HEBRON, February 25, 2016 (WAFA) - A group of aggressive settlers Wednesday night attacked Palestinians at Salaymeh neighborhood in Hebron’s Old City, said security sources.
Led by notorious settler Anat Cohen, settlers brutally assaulted several Palestinians living in this neighborhood, causing them bruises across their bodies.
Two of the attacked Palestinians were identified as Wael al-Fakhouri, and his sister, Na’ela.
This came as Cohen interrupted a peaceful movie screening hosted by Youth Against Settlements to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre.
Youth Against Settlements said in a press release that as part of the Open Shuhada Street campaign, 50 to 60 Palestinians gathered in the Hebron neighborhood of Salaymeh to light candles in memory of each of the 33 victims of the massacre and its immediate consequences, followed by a documentary titled “Hebron Under the Microscope.”
Cohen slowed down her car next to a group of Palestinians and hit those who could not escape fast enough. She made a u-turn and left her car to yell at and intimidate the Palestinians gathered in the street. She filmed and verbally and physically attacked Palestinians and internationals while soldiers stood by and did not intervene.
Instead of stopping her unprovoked aggressions, they began loudly pushing back the Palestinians, restricting them to certain parts of the street and preventing them from documenting. Heavy arguments broke out. A man fainted and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance when he witnessed a soldier hit his wife with a gun.
The army repeatedly pushed back Palestinians using excessive force. Eventually, Anat Cohen left without facing any consequences for her violent assaults and harassments, witnessed by the army and civil police.
Wael Fakhouri, a resident of the neighborhood: “We work hard to protect ourselves from settler violence.”
Cohen is notorious for frequently harassing Palestinians and internationals in Hebron’s Old City as well as school children heading to Qurtuba middle school, adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Beit Hadassah in the center of Hebron city.
Twenty two years ago, Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein broke into the Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire at Palestinian Muslim worshippers, killing 29. Four Palestinians were killed on the same day in the clashes that broke out around the Mosque in response to the massacre.
In the aftermath, the mosque, known to Jews as Tomb of the Patriarchs, was divided in two, with the larger part turned into a synagogue while heavy scrutiny was imposed on the Palestinians and areas closed completely to them, including an important market and the main street, Shuhada street.
An estimated 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers live under the protection of thousands of soldiers in Hebron’s city center. The city is home to over 30,000 Palestinians.
K.F.
