RSS Feeds

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Settlements Home page  back Print  Send To friend Settlers set fire to villagers’ fields and orchards. Sarit Michaeli B`Tselem 31.5.12 Dear friends, Last Saturday (26 May 2012), I witnessed events that I’d previously only seen in video footage or heard about from witnesses. During a meeting with B’Tselem volunteers in Asirah al-Qibliyah, we saw smoke from the direction of the neighboring village Urif. When we phoned people there, they told us that it was the result of arson. I drove to the area with B’Tselem’s field researcher Salma a-Deb’i, and we saw dozens of settlers from Yitzhar who invaded the village`s agricultural land. The settlers threw stones and set fire to the villagers’ fields and orchards. Some youths from the village approached them trying to douse the flames and some also threw stones at settlers. In one incident I witnessed and documented, Settlers from Yitzar’s emergency squad shot and severely wounded a villager, Najeh Ass’ad Najeh a-Safdi, aged 21, in his stomach. (To view videos click here) All of this took place while there were dozens of soldiers present who did not stop the settlers - even after they set fire to the fields and wounded a-Safdi. While the army had increased the size of its force in the area, the soldiers evidently were not instructed to protect the Palestinian villagers. On the contrary - soldiers fired tear gas at village residents and delayed the evacuation of the wounded man. This incident took place just a week after a Palestinian from the village of Asira a-Qibliya was shot and injured by gunfire from this same settlement security squad. (To view videos click here) We will provide the law enforcement authorities with all of our documentation of these events and demand that an investigation be conducted and that incidents of this nature not recur. Sarit Michaeli, Spokesperson Links to the latest articles in this section Palestinian killed while protesting settlement expansion Netanyahu repeatedly dismisses US objections to building beyond Green Line ‘The settlers brought caravans and put them on a hill next to us’