Israeli soldiers began firing tear-gas canisters and stun grenades after awoken Saffa residents had gathered around dawn, lightly injuring a number of Palestinians. Members of the Beit Ommar National Committee and Palestine Solidarity Project arrived in Saffa shortly after and recorded the incident.

The more radical of Israel’s 500,000 settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories adhere to the “price tag” policy, in which settlers seek revenge by attacking Palestinians for every outpost that is demolished. This latest attack came after the Israeli army demolished two illegal structures in Bay Ayin settlement.

The residents of Saffa have been subject to regular harassment and attack from Bat Ayn’s ideological settlers. In recent months settlers have attacked farmers, set fire to olive groves and chopped down crops. The Palestine Solidarity Project planted over 1000 olive trees recently to replace those repeatedly burnt, uprooted and destroyed by the settlers.

There are two permanent Israeli military posts in the immediate area, one tower next to the entrance of the refugee camp and one tower just less than 25 yards from where the shooting took place. Still, the settler fled the scene and the two teens were transported by private car to a hospital in Hebron where at least one is reportedly in critical condition.

International solidarity activists and the media coordinator of the Palestine Solidarity Project arrived to take testimonies from witnesses. When they were photographing the car that had transported the two injured, Israeli soldiers who had gathered near the entrance to the refugee camp began insisting that they leave, first by pushing them to cross the highway towards the entrance of the university. Rather than attempting to apprehend the gun-wielding settler, the civilian police then grabbed one of the international activists, handcuffed him, and put him in a police van. The police asked him what he was doing here, to which he replied that he would not give any information until he knew why he was arrested.

He was then released and the remaining activists were allowed to continue gathering information, though there was no sign that the soldiers or civilian police had any interest in investigating the brutal assault on unarmed civilians.

These assaults come in the midst of rising tension around Israel and right-wing demonstrations, including settlers in the Arroub Refugee Camp area, supporting the Israeli forces in their assault on the Gaza aid flotilla. Two days ago settlers from Gush Etzion held a small demonstration, accompanied by a large police and military presence, just north of Arroub on Route 60 holding flags representing the Israeli military and harassing passing Palestinian vehicles. It is clear that if Israel will not be held accountable for the deaths of at least 9 international activists, the likelihood that an Israeli citizen who has maimed 2 Palestinian youth would be held to account is nil.

Immediately following the burial at around 2:00 p.m., the Israeli military prevented the crowd from walking towards Road 60, after which a confrontation ensued between Palestinian youth and soldiers. Soldiers began grabbing Palestinians from the crowd, including PSP coordinator Mousa Abu Maria, and tried to use them as human shields in front of their jeeps, though they were unsuccessful. The heavily armed occupation forces responded to a few stones with dozens of tear gas canisters and physical force. The clashes lasted until about 4:00 p.m., with several houses being hit by tear gas and at least one field catching fire from the high temperature of the canisters.

Organizers of the march added that it was also intended to express Beit Ommar`s solidarity with the victims of the Free Gaza flotilla, who were killed by Israeli commandos last night in International waters, and to protest Israel`s blockade, which according to human rights organizations is responsible for a humanitarian crisis in the strip.

A Palestinian ambulance took the Palestinians to the hospital in Al Khalil. Both Palestinians have head injuries and are in critical condition. Their names are Fatma Elyaan Sabarneh, age 55, and Shedah Abd Sabarneh, age 59.

The driver had been driving about120 km/h in a 70 km/h zone.

That was, until the night of Tuesday 4th May when fire gutted the mosque’s interior, destroying carpets, furniture, numerous Korans and the building’s fixtures and fittings. The visitor now witnesses a scene of total devastation. The blackened walls, floor and ceiling have a nighmarish quality and it is hard to imagine that this was once a beautiful, light-filled and serene place of worship. Local children have attempted to assert their defiance by scrawling such slogans as “Allah Akbar” onto the blackened tiles on the walls.

An Israeli Occupation spokesperson has suggested that the fire may have been caused by an electrical fault, a suggestion described as “a joke” by villagers. Situated as it is, close by the Jewish colony/settlements of Shilo, Male Livona and Bet El, Al Libban has long been the target of settler aggression and violence. Another mosque, in nearby Huwwara, has been vandalised in recent weeks, suggesting an emerging pattern of targeting mosques for desecration.

The cost of repairing and renovating the gutted building has been put at 500,000 shekels an enormous sum for such an impoverished community. Nevertheless, the villagers are determined to regain their mosque as a functioning place of worship, just as they are determined not to be driven from their homes and their lands by Israel’s policy – and practice – of ethnic cleansing.

No reason can be found that might have provoked the settler into shooting young Sa’ed.

No warning was given that the guard was about to open fire. The wound could have been lethal if the bullet had struck a couple of feet higher but Sa’ed was lucky. Once the painkillers wear off Sa’ed will be in agony for days but, even if he doesn’t understand today why he was shot, he wont forget it was a resident of a settlement, built on land that would have belonged to him.

In Nabi Saleh, which has been demonstrating for several weeks against a move by settlers from the nearby Halamish settlement to take over a a spring and other privately-owned Palestinian agricultural land, several dozen residents, along with Israeli and international solidarity activists, again marched from the village towards the land being annexed by the right-wing settlers. They were confronted by Israeli forces, who used tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets to deter the crowd. The army then invaded the village, using a jeep-mounted tear-gas launcher that shoots 30 canisters of gas at a time, into the built-up area of the village, affecting everyone in their homes. A young man was taken to the hospital with a moderate injury when he was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet.

In Ni’lin, several dozen residents continued their weekly protest against the construction of the Annexation Barrier through their agricultural lands. Participants marched from the edge of the village into the olive groves, approaching the combined fence-wall. They were forced back by the Israeli military, who used large amounts of tear gas, including firing the tear gas at houses, affecting people not participating in the demonstration.

Hundreds of residents in Asira Al-Qyblia marched against land confiscation towards Ytzhar settlement, home to some of the most violent settlers in the entire Occupied Territories who have repeatedly destroyed trees belonging to Asira Al-Qyblia residents, and attacked the village and others in the surrounding Nablus District. The march was fired on by the Israeli military with tear gas and sound grenades, though no one was seriously injured.

In Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, 80 Jewish demonstrators, many dressed in costumes for the coming Purim holiday, joined over 100 Palestinians near the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah to protest the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes and the implantation of right-wing Jewish settlers. A festive demonstration, with chants, drumming, and songs, was held for over an hour as Israeli police and military border police sealed off the street to demonstrators.

Though this demonstration ended without confrontation or violence, it came in the wake of a riot Wednesday night, when dozens of settlers entered the partially occupied Al-Kurd family home to begin preparation for the celebration of Purim, a Jewish holiday held Sunday, February 28, which traditionally includes drinking large amounts of alcohol, making it one of the most dreaded Jewish holidays for Palestinians, who often come under attack by intoxicated settlers on this day.
Sure enough, the settlers in Sheikh Jarrah began attacking the Palestinian residents of the same home. Israeli soldiers arrived and attempted to restrain the crowd but were unsuccessful and soon turned on the growing Palestinian, international, and anti-occupation Jews in the crowd, clubbing and pepper spraying them. Several were injured before the Israeli police escorted the settlers out of the area. One Palestinian man was arrested early in the evening; none of the settlers were detained.

AT-TUWANI – The past two weeks have seen a marked rise in settler activity outside the illegal settlements* of Ma’on and the Havat Ma’on (Hill 833) outpost. This has varied from settlers crossing Palestinian grazing land, to grazing their sheep while shooting rocks from slingshots at nearby Palestinian shepherds, to abducting young Palestinian shepherds with the aid of the Israeli military and police.

On Friday afternoon, 19 February, 2010, Israeli settlers, soldiers and
police detained a 12-year-old boy from the Palestinian village of Saadet
Tha’lah, located near the Israeli settlement of Carmel in the South Hebron Hills. The boy had been grazing his family’s flock alone in their regular grazing area, just above Umm Zeitouna Valley, on the south side of the large Israeli dairy facility belonging to the Ma’on Settlement.

When CPTers** arrived, Israeli occupation authorities were also holding
two of the boy’s goats, which especially worried him because one goat was pregnant and could miscarry. Another shepherd from the nearby village of Tuba told the CPTers that he had been in the area and heard the boy’s shouts of panic as the Israelis grabbed him.

The boy reporting seeing two Israeli settlers outside the dairy barns, who summoned and directed the soldiers to go after him. The soldiers walked downhill from the dairy barns, grabbed his two goats, and told him, “If you want your goats back, you better come here.” The boy complied. The other shepherd then reported seeing both a settler and a soldier together grab the boy and physically restrain him. The boy also said he had been struck violently.

Israeli police held the boy and his two goats for about two hours, telling CPT that he had criminally trespassed on Ma’on Settlement land. The boy reported having no idea the land was not open to everyone. The police refused to produce a map defining which land was private, and eventually released him and his goats.

On the same afternoon, about 2 km west, according to area residents, a larger group of settlers crossed the Israeli highway 317 and attacked two shepherds, ages 13 and 21, from Jawayya Village, located about 1km north of At-Tuwani. The settlers killed one ewe and took it away. Although their means were unclear, blood was found at the site. Israeli police arrived and took the boys to their headquarters inside the Qiryat Arba Settlement, near Hebron, in order to file a complaint against the settlers. The boys’ father arrived as the police were leaving, asked if he could speak with his sons, and was told “no.”

CPT and Operation Dove are further investigating the details of both
incidents.

*According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts are also considered illegal under Israeli law.

This Friday, January 22, demonstrations were again held against land confiscation, the Annexation Barrier, and the expulsion of Palestinians from East Jerusalem for the settlement of right-wing Jewish settlers.

In Al-Ma’asara, Bethlehem District, approximately 70 Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis marched from the center of town towards the barrier set up by the Israeli military. Tensions were high as a larger-than-usual presence of Israeli soldiers and border police lined the route of the march on the roofs of buildings. The demonstration included the imposed Palestinian government’s minister of agriculture who participated in a symbolic tree-planting near the entrance of the village. Speeches were made in Arabic and Hebrew and the demonstration left peacefully. Not satisfied with the lack of confrontation, the Israeli soldiers followed demonstrators into the village. One man was followed into a shop where he was arrested by the soldiers as he bought chicken. He was released later in the evening.

In Nabi Saleh, Ramallah District, Israeli soldiers invaded the village before the demonstration officially began, arresting 6 Palestinian residents, 3 men and 3 women. The demonstration was held as planned, protesting the recent attempted confiscation of agricultural land by the nearby Halamish settlement.

In Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, a group of 350 Israelis and Palestinians gathered in a park near the street where several houses have been taken over by a right-wing Jewish settler organization beginning last summer. For the past several weeks, dozens of Jewish Israeli activists have been arrested during the demonstrations, which were beginning with a permitted march from the center of West Jerusalem to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. This week, the Israeli police refused to issue a permit for the march so organizers decided to begin closer to the occupied street, which, as usual, was cut off by Israeli police. During the demonstration, as participants marched towards the occupied street, Israeli police began arresting participants. 22 people were arrested in all. During the protest, the Israeli police were allowing settlers to gather inside their barricades on the occupied street, where they began attacking Palestinian residents. 2 Palestinians were reportedly hospitalized after assaults by Jewish Israeli settlers. Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah who participated in the demonstration were also arrested after they arrived at their homes. Recent updates from Israeli organizers suggest that at least some of the 22 demonstrators are being charged, and that the Israeli prosecution has requested that 6 be held for the duration of the legal proceedings, a process that is often used against Palestinians during legal procedures but is exceedingly rare against Jewish Israelis.

Israeli soldiers, who are in charge of “security” for the area, were nearby in both Bat ‘Ayn and in Saffa. Their solution to the settler violence: prevent the Palestinians in Saffa from entering or leaving the area freely. No one was seriously injured in the incident today.