Settler charged with assaulting Palestinian shepherd after running state-provided ATV over his sheep

The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office charges a settler with assaulting a Palestinian shepherd after driving a state-provided ATV over the shepherd’s sheep in the area of Khirbet al-Tawil, near Nablus, on May 17.

The settler, 21-year-old Yedidia Kaufman, is also charged with breaking into a private compound in the nearby town of Qabalan with other stick-wielding individuals to intimidate residents on May 2; and assaulting left-wing activists who tried to prevent him and other individuals from breaking into the grounds of a Tawil home on May 3.

He is indicted at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on multiple counts, including trespassing, animal cruelty and racially motivated assault.

Kaufman is a resident of the large Haredi settlement of Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem, but allegedly committed the crimes while living and working on the state-backed Jackson Farm, near Tawil, over April and May.

Looking the Occupation in the Eyes, a left-wing Israeli group that volunteers with Palestinians in the area, has long accused settlers from the farm of harassing surrounding Palestinian communities.

So-called protective presence activists have also long said ATVs provided by the state serve settlers to intimidate Palestinians and encroach on the shepherding communities’ grazing areas.

According to the indictment, the Polaris ATV with which Kaufman ran over the sheep near Tawil belonged to the owner of the settler farm, Noam Jackson, who received it from the Settlements Ministry.

Kaufman, who never received a driver’s license, allegedly drove the vehicle with two other unidentified individuals in tow, and stayed in place on top of the sheep despite the Palestinian shepherd’s protests.

The ramming killed a pregnant sheep and its embryo, and seriously wounded another pregnant sheep, which had a miscarriage, the indictment says.