21 March 2009
About 20 dogs trained by the Israeli Army were sent from the Tayaser checkpoint in to Tayaser village in order to frighten and attack farmers and locals in the village. The dogs are still inside the village, and are acting aggressively and violently. The Palestinian Authority in Tayaser has already sent an application to the Israeli forces in order to get permission to kill these dogs, but the application was rejected without known reason.
Until now, five people have been attack by the dogs, among them 13 year-old Yazan Zahi Ahmad Abu Ali, who needed hospital care for seven days after the attack.
“I was attacked by seven dogs while I was outside in the fields close to my home and reading. I was bitten in five different places, and I needed to go to the hospital immediately to take the rabies vaccination and to get medical treatment for the wounds.” Yazan says.
Three days later, on the 24th of March, the farmer Wajieh Abdulla Dabak, was attacked by five of the dogs while he was working on his land. He was bitten three different places and needed to go to the hospital immediately to take the rabies vaccination, and to spend the whole day there in order to get medical treatment.
“I did not see the dogs before they attacked me, as they were hiding in the Fields. Suddenly five huge dogs attacked me, and I was very terrified”. Wajieh says.
One of Wajiehs Friends says that “These dogs are from the military, I speak Hebrew and they responded to me when I spoke to them in that language. They are very well trained, and very aggressive. I think they were released because thy were to aggressive and hence too difficult for the army to handle, so they released them in this village in order to terrify and frighten the farmers and the people in Tayaser.”
This is the third time in two years that the army has released dogs in the village. In Arab and Muslim cultures, dogs are associated with shame, and are considered to be highly dirty creatures.