Israeli occupation police attacks shepherds in Hebron

Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

Friday March 14, 2008 21:22 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

The Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported on Friday that Israeli Border Policemen attacked several Palestinian shepherds grazing their sheep and working in their olive groves in Khourba valley.

The policemen were trying to force the shepherds out of a Palestinian orchard which was attacked by extremist settlers who damaged some olive trees last month.

The CPT reported that one border policeman attacked a Palestinian shepherd and twisted his arm before pushing him to the ground.

The policemen also attacked another shepherd, grabbed him from his collar, and pushed several other residents.

The policemen also attacked several international volunteers who accompanied the Palestinian shepherds and threatened to arrest them. There were no reports of serious injuries.

Later on, two police vehicles arrive at the scene and the volunteers tried to show them the damaged olive trees but the policemen said that this is a closed military zone and threatened to arrest them and the shepherds.

The international volunteers stated that the policemen were violent and one of them shouted bad words at one of the female volunteers. One of the policemen also twisted the wrists of two volunteers and attempted to grab their video cameras as they were documenting the attack.

The settlers repeatedly attacked the residents and their groves while the Israeli police failed to probe these incidents and in many cases arrested Palestinians residents who were attacked by the settlers.

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