[Peace-discuss] Settler Violence you won't read about in the mainstream media

Thu Sep 30 14:45:35 CDT 2004

>X-Originating-IP: [194.90.9.21]
>Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 16:11:07 +0300
>From: Gila Svirsky <gsvirsky at netvision.net.il>
>Subject: Settlers attack CPT in Hebron
>To: Gila Svirsky <gsvirsky at netvision.net.il>
>Importance: Normal
>X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
>
>Friends,
>
>I just got off the phone from talking with two
members of the Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT) -
Diana Zimmerman and Diane Janzen who are based in
Hebron.  They told me the details of a terrible 
>incident this morning, a story that has just begun to
circulate:
>
>It happened in the South Hebron Hills of the occupied
territories near the settlement Ma'on and its
satellite settlements.  This is the area where
cave-dwelling Palestinians have frequently been 
>attacked by the local settlers.
>
>This morning, two members of CPT - Chris Brown (male,
from San Franciso) and Kim Lamberty (female, from
Washington, DC)  were walking a group of children from
their homes in Tuba to their school 
>in al-Tuwani - a function that CPTers perform
regularly for the children in Hebron and have now
extended to outlying areas.
>
>At 7:15, five men suddenly lunged at the two from the
side of the road where they had been hiding, awaiting
their approach.  The men, wearing black scarves
wrapped around their heads so that only their 
>eyes were visible, assaulted the CPT volunteers with
baseball bats and chains that they had brought with
them.  Kim fell and remained down.  Chris remained
standing for a while before falling, and continued to
receive kicks and blows from the settlers.  The five 
>settlers spoke English to each other while unleashing
their blows, and then ran away.  The children had run
off at the very beginning. Chris and Kim remained
conscious and used a cell phone to call their team,
who reached them at 7:30.  Their teammates called the
Israeli military in the area, who took half an hour to
arrive (a trip that should have been much faster), and
the two were evacuated to the hospital in Beersheba,
where they remain hospitalized.  Kim has a broken arm
and severe contusions of her right leg, leaving her
unable to walk for a while.  She may need surgery on
the arm.  Chris has a punctured lung, so a chest tube
has been inserted.  He also had severe blows to his
head, but we are hoping there is no further damage.
>
>So what did CPT do?  They immediately sent a
replacement team to the area, to ensure that the
children will have someone to walk them to school
tomorrow, if the children are brave enough to go. 
They are also working closely with Ta'ayush, an
Israeli peace organization active in this area, to see
how the local people can be protected from the nearby
settlers.
>
>>This incident follows on the heels of escalating
violence by settlers, as plans for the evacuation of
some settlements progress. Yesterday, without
provocation, a settler from Yizhar shot and killed a
Palestinian at point blank range.  A UN vehicle was
also attacked by a settler, though the driver managed
to avoid injury. Settlers are feeling the heat.  Peace
activists have also stepped up activity.

_____________________________________
Last Update: 29/09/2004 08:59 

Witnesses: Settler's shooting of Palestinian was
unprovoked   

By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz
Service 

   Police sources said Tuesday that the shooting of a 
Palestinian by a settler on Monday was an act of
self-defense, but the findings of a Haaretz
investigation cast serious doubt on this conclusion. 
       The state prosecution on Wednesday is slated to
appeal Tuesday's court decision to place the settler,
Yehoshua Elitzur, under house arrest. The 
Kfar Sava Magistrate's Court also rejected a police
request to extend Elitzur's remand until the end of
the legal proceedings against him.
      Elitzur, who is from the West Bank settlement of
Itamar, killed taxi driver Sa'al Jabara, 46, on the
access road to the settlement of Elon Moreh. Elitzur
claimed that he shot in self-defense after Jabara
tried to run him off the road, and police sources said
Tuesday that they believe him. This 
means that Elitzur, 33, is now suspected only of
manslaughter rather than murder.

           But Haaretz's interviews with three of
Jabara's passengers indicate that no argument or
confrontation of any kind preceded the shooting. All 
three passengers have also been interviewed by the
police. According to the passengers, five people
entered Jabara's taxi in the West Bank village of
Salem at about 12:30 P.M. on Monday. The regular 
access road from Salem to the main road is blocked by
the Beit Furik roadblock, so the taxi instead took a
dirt road that funnels into the access road to Elon 
Moreh. According to the passengers, there are daily
incidents between settlers and Palestinians on this
road.

            Nael Mansour, 25, a clothes merchant from
the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, described what
happened next as follows: "We traveled a short 
distance to the main road, and at this stage we did
not yet see anyone. We began to ascend the rise that
leads to the road, and then to the left of our 
vehicle a few meters away from us, I saw the settler
with a big rifle aimed at the window of Sa'al, the
driver. I saw that he [the settler] was saying all 
kinds of things, but the windows were closed and I
didn't understand what he was saying, even though I
understand a little Hebrew. Sa'al began slowly 
turning right and intended to open the window, because
we were afraid of him [the settler].

            "Then the settler yelled 'stop!' and
shortly afterward he fired a single shot that hit
Sa'al in the hand and chest. There was a lot of 
blood, and the car continued going right. I held onto
Sa'al and then I hit the brakes with my foot and
pulled the hand brake and the car stopped. The settler
was still there, and I was afraid to leave the car. We
were all afraid that he would kill us all, but Ahmed,
who sat behind me, got out and began shouting at him: 

'What have you done? You've killed him! Call an
ambulance!' "But the settler shouted something in
Hebrew at him and turned toward his red car, which was
parked on the other side of the road. A few 
seconds later, another car came toward Elon Moreh and
we flagged it down to ask [the driver] to call an
ambulance or evacuate Sa'al, but the first settler 
shouted various things and the driver continued
driving and didn't stop. In the end, we moved Sa'al to
the seat beside the driver and drove toward the Beit
Furik roadblock.

            Rahma Shtayeh, a 33-year-old from Salem,
described the incident as follows: "We drove on the
dirt road, and had reached the main road when 
suddenly I heard a shot. When I looked out the window
I saw the settler, and then [I saw] the blood. I
started to scream like a mad woman, because I 
thought he was going to kill us all. The others also
shouted, and then I saw the one who was sitting next
to the driver hit the brakes so the car wouldn't roll.
Then I saw another man in the middle seat open the
door, get out and begin shouting at the settler, who
turned around and left. Then the man who got out 
returned to the car and drove the car to the Beit
Furik roadblock."

            Ahmed Shtayeh, 37, a shepherd from Salem,
gave the following description: "The car had finished
climbing the rise, and Jabara began turning left onto
the road when we all saw a tall, bearded, brown-haired
settler standing in the middle of the road, and behind
him, a red Fiesta car.

            "Sa'al thought the settler needed help and
slowed the car, and then he opened the window and was
speaking to him in Hebrew when suddenly the 
settler aimed an M-16 rifle at him and two seconds
later, he shot, while the window was still closed. The
weapon had been loaded earlier, and the settler who
was standing in the road fired a bullet at Sa'al that
hit his left hand and tore it to pieces and afterward
also entered the left side of his chest. He lost
consciousness and we tried to treat him. I opened the
door and shouted at the settler to come help and call
an ambulance, but he said, in Hebrew, 
'God willing, he will die' and left. Another car, with
another settler inside, arrived, but the first settler
shouted at him to keep going and he didn't stop. In
the end, we drove to the Beit Furik roadblock." 

            Jabara's death is only the latest in a
string of incidents over the last four years in which
at least five Palestinian civilians have been 
either fatally shot or run over by settlers in this
area, which includes the settlements of Elon Moreh,
Itamar, Yitzhar and Har Bracha. Jabara's body has not 
yet been released from the Institute of Forensic
Medicine in Abu Kabir.

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