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PHRMG expresses alarm and great concern
regarding the mass violence sweeping the Palestinian
Territories as Israeli settlers, acting in the manner of
bandits and outlaws, defy their own Israeli police and army,
as they mercilessly assault unarmed civilians, endanger the
lives of women, children, and elderly, steal personal
property, and commit arson as they violate one
international, local, or basic human law after another.
On Monday, October 21, settlers, some
masked, from Shvut Rahel, an illegal settlement by even
Israeli standards that lies on the bypass road between
Ramallah and Nablus, invaded a privately owned Palestinian
orchard in Turmous A’ya, a village near Ramallah, as local
Palestinians were harvesting their olives. Around forty
Palestinian villagers, including women and children, set out
early in the morning to harvest their crop. At about 11
a.m., twelve Israeli settlers in all-terrain vehicles, armed
with M16’s and other weapons, surrounded then attacked the
Palestinians in their olive orchard, shooting in the air.
Settlers also shot sound bombs at the Palestinians. The
Palestinians attempted to run, but the settlers assaulted
them with their fists, rifles, kicks, and stoning. A
seventy-year-old Palestinian man and his sixty-year-old wife
were amongst those whom the settlers stoned.
Settlers then destroyed seven
Palestinian-owned vehicles by lighting them on fire. A 1996
Mercedes, valued at NIS 140,000 was among the torched
vehicles, and one man lost two cars in the arson attack.
Settlers burned all of the just-harvested olives that were
inside these enflamed cars, and attempted to steal any other
olives that were not in the vehicles.
Police and army personnel, arriving
after the attack, took photographs of the damage from the
settlers’ attack. PHRMG staff were at the crime scene
today, taking affidavits from victims and witnessing the
destruction. Also today, the Israeli army has ordered all
olive orchards closed territory because they are not capable
of containing the settlers from attacking the Palestinians.
Thus, the Palestinians lose precious time from harvesting
their crop because mass criminals cannot be controlled by
their own authorities. ACRI, the Association for Civil
Rights in Israeli, has issues an appeal to the Israeli High
Court to repeal their prohibition of Palestinians from their
orchards.
It is no secret that the Israeli
government and military are reluctant to prosecute settlers,
and for a varied mixture of reasons, withhold settlers from
the need to abide by the law. Because their own people are
afraid to take a stand against them and their ruthless
behavior, a signal of “carte blanche” is generated to the
settlers to continue to act on their own standards, as they
have felt little punishment as of yet. Punishment is meant
to deter crime, so if there is no punishment, there is no
deterrence.
PHRMG calls for the rules of justice to
be applied to all people; Palestinian, Israeli, and illegal
settlers. We call upon the Israeli government to take
serious change in its regime to get control of its citizens’
rampant lawlessness as seen repetitively in the settler
community. PHRMG also calls on all Israeli military
personnel and police to act with justice and apply universal
human rights when they are aware of situations of law
breaking and violence. Because the Palestinian people are
under Israeli occupation, Israel, as the occupier, according
to the 4th Geneva Convention, must protect the
Palestinian civilians to the full extent of their ability.
PHRMG also believes that the United
States’ faint slap on Israel’s wrist whenever its citizens
jointly and repetitively terrorize Palestinians, as is so
frequent with the settlers whom even the Israelis can’t
control, does little to encourage change in this violent
behavior. The US issues few words, whispered like a breeze,
for the sake of public relations, and continues to finance
Israel in all its human rights violating activities. With
such secure backing and relatively unchallenged support as
that from Mr. Bush and his regime, Israel has little impetus
to change its ways. |
