Teen charged with arson and assault over attack on West Bank village last year

A young man is charged for his role in an attack on a West Bank village last year, which saw dozens of masked Jewish extremists burn Palestinian property and endanger residents.

The defendant, 19-year-old Israel Harpaz, is from the northern town of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, located inside the Green Line, but he appears to be linked to ultranationalist circles in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

Harpaz is charged in the Jerusalem District Court with joint arson, joint aggravated assault with a racist motive, rioting that caused damage with a racist motive and other violent offenses.

He was arrested this month with two others in connection to the November 17 attack on Jaba, a village west of Bethlehem, which was carried out in revenge for the government’s evacuation of the illegal outpost of Tzur Misgavi.

According to the indictment filed today by the State Attorney’s Office, the defendant was at the site of the demolition as it was underway, protesting in a group. He and others then traveled straight from the razed outpost to a synagogue in Bat Ayin, a nearby settlement.

It was near that synagogue where he and others were given a “briefing” by an unknown individual, in which they were instructed to turn off their phones, don face masks and travel to Jaba in order to avenge the outpost’s evacuation and “teach ‘them’ a lesson,” prosecutors write.

The participants also allegedly received instructions to split into two groups. The first group, those driving vehicles, would travel in a convoy to Jaba, drop off the assailants and then return to Bat Ayin and wait. Those in the second group, the actual assailants, were instructed to return on foot to Bat Ayin, where they would be picked up by the drivers and ferried out of the settlement.

At around 5:30 p.m, approximately 20 vehicles, including one driven by Harpaz, set out to the village. Dozens of masked individuals disembarked and began wreaking havoc in the Palestinian town, setting cars and buildings on fire and throwing stones.

Residents were forced to lock themselves in their houses, and one of the assailants threw a Molotov cocktail at a house while a family was inside, resulting in no injuries. They also sprayed graffiti with messages including “A Jew does not evict a Jew” and “Death to Arabs,” prosecutors write.