This morning as we were preparing to go visit the village of Iraq Burin, that was attacked last Friday by settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Bracha * (http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18208) we were informed by Yanoun’s mayor that there were Israeli settlers shooting nearby and that they had attacked shepherds in the area.
My colleague Wim and I went with the shepherd relatives toward the area where that happened, but by this time the Israeli Army was there and they prevented us to go. I tried talking to the soldiers but they ignored me, pretending not to hear me. One minute before one of them had told Wim to turn off his camera because he was in a “private area” … Yeah, that’s exactly how they consider not only the area C, but the entire West Bank – it is their private area to “play” stealing people’s land, demolishing their homes, terrorizing the villagers and Bedouins, destroying their water wells
(www.ewash.org/en/?view=79YOcy0nNs3Du69tjVnyyumIu1jfxPKNuunzXkRpKQN7JweMTQTG ) killing and so on.
There was a soldier who watched the situation quiet and at some distance, and with whom I kept a brief eye contact. I felt sorry for him, maybe I even felt compassionate because that biblical phrase came into my mind “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”. We looked again at each other and I kind of inquired him with my eyes and he clearly answered me. This was one of these soldiers who are aware of what they are doing but prefer to live in denial. I went to him and asked in Hebrew: “Excuse me, do you speak English?” He said yes and I went on: “When could we go to the area where there were the attacks? These people are their relatives “. He replied: “As soon as we leave you can go there”. For a moment I was relieved that we would be able to go, but then came another soldier (all seemed to be between 18 and 20 years) and ordered him to not talk to me. He obeyed. Seconds later another jeep arrived with their commander. He came down the car shouting and pushing people off the road to the bushes in the bottom of a hill. He was an Israeli Druze and spoke Arabic. The Palestinians tried to explain that they only wanted to see how their relatives were but the Israeli commander became increasingly violent pushing, calling the man who tried to talk to him a terrorist and telling us all to get out of there. And that wasn’t all, he did not want us to go back through the road we came, he wanted us to climb the hill. We climbed it with the sound of him screaming : “hay tariq alnas mish lelkalb” = this is the road for people, not for dogs.
The Israeli army had been called to curb the settler’s violence against the Palestinians. But here you never know if it’s worse or not calling the army: the settlers are just more violent, I do not know who is more delusional, and both have guns. A Palestinian friend today told me this saying they have here that perfect illustrates the situation: “If the judge is your enemy, there is no one you can appeal to.” After all the shepherds who were attacked were the ones arrested by the Israeli army, since, according to witnesses the settlers affirmed the shepherd had guns despite him affirming that: “the only weapon I have is my bat”. Referring to the wood he uses to guide his sheep.
One of the military jeeps spent the whole afternoon on the hill at the military post in front of Yanoun watching every step we took.
December 8, 2011
* The settlements close to Iraq Burin are Yitzhar and Bracha. Yitzhar and Bracha are the most violent settlements in the West Bank. Yitzhar is home to the well-known ultra-fundamentalist rabbi Od Yosef Haiyeshiva famous for inciting violence against the Palestinians and writer of the book “The king’s Torah” , called by its reviewers:
“The complete guide to killing non-Jews”
http://coteret.com/2009/11/09/settler-rabbi-publishes-the-complete-guide-to-killing-non-jews/
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- We were going to the area where the settlers attacked, but the israeli soldiers in front stopped us
