B'Tselem: Video: Military accompanies settler attack; Military appears to have served as security

[Jefferson23]

*Title too long, in full: Video: Military accompanies settler attack, ‘Urif, Monday. B’Tselem: Military appears to have served as security entourage for Hilltop Youth

Published:
8 Jan 2014

On the morning of Monday 6 January 2014, a group of masked settlers, coming from the direction of the settlement of Yitzhar, arrived at the village of ‘Urif, near Nablus. They reached the eastern outskirts of the village, going to the construction site of a water reservoir being built with USAID funding. The settlers smashed the electricity meter and threw stones at the home of the Safadi family, adjacent to the construction site. They also threw stones at the school, located about 100 meters away. The settlers were accompanied by soldiers as well as by at least one armed settler equipped with a two-way radio, who is apparently one of the settlement’s security guards.

Usama Safadi, a local villager, filmed the incident and gave the footage to B’Tselem. The footage he shot shows settlers throwing stones, while soldiers stand beside them. The soldiers took no measures to arrest the settlers, to remove them from the area, or at the very least to put an end to the stone-throwing. Several students at the school threw stones back at the settlers and the soldiers fired teargas at the students. At that point, the teachers called the students into the school building to keep them away from the confrontation.

The incident lasted approximately 50 minutes, at which point the settlers left, heading in the direction of the settlement of Yitzhar. The footage of the settlers as they head up the hill shows them passing several vehicles parked on the slope: two military jeeps, a white jeep and a pickup truck, probably belonging to the settlement’s security personnel. Two of the settlers who took part in the assault are seen heading over to the security vehicle and one of them is then seen taking a jacket from the back of the pickup truck. Even at this point, there appears to be no attempt by the military to arrest the assailants, or even to learn their identity. Later, five soldiers are seen heading up from the village in the direction of the settlement.

The filmed record of the incident indicates that the soldiers acted with disregard to their duty to protect the Palestinians: they did not put an end to the violent acts they witnessed, responding only when Palestinians threw stones back at the settlers. The soldiers also do not seem to have made any attempt to identify the masked individuals or detain them until the police arrived on the scene, so they could be charged appropriately. To the best of B’Tselem’s knowledge, the soldiers did not provide the police with their own accounts of the incident.

http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20140108_settler_attack_in_urif

[oberliner]

1. Elder Palestinians protect settlers from lynching in West Bank village

Palestinians prevented fellow villagers from lynching 14 settler youths in Kusra on Tuesday afternoon and called in the IDF to rescue the Jewish group, who had been cornered in a construction site and beaten.

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Palestinians-beat-up-Jewish-settlers-for-allegedly-throwing-stones-at-West-Bank-farmers-337370

[Jefferson23]

2. When was it upgraded to they were going to be lynched?

Jewish settlers caught and beaten after trespassing in Palestinian village

Incident follows the uprooting by Civil Administration officials of settler olive trees planted on Arab land.
By Chaim Levinson | Jan. 7, 2014 | 6:06 PM

A group of some 10 settlers from the outpost of Esh Kodesh, in the Nablus area, were apprehended and beaten by Palestinian villagers on Tuesday after trespassing on their land. The settlers were later handed over to the Israel Defense Forces.

The incident began on Tuesday morning, when Civil Administration officials arrived at the outpost to uproot olive trees that had been planted on private Palestinian land. Based on the experience of previous such incidents, residents of the surrounding Palestinian villagers immediately organized themselves into security details.

In the early afternoon, the Esh Kodesh settlers, some of whom were activists known to the police, arrived at the village of Kfar Kusra. The infiltrators, who were masked and wore gloves, were apprehended by the security detail of about 30 villagers, who surrounded them, took them to an abandoned building and began to beat them.

The incident lasted for about an hour. The settlers, who did not have telephones with them, could not request help. Eventually, the Kfar Kusra villagers contacted the Israel Defense Forces and requested that a unit be sent to remove the settlers.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.567492#

[oberliner]

3. JPost vs. Ha'aretz

Like Ma'an vs. Wafa.

[Jefferson23]

4. I have not seen anything yet by B'Tselem that indicates JPost has it correct.

We'll see.

[azurnoir]

5. well now we understand IDF had to protect the settlers lest something happen to them while

they were attacking a Palestinian village however from JPost

With respect to the possibility that the Jewish youths had come to carry out a price-tag attack, he said the incident is under investigation, but added that “someone who goes into a village does not do it by mistake.”

The incident began earlier in the day when security forces destroyed two olive groves that belonged to the nearby Esh Kodesh outpost, which the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria said had been illegally planted.

.................................................

Zakariya Sedde, a field worker for Rabbis for Human Rights, alleged that the settler youths, some of whom were masked, had vandalized 15 olive trees and attacked a farmer. Security forces intervened and shot tear gas, Sedde said.

At the same time settler youths tried to enter Kusra and were surrounded by villagers and trapped at the construction site. He said he arrived at the scene as Palestinian Authority security officers and a few villagers tried to protect the settlers.

[oberliner]

10. It's ridiculous to think the IDF has to protect the settlers

The settlers should stop harassing their Palestinian neighbors.

It's bad enough that they have made the choice to live there, but the very least they could do is keep to themselves.

[azurnoir]

12. sigh that part was snark :)

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

16. "The settlers should stop harassing their Palestinian neighbors."

I believe that the Palestinians do not consider the illegal Israelis to be neighbors at all. I'd put good money down that they view them as invaders.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. Yes, Ober...they were just innocent victims; harmlessly hiking in an area that they new

belonged to Palestinians.




Why do you even bother trying, Ober?

[oberliner]

11. Not sure people getting beaten up deserves a "rolling on the floor laughing" icon

Last edited Fri Jan 10, 2014, 09:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Violence solves nothing in these situations.

Regardless of what they were doing (short of threatening people's lives), they shouldn't have been beaten.

Surely, you would agree with that?

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

13. I was laughing at your feigned

insistance on playing the dupe for plasible deniabilty.

[oberliner]

14. I'm not sure I know what that means

Too many big words.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

15. Yes, Ober. We understand your position.

Last edited Sun Jan 12, 2014, 06:14 PM - Edit history (1)

As a participant in I/P your measure is small. There is no bottom to you. I at least know where some, who happen to be on winter break stand even if it is in the midst of crazy town, but your position seems to be based on being obtuse.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

7. It's just another day on the aparheid picnic. Nothing to see here.

But is there a difference. Besides a brief half-hearted phone in, team hasbara either seems to be on vacation or has run off in a huff since this sickening shit cannot be rationalized or apologize for.

No king or jester in his court would condone these acts of apartheid with a straight face. Perhaps the lazy retort of a doe-eyed indolent knob-head will be heard on occasion to try and give reason to the wholly malicious, but besides that it appears even the apologistas know that this shit has worn thin.

BDS.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

8. From the article.

The filmed record indicates that the military, which is required to defend Palestinians in the West Bank, in actual fact served as a security entourage for violent settlers. During the incident, the military backed the settlers in their assault on Palestinians and their property.

Sounds like the old south. What a lazy group of assholes that think that they aren't being recorded acting like Klansmen.

BDS

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

9. It appears that IDF complicity, with the illegal abusive Israeli settlers, is

an ongoing problem that others like to overlook.


Masked settlers assault and injure B'Tselem camera volunteer harvesting olives near Adei Ad settlement outpost, 26 October 2013
http://www.btselem.org/settler_violence/20131030_assault_on_naasan_family


Settlers, including head of Kiryat Arba-Hebron local council, harass Palestinian family in Hebron, vandalize crops as soldiers and police officers stand by
http://www.btselem.org/settler_violence/20131022_settlers_harras_faber_family

Security forces fail to protect Palestinians from settler attacks in incidents documented by B’Tselem over last three months
http://www.btselem.org/settlers_violence/20130529_sf_fail_to_protect_palestinians_from_settlers

2012, settlers firing at Palestinians in the presence of soldiers
http://www.btselem.org/video/20120520_asira_al_qibilia_settlers