by ISM Hebron
30 May 2007

Tel Rumeida, HEBRON–At approximately 17:40 on Wed. May 30, a female Human Rights Worker (HRW) was sat at the top of Tel Rumeida street opposite the Israeli solider post. Four Israeli settler children approached, between the age of 8 – 10 years of age. The settlers proceeded to take out a camera and begin taking photos of the HRW. When the female HRW began filming the incident, the settlers approached her. They spoke to her aggressively in Hebrew but she did not respond. The settlers surrounded the female HRW, continuing to take photos. One of the settlers tried to grab the camera and tried to hit her.

At the time there were two Israeli soldiers present at the guard post, one of whom approached and asked the children to leave. The settlers, however, refused and persisted to surround the female HRW. After approximately five minutes, the children left, but returned a few minutes later and approached the female HRW once again. The settlers again refused to cooperate with the soldier who asked them to move and went to surround the HRW once more. They were verbally aggressive towards the female HRW and verbally aggressive towards the soldier. When one of the children attempted to break the HRW’s camera once again, the soldier picked the boy up and moved him away from the HRW. Despite this, the children refused to obey the soldier’s command and proceeded to continue to harass the HRW.

The soldier claimed that the settler children had been provoked by the HRW filming, however, the HRW demonstrated that for the past hour she had not been filming the settlers when they started their harassment. Two additional HRWs arrived on the scene a few minutes later, at which point the settlers proceeded to take pictures of the two new HRWs and spoke aggressively in Hebrew to them. The children tried to grab the camera. When the soldier attempted to get them to leave, one of the settler children approached a Palestinian house where a few Palestinian children had retreated out of fear. When the female HRW blocked the settler from passing, alongside a soldier, a second settler child attempted to kick the HRW. After some minutes, the soldier managed to convince the children to leave.

At approximately 18:15, a Palestinian woman, carrying a young child and accompanied by two further young children, was walking past the Tel Rumeida Settlement. Three HRWs were present at the guard post by the road junction on Tel Rumeida street. They witnessed a group of five settler children harass the woman and her children and proceed to throw stones at them. A female HRW had to intervene in the incident which was beyond the “permitted” point for Palestinians and internationals to pass. However, a soldier tried to prevent her from passing despite the Palestinians being attacked. Due to the presence of the female HRW the settler children stopped throwing stones and the Palestinian woman and her children were able to escape further harassment.

For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657

by the ISM Media Crew

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
19 May 2007

Two internationals hospitalized after Israeli settlers attack

Tel Rumeida, Hebron– Today, May 19, at 2:30pm, a group of 6 Israeli settlers, aged 15-17, attacked a group of Palestinian children and two human rights workers (HRWs), one from Germany and one from Greece.

The settlers were walking from the illegal Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida towards Shuhadda St. When they crossed a group of Palestinian children, the settlers started to harass the children and push them around. The HRWs followed the settlers further down onto Shuhadda St., near the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah.

The settlers then started to throw rocks at the HRWs. When George, from Greece, opened up his camera to start filming, the settlers attacked him from behind.

George said, “They hit me several times in my head and then I fell to the ground. Then, the settlers started to kick me while I was on the ground. They broke my camera and tried to steal it. The Israeli soldier who was standing right in front of me yelled at the settlers but did not stop the attack from happening.”

Trudy, from Germany, said, “I went to go and help George when the settlers kicked him to the ground, then 2 settlers started to attack me. The settlers kicked me in the stomach. They were big boys, 15-17 years old. I started to scream. The settlers didn’t leave when the soldier yelled. They left when they saw the police arriving.

The Israeli police took Geroge and Trudy to the police station to file a report. George, however, was very dizzy and in pain and asked that the police escort the two of them to the hospital. The police, however, refused to do so and let them outside of the police station where the two HRWs took a taxi to the hospital.

At 15:00, George and Trudy arrived at Al Ahli hospital, where they are currently receiving treatment.

For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657

Testing the non-violent attitude in Hebron
by Issa, 22 May 2007

Dear All,

I am writing this to discharge my feelings by writing to my friends who can understand me.

Today at 9:00 pm, I was walking beside the new settlement in Hebron (Palestinian building which was occupied by the settlers recently). Two settlers with guns came to me stood in my way and started photographing me. I didn’t care. This is normal with me, so I kept walking.

One from the settlers told me, “I will kill you! I will kill and all the Arabs!” The other one asked, “Where is George and Troudy!” (George and Troudy were attacked yesterday by these same settlers, causing them to receive medical attention and one to stay overnight in the hospital).

I didn’t care and I kept walking. When I arrived to the soldier’s post I called to them and I told them: “Please help me, they (the settlers) are telling me that they want to kill me!”

The settlers then lied to the the soldiers, saying that I cut their water pipes. I told the soldiers, “NO, NO, NO, NO! They told me they want to kill me, and lets go and see the water pipes.”

One soldier said: “Shaket, (Shut up in Hebrew), give me your ID!” There were five soldiers, two border police, and three regular soldiers. They said to me, “What do you have in you bag?” They forced me to take out everything from the bag and put it in the ground. I told them I work for Btselem, the Israeli center for human rights. One of the regular soldiers said, “I hate them even more than you!” When I asked why he told me again to shut up.

After they saw every thing in my bag ,they were trying to provoke my feelings and they said many bad words. They finished checking my bag so they told me now we want to search your body. So, they forced me to face the wall and to open my legs and searched me in very violent way. After that I told the soldiers “you know that I am not a terrorist, why are you doing this to me,?”

“Shut up, don’t speak,” he said. Then, they gave me my ID and told me “have a nice day.”

I think they intended to examine my nonviolent attitude. I think I got a “10 out of 10.” But I don’t know next time how much I will get.

They are doing all of this harassment daily in Hebron. For me, each day, they check me and detain me for at least 20 minutes. Some people they converted their attitude from non-violence to violence. I can understand why.

According to the Israeli law the soldiers can do this if they suspect I am a terrorist but the are sure that I am not and they know that I am usually leading Israeli tours and International delegations in the area , all the Israeli parliament members who visited Hebron I led them in the same area.

Injustice + occupation = apartheid
Soldiers = settlers = police = Racism

Edited by Jesus Martinez

The J’abri family- struggling to survive
from Sons of Abraham, 27 April 2007

HEBRON– On Friday April 27 2007 around 16:30 a settler in a white jeep was driving on the security road near “Giv’at Ha’avot” not far from Kiryat Arba (Where the police station of the Hebron district is located). The settler was driving on the security road upon which there was a high court decision 10602/02 stating that in routine days the road should be barred to settlers. The mentioned land plot is well known for many years to be owned by the J’abri family. Into this land plot settlers from Hebron invaded several years ago and constructed a staircase passageway ascending to “Giv’at Ha’avot” and also an illegal settlement (one of the unauthorized settlements in the Sasson report) called “Chazon David”.

Although the acknowledgment by the State, the Civil Administration and also the Legal Consultant Office of the Judea and Samaria, in the illegal status of those invasions, and the existing promise to demolish those structures, no action had been taken so far. In addition, in a letter from the Legal Consultant Office of the Judea and Samaria from the 2/07/03, it was determined that the J’abri family, the owners of that property, are entitled to full freedom of movement on their land and in addition the settlers shall be forbidden to use the emergency road during routine times.

At the afore mentioned day a settler came along and halted on the emergency road near the home of the detained Abdul Karim J’abri. The settler, armed with an M-16 rifle, stepped out of his car and began to walk towards Udai J’abri (son of Abdul Karim J’abri) who was collecting grass at that time. The settler assaulted Udai and pushed him to the ground. Udai’s brother Alla, approached the settler and shoved him away in order to distance him from his assaulted brother. The father who was watching all this from a distance of several tens of meters began to walk towards his son and also Sleiman J’abri arrived in order to support Udai and Alla. Sleiman took Udai and Alla J’abri into his home in order to distance them from the settler. At this stage the settler began to shoot at Abdul Karim J’abri. Next the settler shot at Sleiman, all this while several children were standing near the entrance to the house. It should be noted that while this entire shooting event took place none of the Palestinians was armed neither with hot nor cold arms, and neither even as much as raise a stone against the settler. Both father and son did not even approach the settler.

The army forces that heard the shooting arrived at the scene within several minutes followed by the police force. The soldiers tried to force their way into the J’abri’s family house in order to pull out all the inhabitants. During the entry Sleiman pleaded them not to enter lest they frighten the little children. One of the soldiers hit Sleiman and ultimately the soldiers entered the house and pulled Alla out. The same soldier that bit Sleiman was seen later to pass a loaded cartridge to the settler instead of the one he emptied before. The policemen told the father Abdul Karim he had to come along with them, and later on he was told that he was detained at the police station along with his son Alla, in order to file a complaint against the settler. But when already at the police station they were announced that in fact they are both actually arrested. Abdul Karim was next taken for investigation: during it he recognized in there one of the soldiers that arrived towards the end of the event in order to detain Alla. He certainly saw none of the events sequence. It became clear by then that the police had no intention whatsoever to seriously investigate the shooting by the settler, and, in fact, he was not at all detained, and also direct evidence such as the cartridges from the shooting were not collected by the policemen. Later on, Sleiman found and collected two of the cartridges from the shooting of the settler. The detention of the father in fact prevented from him from filing a complaint against the settler. The father and his son had been in arrest since Friday.

It is important to note that this event did not come by surprise: For years the family had suffered from violence and bullying by the Hebron and “Giv’at Ha’avot” settlers. Invasions to their property and causing serious damages are quite familiar to them. The family had previously filed several complaints at the police station however so far those did not result in anything. The family also tells that the settlers had trespassed into their property time upon time and drove on the emergency road with their vehicles, although the High Court ruling and a memorandum from the Legal Consultant Office of the Judea and Samaria. The family had been routinely threatened and assaulted.

Details of the detainees:
Abdul Karim IbrahimAbduk Hak J’abri
I.D. 904613148

Abdul Karim, the family’s father, has 7 sons and 6 daughter His eldest is 24 and the smallest is an year and the half. The family is ill fated: Four of his sons, including the eldest, carry a severe genetic disease and are dwarfs. Therefore, even his eldest son, Annan, cannot share in the support of the family. The father is unemployed and is dependent for several years on the relief provided by humanitarian organizations. The only asset owned by the family is a modest herd and the plot adjacent to their home.

Health Status: A decade ago the father underwent an operation in the spinal column and is limited in exerting physical effort.

Alla Abdul Karim brahim J’abri
I,D. 851900985

Alia is 19 and one of Abdul-Karim’s sons. The family maintains that Alla is somewhat retarded and cannot read nor write and not even count properly. Therefore Alla cannot help with the family and shepherds together with Alla in the pasture. No other clinical problems aside the mental retardation are known.

The family intends to file a complaint at the police by the 30/4/07 on those recent events and to present to the police the cartridges they had found. So far they refrained from file a complaint after seeing what had happened with Abdul Karrim

Settlers attack Palestinians with stones, assault four human rights workers
by ISM Hebron, 5 May 2007

Tel Rumeida, HEBRON– At approximately 3PM this afternoon two Human Rights Workers HRWs were walking through the olive grove in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron.

The HRWs noticed Israeli settlers trespassing inside the house of Issa Amro, the Palestinian property owner. Israeli forces have deemed Amro’s house a “closed military zone,” which means it is “illegal” for Amro to access his own house. This also means that Israeli settlers are forbidden to enter the area.

The First Attack

The HRWs sat approx. 20 meters away from the property, under an olive tree, to document the illegal trespassing. Three settler boys, aged around 10, approached the HRWs. The settlers began to yell at them, saying ‘turn off your camera’ (which was off), ‘go home’, ‘get out of here!” Settler then began shouting ‘Nazi’ and threatened physical violence. The Israeli soldier that was posted inside Amro’s house came down into the grove and intervened. The settler told the HRWs “they are just children, I’m sorry”, and “you can video here if you want, you can do whatever you want”. The settlers returned to the far side Amro’s house (away from the HRWs) and the HRWs moved back a further 20m to avoid provoking further attacks, but maintained a presence in the grove.

Five minutes later, the same three settler boys, accompanied by a further 2 two pre-teen boys and two adults (aged early twenties) advanced towards the HRWs. The boy in the front was carrying a length of thick plastic pipe, approx 1.5metres. These settlers continued the same verbal threats whilst surrounding the HRWs – and lifting the pipe into a ‘strike position’. Some of the other settlers picked up sticks and prodded the HRWs as the boy with the pipe hit and pushed at one HRW. The other HRW shouted for the soldier to intervene.

The verbal threats and physical violence was increasing when the soldier arrived and the soldier attempted to deescalate the settler attack. At this point, the women of the Abu Talal family moved onto their stairway overlooking the grove to film the attack. When the settler boys noticed the Palestinians filming, the settlers became instantly hostile. One of the settler boys ran at them, throwing stones, causing them to take shelter. The rest of the settlers yelled taunts and made obscene gestures.

During the entire attack, the adult settlers had stood aside laughing – it was only at this point, when the HRWs requested the presence of police to the soldier, that the adult settlers ushered the younger settlers away.

Some footage of the latter part of the attack was captured, primarily the stone throwing towards the Palestinian woman filming.

The Second Attack

At approximately 5pm, 3 HRWs went to aid 2 other Internationals who were being attacked by settlers on the stairway and path overlooking the Beit Hadassah settlement. The HRWs were alerted to the incident taking place by shouting and yelling and the sudden movement of Israeli soldiers and police running up the stairs.

As the HRWs approached, they saw from the bottom of the stairs a group of 20 young settler boys ranging in age from 8-15, surrounding the 2 HRWs, and soldiers and border police attempting to intervene as the settler boys physically and verbally attacked them.

The 3 HRWs filmed from the bottom in an attempt to capture evidence of the settlers assault on the HRWs.

A large group of adult settlers then rushed at the 3 HRWs, pushing and grabbing at their cameras and shoving them up the street away from the incident. As they shoved the HRWs away, the settlers shouted, “go home,” “this is your fault,” “we’re not the terrorists,” “you’re ugly from the inside and out.” The settler adults were joined by a group of young teen boys (from the earlier attack on HRWs in the olive grove) who used a large sheet of cardboard to block the video cameras recording the assault, and joined in yelling abuse and threats at the three female HRWs.

During the entire attack, the adult settlers had stood aside laughing – it was only at this point, when the HRWs requested the presence of police to the soldier, that the adult settlers ushered the younger settlers away.

More on the Second Attack
(from another point of view)

At approximately 5pm, two human rights workers (HRWs) were prevented by Israeli settler children and armed Israeli men from walking on a path beside Abraham’s Well. As the HRWs returned on the path back toward Shuhadda Street, they noticed Israeli settler children attemtping to block the stairs leading to the Cortuba School, a Palestinian girls’ school, and Palestinian houses. The HRWs decided to stay on the path in order to help protect any Palestinian who might come to use the path to get to their homes.

Due to the presence of other internationals, the settlers could not block the stairs. A settler teacher with seven students sat and blocked the junction of the two paths leading to the school and homes. A Palestinian woman tried to walk the path and past the children. She was, however, prevented by the settler children.

One of the HRWs went to accompany the Palestinian while the other filmed. Once the Palestinian woman passed, the International shut off the camera in order not to provoke the settlers. However, the settler children who were sitting with the teacher and other children coming from the stairs surrounded the two Internationals and began to beat them with their hands and feet. The teacher was not responding to the calls from the HRWs to stop the children. All this happened in front of the eyes of soldiers that were standing on the roof of the occupied house just behind the paths.

Finally, after a few minutes, a soldier ran to help the Internationals, however, even he could not stop the settlers. A policeman came up from the stairs and led the HRWs down the stairs away from the settlers. No further action was taken by the policeman to detain any of the settlers involved in the attack. One of the HRWs showed a policeman the footprint of a settler child’s foot on his stomach.

Previous press release:
by the ISM Media Crew

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Today, Saturday May 5, Palestinians and four international human rights workers (HRWs) were attacked by Israeli settlers in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron.

At approx. 15:00, three Israeli settlers, around the ages of 10-12, approached two female HRWs. According to Astrid, an HRW from New Zealand, the settlers were screaming, “Get out of here!” and “Stop filming!” Astrid claimed that she was not filming when the settlers attacked. The HRWs backed away from the scene “so that the settlers wouldn’t see us as provoking them,” said Astrid.

The settlers returned accompanied by two male settlers in their 20’s and at least 2 additional settler youth joined the three other settlers. Together, the settlers started to hit, push and poke the HRWs with a long pipe. HRWs yelled for help from the Israeli soldier that was stationed nearby. The soldier intervened to stop the settler violence against the HRWs.

The American HRW asked the soldier if he witnessed what had happened. The soldier, according to the HRW, confirmed that he saw the incident, stating, “I know you were not filming. But you are allowed to anyways. You can do whatever you want.”

Palestinian women from the Hadad family’s house were viewing the scene from their yard. When they started to film the incident, the settlers then turned their attention to the Palestinians and began to attack them with rocks. Though, according to the HRWs, the soldier was trying to prevent the stone throwing, settlers managed to throw a few stoned before the Palestinians that were filming retreated inside the house.

The Palestinians then handed the tape over to the HRWs in order to transfer, and should be available soon.

Aprrox. 2 hours later, a group of 8-9 settlers, settlers attacked two more human rights workers– one from Greece and one from Germany.

Describing this recent incident, Astrid, who was attacked earlier, said that she heard screaming coming from up the hill. There were 8-9 settlers, including children and adults. “They were all screaming.”

Ortrud, from Greece, described the incident: “Israeli settlers were blocking the pathway from the Palestinians. When a Palestinian woman wanted to cross, we joined her while walking past the violent settlers. When the woman was to safety, Israeli settlers attacked us. They kicked me on my feet and all over. They kicked George in the stomach too.”

George, from Greece, described the incident: “I was walking a Palestinian woman past the settlers. She was afraid of being attacked. When the Palestinian crossed to safety, settlers attacked me from behind. There is a shoe print on the back of my shirt from the settler that kicked me.”

In Tel Rumeida, Palestinians are not allowed to drive any type of cars, including buses, taxis, ambulances, and fire trucks. Israeli settler civilians are allowed to carry guns, while Palestinians are not allowed to have weapons of any kind. Palestinians are subjected to random detentions and ID checks (Israeli settlers are not). Israeli soldiers frequently invade Palestinian homes or use their roofs as outposts the security forces in the neighborhood are Israeli only and ignore complaints by Palestinians. Last month, Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian resident’s car. Israeli soldiers refused to allow Palestinian fire trucks to enter Tel Rumeida to extinguish the fire.

For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 02-297-1824

Israeli settler attacks Palestinian girl
by ISM Hebron, 28 April 2007

On Tuesday, April 24, just after 11 am, two human rights workers (HRWs), an Israeli and an international, saw a settler boy from the Tel Rumeida Settlement beat a Palestinian girl as she was making her way home from school. The six border police standing close by did nothing to intervene. The HRWs were standing at a military post a block away from the military post that sits at the edge of the settlement area. The attack occurred just beyond the second military post, inside the settlement area. The settler boy was sitting on a curb watching the Palestinian girl as she was walking toward him. He then sprung up, rushed toward her, and began hitting and kicking her. The Israeli HRW, legally able to enter the settlement area, ran toward the settlement, however he was stopped by the border police and threatened with arrest. In this time the settler boy’s mother pulled him away from the Palestinian girl. Another Israeli HRW ran up toward the border police shortly after the first. He was also stopped and threatened with arrest.

Israeli police detain four human rights workers
by ISM Hebron, 28 April 2007

On Wednesday April 25, the soldiers entered a residence housing a number of international HRW’s in Tel Rumeida. They attempted to make a search for both persons and evidence of involvement in a recent incidence of graffiti in the locality. Initially, there were two HRWs on the roof. Another HRW came out soon after following the commotion. Having established they had no papers to qualify their search and refusals by the army to outline the reason for their presence, they were repeatedly asked to leave. It was only after several minutes the HRWs were able to get the military out of the building. Even after the military were leaving a soldier was intent on causing continued harrassment by preventing the HRW from closing the door by putting both his foot and gun in the way. The HRW emphasized that if the military felt there was a problem then they should call the police and have it dealt with correctly.

On Thursday, April 26, three HRWs were detained by the Qiryat Arba Police. At 9:00am, a female HRW had began duty at the Tel Rumeida checkpoint to keep watch over the locality. During the following half hour, she noticed a local settler from the Beit Haddassa settlement drive past and stare at her on a number of occassions. This was initially dismissed as passive aggression by the settler. However, at 9:30am, the police arrived at the checkpoint and requested the attention of the female HRW. Two army personnel were present at the checkpoint and a further two police officers were present as well as the HRW. The police first questioned the HRW about an incident of graffiti that had taken place in the locality and the HRW denied any knowledge or involvement of the incident. Her passport was requested and given immediately and obvious attempts were shown that she was willing to co-operate into their investigation and their concerns.

To the police inquiries, she explained her whereabouts, who she had been with and the exact times that she had been in the street. She was ordered to go to the police station for further questioning. Despite repeated statements that she had not been involved in any way and a desire for the CCTV camera videos to be checked to demonstrate her lack of involvement, the police stated that as the settler had specifically pointed her out as being involved, they must take her in for questioning. (The CCTV cameras are militarily run and record the whole of Tel Rumeida, day and night). Further to this, the HRW in cooperating gave the name of the only person she had been speaking with in the street the previous evening, another male HRW. The police demanded that this other person attend the police station for questioning. Both HRWs felt confident that their innocence would be proven and cooperated fully.

The female HRW went into the police van to be taken to the station. While doing this, she further alerted fellow HRWs of the incident to request support and guidance. Arriving at the police station, she spent some 15 minutes waiting in the back of the police van before being taken into the police station. She was also asked to call her fellow male HRW to cooperate and come to the police station. She fulfilled this request by asking her fellow HRW to attend the police station and it was agreed he would attend on the condition that it was the police only and not the army that he would attend with. The female HRW was left to wait for around 30 minutes, during this time she was introduced to the Commanding officer, Yusef. After this wait she saw her male HRW arrive at the station and he was requested to sit some 15 meters away and that they were not to talk to each other. The male HRW had his passport number taken. However, when the settler saw the male HRW, the settler indicated the HRW was not the one involved in the grafitti. The HRW was released and driven back to Tel Rumeida.

After waiting another 30 minutes, the female HRW was taken into a set of offices and asked to wait for another officer, Adiel Shalom. Only after waiting for some time did Adiel request for the HRW to attend his office where he advised that he wanted to ask her a number of questions relating to the graffiti incident. He seemed determined that she had undertaken this act despite her refusals. It was only when the HRW inquired whether she had been arrested that the officer confirmed that she had been arrested under suspicion of writing “Free Palestine” on a number of walls in the Tel Rumeida settlement. The femal HRW once again described where she had been the previous evening and who she had been with and re-asserted several times that she had not been involved and that she was being falsely accused. The police officer claimed that she was a liar and that he “knew what people like her were like.” The officer was aggressive in his questions and demanded that she told the truth, stating that she was a liar and that she had been involved and told her repeatedly that she had done the graffiti.

To his allegations, the HRW continued to protest her innocence. The officer made threats relating to her being pulled in front of the judge to be deported for this incident. The officer had been making notes from the interrogation which he requested the HRW to sign. Because the document was in Hebrew, she was unable to read it and therefore did not sign it. The officer considered this a sign of guilt and he continued to harrass her with claims she was a liar and raising his voice to her.

The female HRW then spoke with the British embassy who offered her support and further a legal adviser who spoke with the officer and was able to advise that the police were moving towards a release solution. This consisted of military orders prohibiting the female HRW from entering the Tel Rumeida area for a period of 14 days. The HRW declined this offer and despite repeated threats of being deported and being taken to jail the officer finally agreed to release her “without conditions.” The HRW was required to sign a document for her release which held English translations and was left to go free after a total period of 4 hours.

Shortly after the male HRW was taken by the police, a second female HRW was asked for her passport. After a few minutes of questioning she was asked to get into the police jeep to come to the police station for further questioning and to have her visa information checked. After an hour of waiting, an officer returned her passport and warned her if she was caught once again in Tel Rumeida she would be arrested.

On Friday, April 27, 2007, a fourth HRW was at the top of Tel Rumeida street, just a block from the Tel Rumeida settlement. The same settler of the previous day implicated who implicated the HRWs stopped his vehicle and spoke to the army. Soldiers then detained the HRW. Present were two army patrol officers, three HRWs, two journalists and a handful of Palestinian children. The HRW was brought to Qiryat Arba police station and detained for four and a half hours, then released. The police questioned the HRW for a half hour on the grafitti incident and appeared to accept that he was not involved. The remainder of the questioning dealt with visa issues. The settler who implicated the HRW was also present at the police station and interviewed by the police for approximately a half hour.

For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 02-207-1824, 0599-943-157

Leftists say violently attacked by settlers
by Ali Waked, 27 April 2007

Photo: Dalit Shaham

Two Israeli left-wing activists claim to have been beaten by settlers from the Pnei Hever settlement Friday morning.

“One of the settlers saw me filming him and tried to grab my camera” Vivi Zuri, one of the two attacked, told Ynet. “He beat me with a club, and I lay on the ground to prevent him from taking my camera. Still, he kept kicking me.”

Rabbi Arik Asherman and two more left-wing activists arrived this morning, along with a group of international activists, to fields surrounding the village of Bnei Na’im, to help residents with their plowing and protect them from potential assault by settlers.

They were attacked by a group of settlers upon arriving at the village fields.

Zuri told Ynet she was attacked after one of the settlers noticed she was filming them. According to her, the beating did not stop even after she lay down on the ground. She was severely beaten and suffered contusions to the face and shoulders.

Rabbi Asherman, said Zuri, was also badly beaten by the settlers.

“They hit him horribly and threatened to harm his family”, she said. Police arrived after 40 minutes or so, she added, and asked them to arrive at the Hebron police station to give their statements.

Both Palestinians and international activists present at the scene confirmed the incident.