help protect the land.
