At 8:45am 50 adult, male, Israeli settlers some of whom were carrying guns, walked from the illegal Israeli outpost of Havot Ma’on (Hill 833) toward the small Palestinian village of Tuba. On the way, they encountered the young children from Tuba and Migaer Al-Abeed walking to school in At-Tuwani under Israeli military escort. Most of the children, terrified, ran back towards Tuba. A village elder accompanied them back to their escort and all of the children arrived safely in At-Tuwani, although visibly shaken by their experience.
Two international volunteers from Operation Dove ran from At-Tuwani to Tuba. When they got near the village they met some of the villagers who had fled their houses and taken refuge in the hills. Some of them had taken their flocks of sheep and goats with them. A villager testified that when the settlers first approached the village they said that they were out hiking and would not bother the villagers. The Palestinian said, however, that the settlers entered the village and started throwing stones at the animals and at the village’s generator. They also emptied storage containers of water, a commodity which is in very short supply in the village.
The villagers pointed out the direction in which the settlers had gone. The Doves were walking in that direction when, at 9:45am, the Israeli police and army arrived on the scene. This was more than an hour after they had been called. The Doves saw the police jeep stop and the army jeep continue further on. The police and soldiers ordered the Doves to stop following the settlers. A villager later reported that the soldiers then shouted to the settlers to leave because the police were coming. The villager also reported that he saw the settlers go into a nearby valley and hide.
The Doves videotaped their discussion with the police. Audible on the recording are the police’s radio conversations with their colleagues. These colleagues can be heard to say that they encountered some of the settlers, including four of whom the villager had given a description.
However, the police did not detain the settlers, claiming that there was no evidence against them.
This is the latest example in this area of settler violence towards Palestinians, which again has evoked no response from the Israeli authorities.
Videos of the settlers marching to Tuba and the testimony of a villager is available on request.
For more details contact:
operationdove@gmail.com
ISM media office: 02 2971824 or 0599943157
Tove Liljeholm, a 19-year old woman from Sweden, was attacked by settlers in Hebron, who threw a bottle at her while she was assisting Palestinian children. “Afterwards, they laughed”
“I felt a powerful blow to my head, fell to the ground and noticed that my head was covered in blood” – said Tove Liljeholm, a 19-year old Swedish activist in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), who was injured two days ago by a bottle thrown at her by settlers in Tel Rumeida in Hebron. According to her, the settlers shouted to her and her friends “we killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too” and clapped after she was injured.
Liljeholm and four of her friends, all international solidarity activists, arrived two days ago at the checkpoint at the entrance to the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron, in order to accompany Palestinian children to their homes. When they passed from the Palestinian side to the Israeli side, they encountered a group of settlers who ‘welcomed’ them with shouts, curses and spitting. Among other things, the settlers shouted “we killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too.”
Liljeholm says that at a certain stage the settlers moved from verbal to physical violence. “One of them kicked at us and suddenly I felt a powerful blow to my head,” she said. “I fell down and noticed that my head was covered with blood. Only later was I told that it was a bottle that hit my head.”
According to her, after she was hit in the head, the settlers started to laugh, clap and whooped with joy. One of the settlers, a doctor by profession, even refused to help her. In the end, she was evacuated to the Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem, where a doctor diagnosed a broken cheekbone and an additional fracture near her eye.
“Hoping to Return to Hebron Soon”
The international activists said after the incident that while it was going on, policemen and soldiers did nothing to stop the settlers, and that only after Liljeholm fell to the ground did they stop the attackers. According to [the activists], they did not detain any of the settlers for questioning and moreover, they threatened the international activists with arrest if they did not leave the area immediately.
Despite the difficult experience, Liljeholm promises to continue to work with ISM or in other capacities to help the Palestinian people. “Of course I’m afraid and angry at the settlers, but I think that those living in terrible conditions need to be helped, especially after seeing how violent the settlers can be,” she said. “I hope to return to Hebron, but I don’t think it’ll happen soon.”
The Judea and Samaria police responded that they reject the charges left-wing groups have put forward regarding the treatment of Liljeholm’s assault. The police stated that during this past sabbath, a large contingent of police were present in Hebron, who patrolled the areas of friction and prevented conflict between Palestinians and settlers. The police requested that left-wing activists do not stay in the area, in order to prevent conflicts.
After receiving the complaint regarding the assault, the police said that their investigators gathered testimonies in the area, and that a police force searched for suspects in the assault. Likewise, they detained a number of suspects, but that during investigation they were not identified by the witnesses and were not connected to the event. At the same time, testimony was taken from a tourist. The police say that after her recovery, Liljeholm is welcome to contact the Hebron police, who will present her with pictures of suspects, so that they can be identified and tried.
“End the Barbaric Behavior”
Following the assault on Liljeholm, the chairman of Balad [one of the Arab parties in the Knesset], Azmi Bishara, wrote a letter to the Minister of Defence, Amir Peretz, requesting him to put an end to the settlers’ behavior. “I want to emphasize that this is not the first time such a thing has happened,” wrote Bishara to Peretz.
“The aggressive behavior of the settlers against the residents and foreign volunteers occurs repeatedly with intolerable frequency, all this without any law enforcement or any form of punishment. The fact is that the behavior of the settlers resembles that of outlaws in the Wild West,” added Bishara. The chairman of Balad also called on the minister to intervene immediately and put an end to “the barbaric and unacceptable behavior of the settlers, to enforce the law and to ensure the security of local Palestinian residents, to investigate this incident and to bring those responsible to justice.”
His panic-stricken little face lights up when he receives the information that we’ll escort him home, sending him skipping merrily down the road on an errand to buy potatoes. This is the Palestinian Authority controlled area of Hebron, and as we cross through Tel Rumeida checkpoint to the other side in order to wait for the Palestinian boy’s return, we soon discover the source of his fear.
We are confronted by around 100 ultra-orthodox Jews, who are gathered in Hebron to mark ‘Hebron day’, one of whom shouts “You know that Jesus is gay?”. None of us really react to this arbitrary taunt, however it does serve to focus the crowd’s attentions squarely on our small group of human rights workers. Another shouts “What are you doing here?”
“Tourists” I reply, believing this to be the safest response under the circumstances. The crowd then begins chanting in Hebrew “We killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too!” — we are quickly designated the ‘other’. The mob mentality takes on an oppressive and ugly turn; now almost a single entity justifying almost any excess as long as it is directed towards the ‘other’. The crowd edges forward “You love Palestinians” one of them shouts, spitting in a human rights worker’s face.
The first stone had been cast: saliva rains down on us and people jump above one another to be able to deliver their contempt. We are shoved and kicked repeatedly, and even though it is apparent that events are spiraling dangerously out of control, the soldiers who are standing just a few feet behind us at the checkpoint choose to look on impotently as the attacks intensify.
A man lunges from the crowd, smashing Tove, a 19 year old Swedish girl across the face with a bottle. She immediately collapses to the ground clutching her bloodied face in horrified terror. At this point the soldiers come forward and motion at the settlers, in a “ok… that’s enough guys…” motion, amid clapping, cheering and chanting from the crowd.
As Tove lay on the hard concrete floor, blood oozing from her wounds the crowd re-groups, fed by curiosity and growing in energy “We killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too!” I now felt a growing sense of apprehension as awareness dawned of the mob’s evil intent and the soldiers’ unwillingness to intervene in any meaningful way.
A religiously dressed Orthodox Jew then adds insult to injury by posing with a thumbs-up gesture over Tove’s bloodied face. The sight of this was so obnoxiously contemptuous I never gave the guy the satisfaction he sadistically craved by taking his picture. The decision as to whether I should have taken that picture has been discussed over and over by people I know, though I feel the impact of sharing that disgusting image I have etched in my mind, can serve no purpose other than that of breeding hatred.
The police arrived and an American girl who witnessed the event was taken into a police van and asked to identify who had attacked our group. Meanwhile the remaining police were telling me and another Englishman that if we didn’t move away from the scene we would be arrested as we were blocking the street. We remained.
A Jewish settler medic came to the scene about 15 minutes after the attack and immediately began asking us why we were in Hebron, telling us pointedly we had no right to be there. He refused to help Tove as she lay bleeding in the street .
Eventually Tove was helped onto a stretcher by some soldiers, amid jeers and clapping from the crowd. We escorted the stretcher through the jeering crowd to a military vehicle in which Tove and a close friend were transported to the hospital in Jerusalem.
As I walked back down the street I witnessed the police open the door of a van and release one of the attackers. Upon seeing this the crowd then began jubilantly celebrating his release. We were later told by the police that they had not even taken the names of those who were identified as having attacked us, and that one of the main assailants had simply told the police that he was due at the airport in two hours to fly back to France.
Two Englishmen and I then spent another half an hour or so escorting Palestinian women and children from the checkpoint to their homes. In doing so it is our aim to protect the Palestinians in such situations by deflecting the attention and hate away from them.
It was getting dark but the streets were still busy. We escorted one group of three boys, the oldest of whom was 9 or 10. We were followed closely along the street by a dozen or so Orthodox Jews who hissed and berated the Palestinian boys in Arabic with obscenities I am grateful of not understanding. “You like protecting the animals?”, they taunted us in English — “Nazis!”.
We reached some steps and turned off the main street and began to climb, the little boys nervously glancing back to see if we would be pursued. A couple of hundred metres further on the older boy made it clear they were OK to continue alone now. I asked the oldest boy if they were sure, he forced a smile and shrugged his soldiers in defiance as if to say “no problem this stuff happens every day”. He seemed so strong, but as I put my hand on his shoulder and looked into his teary eyes they gave out another message and I saw pain and fear.
I wanted to tell him that the world wasn’t really like this. But for him and the people of Tel Rumeida it is.
Earlier in the day at least five Palestinians, including a 3-year old child, were injured by Jewish settlers, who rampaged through Tel Rumeida hurling stones and bottles at local residents. Palestinian schoolchildren on their way home were also attacked. The Israeli “Defense” Force, which was intensively deployed in the area, did not intervene to stop the settlers.
On Saturday 18th November a group of Israeli and international human rights workers met up with Palestinian farmers to plow fields in the shadow of an illegal Israeli outpost near the village of Tuwani. The joint Israeli-international accompaniment hoped to discourage Israeli settler attacks, by splitting into four groups and plowing simultaneously so that the effort of the farmers would be too much for the Jewish settlers to sabotage.
Armed with a recent court decision guaranteeing the villagers the right to work their land and the duty of the Israeli military to protect them from settler attacks, the Tuwani farmers feverishly plowed in an attempt to complete as much work as possible before the anticipated arrival of Jewish settlers.
Around two hours into the plowing action, a man appeared high up at the illegal Israeli outpost (Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, many outposts are illegal under International and Israeli law). He descended into the valley, taking pictures all the while, as a few human rights workers went to head him off and ask him the reasons for his presence. The settler remained mute, (even though as a South African, his English was more than adequate) and proceeded to wander around taking pictures of both Palestinian farmers and international volunteers whilst the plowing continued.
A short time later a settler driving a 4×4 vehicle came hurtling through the fields. The male occupant also started taking pictures of the farmers and then began attempting to obstruct the tractor’s progress by careening haphazardly around the fields in his vehicle.
Another Jewish settler then came running through the fields accompanied by three dogs. He singled out a tractor and began weaving about in front of it in an attempt to impede its progress, before jumping onto the front of it causing the driver to stop. He then proceeded to jump off and run around to the side of the tractor and fling himself to the ground feigning injury.
Observers, including the eight soldiers, looked on in bewilderment at this farcical performance as the poor confused driver pleaded his innocence. As human rights workers arrived at the tractor, the “injured” settler sprang to his feet and attempted to punch the Palestinian tractor driver, but the human rights workers held him back. He then began blundering around aimlessly in anger before attacking me with his walkie-talkie. After being restrained by a couple of soldiers he again began his angry blundering, before flopping to the ground after an apparent relapse of his tractor injury.
The police were then called to investigate the alleged assault, shortly followed by two zealous settler paramedics who began hurling abuse at all and sundry rather than examining the alleged injury. A Jewish settler then said to me “They’re suffering in Egypt, they’re suffering in Lebanon, they’re suffering in Iraq, why do you come here?”, “So you admit these people are suffering then?” I asked. He then turned and walked away. The “injured” man was then helped onto a stretcher and carried off up the hill, as police, soldiers and human rights workers discussed the incident.
Although the soldiers acknowledged the comedy aspects of the incident and the police implied the Palestinian farmer probably wouldn’t be charged, he was still required to attend the police station the following day to provide a written statement. An Arabic speaking Israeli promised to accompany the driver to the police station in an attempt to corroborate the accuracy of his statement.
With around two-thirds of the plowing complete the day can be said to have been a partial success, however, whether the crops are left to grow and be harvested unmolested by settlers is another question entirely.
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. ”
UPDATE, November 21: Tove is still in hospital where she will remain for the next few days before returning to Sweden to receive ongoing treatment there. As well as a broken cheekbone Tove has a fractured skull and damage to her eye muscles. A complaint was filed with the police in Kiryat Arba where eye-witness statements and photo evidence was submitted. However, according to a report by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din 90% of complaints filed against Israelis to the “Samaria and Judea District” police were closed without indictments being issued.
***************************************
A 19-year old Swedish human rights worker had her cheekbone broken by a Jewish extremist in Hebron today. Earlier the same day at least five Palestinians, including a 3-year-old child, were injured by the settler-supporting extremists, who rampaged through Tel Rumeida hurling stones and bottles at local residents. Palestinian schoolchildren on their way home were also attacked. The Israeli army, which was intensively deployed in the area, did not intervene to stop the attacks.
Tove Johansson from Stockholm walked through the Tel Rumeida checkpoint with a small group of human rights workers (HRWs) to accompany Palestinian schoolchildren to their homes. They were confronted by about 100 Jewish extremists in small groups. They started chanting in Hebrew “We killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too!” — a refrain the settlers had been repeating to internationals in Tel Rumeida all day.
After about thirty seconds of waiting, a small group of very aggressive male Jewish extremists surrounded the international volunteers and began spitting at them, so much so that the internationals described it as “like rain.” Then men from the back of the crowd began jumping up and spitting, while others from the back and side of the crowd kicked the volunteers.
The soldiers, who were standing at the checkpoint just a few feet behind the HRWs, looked on as they were being attacked.
One settler then hit Tove on the left side of her face with an empty bottle, breaking it on her face and leaving her with a broken cheekbone. She immediately fell to the ground and the group of Jewish extremists who were watching began to clap, cheer, and chant. The soldiers, who had only watched until this point, then came forward and motioned at the settlers, in a manner which the internationals described as “ok… that’s enough guys.”
The extremists, however, were allowed to stay in the area and continued watching and clapping as the HRWs tried to stop the flow of blood from the young woman’s face. Some, who were coming down the hill even tried to take photos of themselves next to her bleeding face, giving the camera a “thumbs-up” sign.
At this point, a HRW was taken into a police van and asked to identify who had attacked the group. The HRW did this, pointing out three Jewish extremists who the police took into their police vehicles. However, the extremists were all driven to different areas of the neighborhood and released nearly immediately. When one of the three was released on Shuhada Street, the crowd that was still celebrating the woman’s injuries applauded and cheered.
A settler medic came to the scene about 15 minutes after the attack and immediately began interrogating the internationals who had been attacked about why they were in Hebron. He refused to help the bleeding woman lying on the street in any way.
Five minutes after the settler medic arrived, the army medic arrived and began treating the injured woman. When she was later put on a stretcher, the crowd again clapped and cheered.
Police officers at the scene then began threatening to arrest the remaining HRWs if they did not immediately leave the area, even though they had just been attacked.
The injured woman was taken to Kiryat Arba settlement and then to Hadassah Ein Keren hospital in Jerusalem.
HRWs were later told by the police that they had not even taken the names of those who were identified as having attacked the HRWs and that one of the main assailants had simply told the police that he was due at the airport in two hours to fly back to France.
The incident was the latest attack by extremist Jews in Hebron. The small group of Khannist settlers in Tel Rumeida regularly attack and harass Palestinians in the area. The violence sometimes spills over to the international human rights workers who accompany Palestinians in an attempt to protect them from settler attack.
The settlers in Tel Rumeida encourage Jewish tourists to come to support them, as a way of making up for their small numbers. Today, hundreds had come from tours in Israel for a special event — many from overseas: France, England and the United States.
For more details and photos contact:
Tove – 054 747 9225
ISM media office 02 2971824 or 059 943 157
