Palestine: Sticks and stones will break your bones.
The last few days has made me very familiar with the hospital in Nablus.
First there was Akram, who we visited after he had been attacked by settlers. He was farming his land with his family when he heard shouts from settlers telling him to get off 'their' land (naturally, the settlers are from an illegal settlement, which is in fact on Palestinian land.) He urged his family to go back to the house, leaving him isolated - and when he heard a shout in Arabic, he went to see who it was, concerned for their safety with the settlers around.
Turns out these settlers knew some Arabic. Having lured him further away from his home, they proceeded to beat him unconscious, with sticks, stones, fists and feet. He passed out eventually, at which point the settlers ran for it.
Luckily, he regained consciousness a little while later. Luckily, he had his phone with him. Luckily, he was able to identify to his brother whereabouts in the fields he was.
If not for this luck, he could have died. He had been left for dead. His arm was broken. His face was broken. He couldn't really speak or move when we saw him. He had to be taken to hospital by car, despite the possibility that he had a broken neck, as ambulances take too long to get to villages in the West Bank - slight problem with roadblocks, checkpoints and roads destroyed by the Israeli authorities.
Then two days later, we were back in the hospital. This time to see Maher, who had been had been walking home one evening with his brother and cousin. Within sight of their house, six settlers jumped out of the olive trees at the side of the road. Three of them were holding M16 semi automatic rifles.
Two blocked the road back to the house. The others started beating the men - again, with sticks, stones and fists and feet.
Luckily, they didn't use their guns (this time). Luckily, Maher's brother managed to escape, get back to the house and call for help. Luckily, this scared the settlers away. Maher told us "ten more minutes and they would have killed us."
Often in cases like this, the families will call the Palestinian police after an attack. They will then call the District Coordination Officer, who in turn will call the Israeli army, who have a responsibility to protect the Palestinians from attack. Let's see how this goes eh?
In Akram's case this led to the army arriving on the scene, where more settlers had arrived after Akram had been taken to hospital - rather than stopping the settlers from attacking the village, the army JOINED IN, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians in the middle of the night while they tried to protect their families. (Jeez, it's hard enough to dodge in the daytime, I can't imagine a demo in the dark...)
In Maher's case the call led to the army arriving and asking questions, saying that they would try and find the attackers. Ooh, finally the army doing something right! Yay! One slight problem - they were in the wrong village. Despite being told this repeatedly by the people they spoke to there, they have not been to the correct village or spoken to Maher or his family. As you can tell, they're trying reaaaallly hard to track down those attackers.
As the Human Rights Watch 2012 report on Palestine says:
The last few days has made me very familiar with the hospital in Nablus.
First there was Akram, who we visited after he had been attacked by settlers. He was farming his land with his family when he heard shouts from settlers telling him to get off 'their' land (naturally, the settlers are from an illegal settlement, which is in fact on Palestinian land.) He urged his family to go back to the house, leaving him isolated - and when he heard a shout in Arabic, he went to see who it was, concerned for their safety with the settlers around.
Turns out these settlers knew some Arabic. Having lured him further away from his home, they proceeded to beat him unconscious, with sticks, stones, fists and feet. He passed out eventually, at which point the settlers ran for it.
Luckily, he regained consciousness a little while later. Luckily, he had his phone with him. Luckily, he was able to identify to his brother whereabouts in the fields he was.
If not for this luck, he could have died. He had been left for dead. His arm was broken. His face was broken. He couldn't really speak or move when we saw him. He had to be taken to hospital by car, despite the possibility that he had a broken neck, as ambulances take too long to get to villages in the West Bank - slight problem with roadblocks, checkpoints and roads destroyed by the Israeli authorities.
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| Akram in hospital |
Then two days later, we were back in the hospital. This time to see Maher, who had been had been walking home one evening with his brother and cousin. Within sight of their house, six settlers jumped out of the olive trees at the side of the road. Three of them were holding M16 semi automatic rifles.
Two blocked the road back to the house. The others started beating the men - again, with sticks, stones and fists and feet.
 |
| Maher in hospital |
Often in cases like this, the families will call the Palestinian police after an attack. They will then call the District Coordination Officer, who in turn will call the Israeli army, who have a responsibility to protect the Palestinians from attack. Let's see how this goes eh?
In Akram's case this led to the army arriving on the scene, where more settlers had arrived after Akram had been taken to hospital - rather than stopping the settlers from attacking the village, the army JOINED IN, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians in the middle of the night while they tried to protect their families. (Jeez, it's hard enough to dodge in the daytime, I can't imagine a demo in the dark...)
In Maher's case the call led to the army arriving and asking questions, saying that they would try and find the attackers. Ooh, finally the army doing something right! Yay! One slight problem - they were in the wrong village. Despite being told this repeatedly by the people they spoke to there, they have not been to the correct village or spoken to Maher or his family. As you can tell, they're trying reaaaallly hard to track down those attackers.
As the Human Rights Watch 2012 report on Palestine says:
“The Israeli government generally took no action against Israeli settlers who destroyed or damaged mosques, homes, olive trees, cars, and other Palestinian property, or physically assaulted Palestinians.”It seems to be only luck which is on the Palestinian side. There is no justice from the Israelis- and until there comes an end to impunity for these horrific attacks, I can't see an end to them.
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