NABLUS, October 14, 2015 (WAFA)
– Israeli settlers Wednesday set fire to large swaths of Palestinian-owned
agricultural land near the village of Burin, to the south of Nablus in the West
Bank, and injured an international activist while hurling stones at them, according
to local sources.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors
settlement activities in northern West Bank, told WAFA a number of Israeli
settlers broke into the area in the early morning hours and set fire to
agricultural fields mostly planted with olive trees.
The settlers also chased local
Palestinian farmers and targeted them with gunfire, Daghlas added.
A British activist, identified
as David Hams, was accompanying Palestinian farmers to provide protection and
support when Israeli settlers hurled stones at them.
Hams was hit with a large rock,
and sustained serious injuries in his head. According to witnesses, Hams’
injury was serious; his blood covered his face and stained his t-shirt. He was
transferred to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.
The village of Burin is just
two kilometers away from Yitzhar, an illegal Israeli settlement that is
infamous for housing the most extremist settler community in the West Bank.
Yitzhar settlers regularly
attack vulnerable Palestinian communities and clash with members of the Israeli
security forces.
The settlement is at the
forefront of the settlers’ movement's so called 'price tag' policy, which calls
for attacks against Palestinians in retaliation for actions of the Israeli
government against West Bank settlements.
In May 2014, the Israeli
security agency Shin Bet said the price-tag hate crimes were mainly attributed
to about 100 extremist youths, mostly from Yitzhar, acting on ideas associated
with Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg at the community's Od Yosef Chai yeshiva.
Violence by extremist Jewish
settlers has been on the in the recent few years. However, it the attacks took
a new turn on July 31, when a group of Jewish fanatics killed 18-month-old Ali
Dawabsheh and seriously injured his entire family, during a predawn arson
attack which targeted two homes in the village of Duma, south of Nablus.
The baby’s father, Sa’ad
Dawabsheh, died of his wounds at an Israeli hospital about a week later, while
his mother, Riham, 27, died of critical burns that covered 90% of her body over
a month after.
Al-Haq human rights
organization said, “Attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank
against members of the Palestinian population and their property are an
extensive, long-term, and worsening phenomenon.”
Since the beginning of October
1, settlers have been attacking Palestinians on the main roads, stoning their
vehicles and attacking passersby once they realize they are Palestinians.
The settlers who live in the
northern West Bank have also been carrying out early morning and late night’s
attacks against vulnerable communities in remote villages.
M.N/M.H
