Deacon Dave in Hebron, Palestine

Mohammad & Moataz Abu Haikal
Assaulted by Settlers and Arrested
Thursday 03 Oct 08

At 3pm two of Mohammads young children noticed settlers picking olives from his tree. They called Mohammad. Moataz watched the settlers while Mohammad called for his other son Hussayn. Moataz was 13 years old. Three settler teenagers were hitting the tree with sticks. One of them was wearing a red shirt. A settler adult was watching them from the top of the military stairs. He was average build and has a grey beard and glasses. Moataz recognized him because he is often trespassing on their land. Mohammad told the settlers to leave his land. He walked over to the wall, leaned over and called the soldiers and border guards. The settlers also called for the soldiers. One of the settlers gathered up the ground sheet from the ground with olives in it. He picked up one of the shopping bags of olives from the ground and took them to the settlement. Moataz grabbed at the other bag of olives at the same time as one of the settlers picked it up. The settler boy hit him with a stick on his right cheek. Both the boys fell over. Two border police and one soldier arrived and one of the border police caught hold of Moataz. The settlers threw the olives onto the ground. The settlers came and kicked Moataz while the border police held him. The border police made no attempt to protect Moataz or to stop the settlers. The adult settler man came and tried to hit Moataz but Mohammad intervened and prevented him. The settler man picked up a big rock to hit him. Soldiers arrived and made a line between the Palestinians and the settlers. The border police lifted Moataz and detained him against the wall. Soldiers took his ID. Six settler adults arrived including Mirav, her daughter and Yifrat al Kobi with a video camera. Yifrat asked all the settlers arriving to act as witnesses against Moataz and Mohammad even though none of them were there when the assaults happened.

23 Mar 08

Injured Woman has to walk out of Tel Rumeida to meet ambuklance at road block. Palestinian cars including ambulances are not allowed to drive inside the checkpoints.

Report by ISM
for video go to:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/06/settlers-attack-human-right...

The final day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot descended into violence in Tel Rumeida, Hebron on Thursday, as a group of settlers attacked local Palestinians and two international Human Rights Workers (HRWs). At approximately 1:45pm a large group of settlers, many heavily intoxicated, marched their way up through the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood shouting abuse at the Palestinian residents. Two international HRWs were at the scene documenting the harassment when the settler leading the march shouted to the crowd that the internationals were, “worse than the Arabs”. A stone was then thrown at one of the HRW’s as the settler crowd became increasingly aggressive.

Khaled, an off duty Palestinian policeman was standing outside his house on Shuhada St. Suddenly a white car stopped, a settler jumped out, punched him in the face and drove away. He was so surprised he was unable to react quickly, only mangaging to bang on the side of the car as it sped away. He was not able to take the licence number.

Mr Musa was very upset when he discovered that 7 branches were cut from the palm tree outside his house on Shuhada St. The tree was paid for with a grant from the US when all the pavements and lamposts were renewed. He planted the tree himself and has watered it ever since.

The branches were cut just before Sukkot, the Jewish festival where they build booths and decorate them with palms. No one knows which of the settlers took the branches this year. Last year it was Eli Gelboa from the nearby settlement of Beit Hadassa.

Palm branches are also missing from a small tree at the Crossin

Fire Damage Inside Main Door

Settlers attacked Qurdoba School on 6th August. They distracted the guard by setting a fire at his own house. They then broke in through the gate, piled furniture in front of the main door, soaked it in kerosene and set it alight. There was extensive damage in the shool porch but fortunately they were not able to break through the doors into the school itself. The main doors are badly burnt inside and outside. Some of the stonework collapsed around the door from the heat and has had to be replaced.

30th March

A 48 year old Palestinian man was walking home about 11 am when he was attacked with stones by a 14 year old settler outside Beit Hadassa. Three other settler youths about the same age supported this attack. The soldier on duty intervened and told the settlers to leave. The Palestinian’s 14 year old son and his friend were approaching from the checkpoint and saw the trouble. As they arrived a settler stopped his car jumped out, grabbed the son and pushed him up against a car. He managed to escape and ran towards the checkpoint. A police car stopped and arrested him and then came to Beit Hadassa and took ID’s from the other 2 Palestinians. An adult settler kicked the Palestinian man in the shoulder and ran away. Police did nothing about this. Forty adult settlers came and began shouting and pushing at the police.

18 Nov 06 Hebron Day

At 11.30 three of us went to the olive groves to protect the Palestinian families living in isolated homes among the olive trees.

Two settlers came towards us from the Seyaj House yelling abuse at us “Fuck Jesus. We killed Jesus and we’ll kill you too ! “ We began filming and kept ourselves between them and the Palestinian homes. They tried to enter Hani’s house where we knew there was a number of small children and two women. We refused to let them up the path and they headed off up into the Abu Haikal olive orchard. We contacted other Human Rights Workers (HRW’s) to make sure that there were people at the Abu Haikal house in case they made their way there.

UPDATE, November 22nd: Tove has been released from hospital and will return home soon. The Jerusalem Post has reported Swedish government dissatisfaction with the Israeli investigation into the attack on Tove:

“The Swedish government is dissatisfied with Israel’s investigation of an attack in the contentious West Bank city of Hebron that left a Swedish activist with a broken cheekbone, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

“We’re concerned that this hasn’t been followed up, and we intend to speak to the relevant authorities and ask for more information about the incident,” said Petra Hansson, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Foreign Ministry. ”