Settlers attack Palestinians near Bethlehem

Published yesterday (updated) 23/06/2010 20:32 Hebron – Ma’an –

Furious after their own government demolished two houses in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, illegal Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian property in the latest incident of the "price tag" phenomenon.

Dozens of the illegal settlers of the illegal Israeli settlement of Bat Ayin, in the Palestinian Governorate of Bethlehem, were seen throwing stones and empty bottles at Palestinian homes in Safa, an adjacent village next to the Beit Ummar town north of Hebron.

Israeli soldiers began firing tear-gas canisters and stun grenades at the crowd around dawn, lightly injuring a number of Palestinians, Muhammad Awad, spokesman for the Palestine Solidarity Project, told Ma'an. Settlers were prevented from setting fire to fields, he added.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said forces arrived on the scene to disperse the crowd before it became violent.

The more radical of Israel's 500,000 settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories adhere to the so-called "price tag" policy, in which every perceived injustice carried out by the Israeli authorities, who occasionally intervene on behalf of Palestinians, comes at the "price" of settler violence against local residents.

Wednesday's violence came just after Israeli forces demolished two settler units installed to protest a deadly attack last year in which a Palestinian man allegedly killed the child of a settler with an ax.

Settlers Attack Palestinian Village Near Hebron

Wednesday June 23, 2010 13:23 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Dozens of armed illegal Israeli settlers of the illegal Israeli settlement of Bat Ayin attacked Palestinian homes in the nearby village of Safa, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

The settlers hurled stones and empty bottles at the Palestinian homes, and when Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene, the soldiers fired tear gas canisters at the Palestinian residents and their homes instead of evacuating the settlers.

Medical sources reported several injuries among the Palestinians who inhaled the tear gas fired by the Israeli military.

Mohammad Ayyad, spokesperson of the Palestine Solidarity Project, said that the settlers began their attack at 5 a.m, on Wednesday, and also tried to set Palestinian farmlands ablaze but local farmers managed to stop them.

The attack was carried out after the army removed two illegal homes built a year ago by the settlers on lands adjacent to the illegal settlement. The settlers built the homes on Palestinian lands after a settler was killed by a Palestinian from the village.

Israeli sources reported that dozens of policemen entered the settlement early on Wednesday at dawn and demolished the homes.

Later on, the settlers attacked the Palestinian village and its residents as an act of revenge although the homes were demolished by the Israeli Authorities.

Settlers of Bat Ayin settlement carried repeated attacks against the villagers, burned and uprooted hundreds of peace trees and grapevines, destroyed property, stormed houses, attacked the residents with batons, and opened fire on them.

The illegal settlement was built by a direct order issued by the then-Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, in 1992.

It was established over the land of al-Jaba'a village in the north western extremity of Hebron district as one of the ten colonies forming the Gush Etzion settlement block which is one of the three major settlement blocks in the West Bank after Ariel in the north and Ma'ale Adumim in the centre. It is located 1.5 km north of Khirbet Safa. (poica.org)