A screenshot from a video showing armed Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

In March, 147 attacks by Israeli Jews against Palestinians in the West Bank were recorded, an average of five per day. On only two of the month’s 31 days were no attacks recorded; one of the two days was Saturday, March 23. This means that attacks were registered on the four other Shabbat days.

I reported Friday on an invasion and attack on Saturday, March 30, against residents of Mukhmas, a village southeast of Ramallah [see below]. Another recorded invasion still awaits our detailed reporting: an assault in the village of Aqraba on March 19, at the end of which Fakher Jaber, 43, was shot dead.

Let’s return to the attack on Mukhmas. A Jewish man hit Samhan Abu Ali, 55, in the head with an iron rod. While he lay on the ground unconscious, two other invaders, or three, beat him with a rock and a club. Around him, a few of the raiders fired into the air. The assailants’ “yield” was one broken arm, one dislocated shoulder and a deep wound to Abu Ali’s head. Another assailant beat Abu Ali’s son Muqtada, breaking his arm too.

Earlier, while the invaders were advancing toward the villagers, brandishing their rifles and firing into the air, a 22-year-old man was shot in the leg and wounded. Samhan Abu Ali rushed to his rescue, fearing that the assailants would beat the man as he lay on the ground bleeding. They attacked the brave, older man who thought his age would protect him. Two other residents were wounded by rocks but didn’t need hospital care.

According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, a “report was received of an assault on an Israeli shepherd, after which friction and rock-throwing ensued between Jewish civilians and Palestinians.” Have you ever seen a Palestinian who assaulted a Jewish shepherd (often armed or escorted by armed guards) and wasn’t arrested immediately, or that night? I don’t need to add that no resident of Mukhmas was arrested last week for allegedly attacking an Israeli.

And now the apt cliché: If a 55-year-old Jew had been assaulted this way near his home by three Palestinians, the headlines would have screamed terror attack, cruelty, they beat him simply for being a Jew. But since these are Palestinians, in their home, and Israeli Jews were the attackers, the event isn’t deemed worthy of attention.

There are videos and photos showing the menacing gunmen, their faces covered, marching toward the Palestinians on the Palestinians’ own land. There are no photos of the more violent moments.

But the pattern is familiar from many similar incidents in which Israelis with the outward characteristics of observant Jews (kippot, sidelocks, tzitzit dangling from their undershirts) attack Palestinian farmers, old and young. They have also assaulted Israeli activists against the occupation, including women – including older women, and rabbis.

Let’s say it for the millionth time: The pattern, established for decades, shows that the authorities – who do not prevent, arrest, detain, prosecute or punish anyone – want the attacks to continue.

Based on photos, a security source said that one of the invaders, who was armed and in uniform, is the security coordinator of the Ma’aleh Mikhmash settlement northeast of the village. Three additional gunmen in the photos, in civilian dress, are soldiers on leave, the source added.

Palestinians herding sheep in the West Bank. In the past 12 months, 1,926 attacks by Israelis against Palestinians were recorded.Credit: Nidal Eshtayeh

FYI President Joe Biden: Their guns are U.S.-made, and the goal is for these weapons to terrorize people. Many residents of Mukhmas are American citizens. They own land and vineyards but can’t reach them due to the threatening presence of armed Jews who have taken over their land. This is done, for example, by the nearby offshoots of Ma’aleh Mikhmash: the Neveh Erez and Nahalat Tzvi outposts.

A self-promoting statement issued by Nahalat Tzvi states that the outpost plans to “create new facts on the ground in the face of the Arab ’takeover’ in the area.” The settlers are emissaries of the State of Israel and passionate Zionists. FYI the most Zionist American president ever: Every invasion and attack they carry out – and while brandishing U.S.-made rifles – creates a fact.

In March there were 147 recorded attacks. In February, 145. In January, 108. Last October saw a record number, as expected, 408. In June, 184. In total, in the past 12 months, 1,926 attacks by Jews against Palestinians were recorded.

Let this number sink in: 1,926. All kinds of attacks were committed: armed men invading villages – tents, vineyards, fields and springs; mere threats with guns; damage to trees and property; thefts of livestock; rocks thrown at homes and cars; people beaten bloody, their bones broken; and killings – with or without an escort of armed soldiers for protection of the invading settlers.

The incidents are documented by the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department, which no longer has anything to negotiate about, or anyone to negotiate with. The list is based on reports that reach journalists and the Palestinian security forces in real time. Some incidents aren’t reported to the department. Sometimes the published information is preliminary, abbreviated and not up-to-date. It’s not 100-percent accurate.

But it certainly gives an idea of what cumulative terrorism is. It draws a broad outline of a regime of intimidation, terror and dispossession parallel to that of the army, a regime established in the West Bank by citizens of the state, its agents and representatives, who are cherished and subsidized by the state.

Amira Hass

• Haaretz. Apr 8, 2024 12:30 pm IDT:
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-04-08/ty-article-opinion/.premium/fyi-joe-biden-israels-settlers-use-american-weapons/0000018e-b82b-d906-a5cf-babfb7800000

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Settlement Security Head Joined Brutal Raid of Palestinian Village Near Ramallah

Witnesses from Mukhmas village say about 30 Israelis entered their agricultural land and beat residents; IDF: Incident preceded by report of attack on Israeli shepherd

Abdel Rahman al-Hajj, the American citizen who owns the well and olive grove, with the settlement of Ma’aleh Michmas in the background.Credit: Nidal Eshtayeh

On Saturday, several dozen Israelis invaded lands belonging to Mukhmas village southeast of Ramallah. Eyewitnesses say the invaders – some armed with rifles, other with their faces masked, and one in an Israeli army uniform – chased local residents away at gunpoint and subsequently assaulted them with a crowbar, clubs and gunfire. The witnesses say three villagers were wounded, and two more were injured by rocks thrown by the attackers. Some of the wounded needed to go to the hospital for treatment.

A security source told Haaretz that the man dressed in uniform who was seen by the villagers is the security coordinator of the Ma’aleh Michmas settlement, and the other Israelis who were armed were reservist soldiers on furlough.

Ma’aleh Michmas is located east of the village. Several illegal outposts have been erected on the outskirts of the settlement. The closest ones to Mukhmas are Neveh Erez, which was set up in the early 2000s, and Nahalat Zvi, built in October 2022 by students from Merkaz Harav yeshiva. This outpost was demolished several times in the past by the Civil Administration, but its founders returned and rebuilt it. They created an unauthorized road to the place, keep a flock of sheep, and on a visit earlier in the week appeared to be busy expanding and preparing the ground for more construction. One of the eyewitnesses to the attack, Mustafa Abu Siam, said that among the attackers he recognized a man who lives in Nahalat Zvi, who was not armed with a rifle.

According to witness reports heard by Haaretz, at around 5:30 P.M. on Saturday, several villagers noticed some people wandering about on a hill that is part of the village’s agricultural lands. They said they feared that the unknown intruders would vandalize the olive trees and wheat field there, and that they might also approach the village houses, and so they hurried there to see what was happening. At one point, the group of villagers who went to investigate spotted several of the intruders wading in a well that is located within an olive grove owned by two brothers from the village who also hold American citizenship. The olive grove is some hundreds of meters from the cabins of Nahalat Zvi.

Abu Siam, a 36-year-old pharmacist, says the people who were in the well came out, and several of them wrapped their faces with shirts. He says they started shouting at the group of villagers, and that a few of them who had weapons began firing in the air. The villagers decided then to turn around and leave the area. Later, the first Israelis who had come to the village were joined by others, who spread out along the hill to the west of the valley. At this stage, the villagers noticed a man wearing an IDF uniform, who pointed a rifle at them and approached them while shouting. It seemed to them that he was encouraging the other Israelis to advance with him toward them, while they were on their way back to their homes in the village.

“We returned to the village and they followed us. They kept coming closer to us,” says Samhan Abu Ali, 55. “We couldn’t get away from them. We’re going back to the village and they’re right behind us.” Abu Ali estimates that there were about 30 Israelis in all, and he says some fired shots in the air. A video filmed by one villager shows the Israelis, including the security coordinator, coming down from the hill onto the road, while some point at them their rifles in a threatening manner. Abu Ali also says that at 6:30 P.M., a half hour before the end of the daily Ramadan fast, a young man near him had been shot in the leg. “I went over to him to help get him out of there, and I saw they were about to hit him while he was on the ground. One of them hit me on my head, with an iron rod. I must have passed out and fell to the ground and they beat me some more.” The next thing he recalls is “finding myself being carried by the young folks.” Other witnesses say that three or four Israelis assaulted Abu Ali, and that while he was lying on the ground, one person kept hitting him with a club, and another with a rock. Other Israelis fired into the air and prevented the villagers from coming close. One of the Israelis also struck Abu Ali’s son Muqtada with a club and broke his hand.

Soldiers arrived at the site around 6:45 P.M. “They thought that an Israeli was wounded,” Abu Siam guesses. No one from the police or from COGAT showed up. Several villagers rushed the three wounded men out of the village in a car, and then transferred them to an ambulance. All three underwent surgery in a hospital in Ramallah. Abu Ali, who was released from the hospital just last Tuesday, said in a video call that he suffered a deep cut on the head and needed 10 stitches. The attackers also broke his left arm and the arm bone needed to be set internally. The beating and fall also caused his right shoulder to be dislocated.

This isn’t the first attack in Mukhmas. On the night of March 23, 2022, several masked Israelis invaded the village’s northern side, smashed the windows of a house and of vehicles and vandalized 17 cars. Villagers also say that trees have been destroyed in recent years, too, by unknown vandals. Abdel Rahman al-Hajj, the American citizen who owns the well and olive grove, says that because of the proximity to the outposts and the fear of its armed inhabitants, he hasn’t been able to access his olive grove in the past couple of years.

Other villagers also say that they haven’t been able to get to their olive groves in recent years because of their proximity to the Neveh Erez outpost. The shepherds in the village are afraid to go to the east of the village, since in the past there were several incidents in which armed Israeli shepherds threatened them and chased them off the grazing areas. At the Mukhmas town hall, there is a file folder containing copies of the confirmations from the Israel Police about the complaints filed for each of these types of incidents, including complaints filed by lawyers in regard to harassment by Neveh Erez residents and their invasion of the villagers’ lands. However, the assaults and the blocking of access to grazing lands and orchards have continued.

Sheep grazing on land near Mukhmas, this week.Credit: Nidal Eshtayeh

The police responded: “The incident in question was handled by the army and a report was sent to the police. To date, the police have not received a complaint about the matter. If a complaint is received, it will be examined and addressed as required.”

The IDF spokesperson says: “Last Saturday, a report was received about an assault on an Israeli shepherd, following which a confrontation arose between residents of the village and Jewish civilians, which included throwing of rocks from both sides. IDF forces arrived and dispersed the disturbance using protest dispersal measures and by firing into the air.”

Amira Hass

• Haaretz | Israel News. Apr 5, 2024:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-05/ty-article/.premium/settlement-security-head-joined-brutal-raid-of-palestinian-village-near-ramallah/0000018e-aa94-dc75-afde-faf40c770000

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