Settler Violence Escalates , The Palestinian Human Right Monitoring Group

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PHRMG Hotline Update # 6/2002

Jerusalem, March 20, 2002

Settler Violence Escalates

A foreign citizen recently reported a case of extreme settler violence to the PHRMG Hotline, which he says is typical for the area. The incident occurred on 7 March 2002 as he was traveling with six Palestinians through the hills around the village of al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah. A group of settlers had recently begun erecting caravans and bulldozing roads on one of the hills belonging to the village.

The group had been standing for about ten minutes on one of the hills, when they saw two vehicles quickly approaching from the settlement. The following statement from the foreign victim details the events which followed. It is being quoted at length because it is so compelling.

“The first vehicle stopped about 5 meters from our position, while the second stopped further back, across the agricultural road which we had arrived by, effectively blocking our exit. From the second vehicle two men got out. One lay flat on the ground aiming his machine gun at us, the other leant behind the open passenger-side door also aiming his machine gun at us. Theirs appeared to be a “covering position” for the passengers of the other car. Their guns were not M16s, though I am not sure what they were (they were larger and heavier looking).

Five men got out of the Mitsubishi at a run, waving their guns (all M16s) at us. One was about 35-40 and remained to one side throughout the ensuing incident. The others ranged in age from c18-28. All wore Kippurs, one was bare-chested with black jeans and quite thin, the others wore T-shirts and shorts. At least three of them wore “peot” (side-locks).

Realizing this was a racially motivated attack, I announced in English that I was a foreign citizen and that we were leaving the site. No attention was paid to this and what followed was nothing short of a frenzy, which I can accurately only describe in part. All of the five had their rifles pointed at us and were being as threatening as they could with them (clacking off the safety catches and raising them to their sights etc.). One gave his gun to the thin bare-chested man, who slung it over his soldier. Without the gun, this one then picked up the first rock, about 30cm in diameter, and it became immediately clear that he was going to throw it through the windscreen of the car beside which I was standing. Still trying to attract some attention to the fact that I was non-Palestinian and that we were leaving, meant no harm etc., I tried to position my body between the rock-wielding one and the windscreen. He then prepared to throw it at my head instead and I was forced to move aside as he smashed the first windscreen.

In the following five minutes every breakable component of the two private vehicles we had come in was destroyed. It was impossible for me to stay between the attackers and all of the Palestinians which meant that one was beaten in the face during this initial stage. At no time in the whole incident did the Palestinians whom I was with move. Nor did any of them speak a word.

Having damaged the cars sufficiently, they began to try to beat my companions, or worse. For no apparent reason they singled out a man of about 50, from Sinjil village and began to approach him from one side with a gun and the other with a rock. The man stood behind me and I tried to shield him by turning from side to side as they tried to haul him away. At this point a third of the five leveled his gun at my head, about 1 meter from me and told me in English “let him go.” I refused and again told them we were going to leave the site immediately. I was told to shut-up and the gun waved more threateningly at my face. At this point one of the men managed to get past my legs and throw a large stone on the legs of my companion, though they were not broken and he managed to stay positioned behind me.

At this point, the older man, who had remained to one side throughout said in Hebrew “Enough, we’ll let them leave.” This did not have an immediate effect but after a few more stones were thrown through already broken windows the three youngest moved back toward their car. The bare-chested man remained among us and watched as we got into the cars, sitting in the mounds of broken glass.

With everyone in our two cars, one of the younger ones continued to throw stones through the windows, while the two who had remained with the second vehicle on the agricultural road kept their machine-guns trained on us as we turned down the rise and left the site.”

Immediately following the incident, the foreign citizen photographed the extensive damage done to the two vehicles, estimated to be over 10,000 shekels, and contacted consular representatives who instructed him to report the incident to the Israeli police at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. After waiting for a considerable amount of time, he was finally able to file a complaint in English, and the police have indicated that they will investigate the matter. The victims indicated that they are able to identify the settlers who attacked them by sight and some by (first) name.

PHRMG will follow-up on this case and try to ensure that the Israeli police do their duty. However, neither our client, nor his Palestinian companions have much faith that they will obtain justice.

Last week, the Israeli Attorney General responded to PHRMG’s petition to the High Court. In the petition, PHRMG requested that the Court order the West Bank police, under the authority of the Attorney General, to respond to our multiple requests for information on behalf of our clients.

The Attorney General responded, providing updates on the cases cited in the petition. Two of these cases have been referred for prosecution in recent weeks and one has been transferred to the prosecution department of the West Bank police. We believe that the action can be partially attributed to the work being done by the PHRMG to put constant pressure on the Israeli authorities to bring settler criminals to justice.

The Attorney General also ordered the police to respond to all future inquiries of PHRMG on behalf of our clients. We have already noticed a substantial improvement in this area, and have been receiving responses within several days of contacting the police.