Settler extremists try to rebuild outpost, then attempt arson attack on Palestinian town

Radical settler activists attempted to rebuild the illegal settlement outpost of Kol Mevaser in the central West Bank in the early morning, and then staged an attack on the nearby Palestinian town of Mukhmas after security services destroyed the freshly re-established dwelling.

Some 15 activists ascended the hill where Kol Mevaser has been repeatedly built and then demolished by the security services, to erect tents at the site, according to civil rights activists from the Torat Tzedek organization working to protect Mukhmas.

Border Police and personnel from the Civil Administration then came to remove the tents, although they left a rudimentary wooden home intact. Despite Kol Mevaser being located within a closed military zone, the activists were not detained by the army.

Subsequently, Jewish hooligans, many of them masked, descended from the direction of Kol Mevaser just after 10 a.m. and attacked infrastructure in Mukhmas. Security camera footage showed several extremists setting a fire by a fence protecting a chicken coop. Activists later found burnt cloth that had been use to try and set the coops on fire.

A message put out on a WhatsApps group run by Kol Mevaser activists says: “Despite the difficulty, we are not broken, and we will continue to build anew and to settle the Land of Israel.”

Torat Tzedek head Rabbi Arik Ascherman says today’s attack would not have happened if security forces had enforced the closed military zone against extremists from Kol Mevaser.

“The clear goal of the Kol Mevaser outpost, as with many outposts, is to use violence to force Palestinians out of their homes,” he adds, noting that the nearby Palestinian Bedouin hamlet of Khalet a-Sidra was recently abandoned due to repeated attacks, allegedly by Kol Mevaser extremists.

“They are now working on the village of Mukhmas as well,” charges Ascherman.