Settlers assault Palestinian villagers and Israeli activists in Jordan Valley
Israeli human rights activists say 9 people were injured in an incident that followed an earlier attack on a settler shepherd; two Palestinians arrested, no Israelis detained
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Israeli settlers attacked and beat several Palestinians and Israeli activists in the Palestinian hamlet of Mu’arrajat East, in the southern Jordan valley region on Monday morning, injuring several of them during the incident.
Footage of the attack taken by activists from the Looking the Occupation in the Eyes organization showed settlers beating activists and Palestinians. According to one activist who was present during the incident, five Palestinians were injured along with four activists, including himself.
The attack in Mu’arrajat East followed an alleged assault against a settler shepherd in the area earlier Monday morning.
Two Palestinians were arrested over that incident by the Israel Defense Forces, with police saying there have not been any arrests yet of Israelis.
Mu’arrajat East has been the target of repeated attacks by settlers in recent months. Last week, dozens of goats and several dogs belonging to villagers were poisoned and died, with Looking the Occupation in the Eyes and other activists alleging that they were poisoned by settlers.
According to an activist group representing settlers who live and work in illegal settlement outposts, a shepherd from the illegal farming outpost of Zohar’s Farm who was grazing his sheep close to the nearby settlement of Mevo’ot Yericho was attacked and beaten with clubs by four Palestinians, allegedly from Mu’arrajat East, early on Monday morning, leaving the shepherd with a head injury.
A picture provided by the activist group showed the herder with blood running down his hair and face.
According to the IDF, the assailants then fled into Mu’arrajat East, pursued by other settler activists who were alerted to the incident.
Video footage from Looking the Occupation in the Eyes shows three of the settlers armed with clubs beating Palestinians and the anti-occupation activists inside a school in the village, apparently while looking for the perpetrators of the attack on the Israeli herder.
Looking the Occupation in the Eyes said that school pupils and the school principal were assaulted by the settlers during the incident, along with its activists.
Daniel DeMalach, one of the Israeli activists present during the attack who recorded the incident, said that he and other activists went to the school at approximately 9:30 a.m., to confront the settlers.
Speaking to The Times of Israel, he said he saw the settlers going room to room in the school searching for the assailant who attacked the shepherd, and that when DeMalach followed them, recording the incident with his phone as he went, they turned around and beat him repeatedly.
DeMalach, who can be seen in the footage being attacked by the settlers, sustained injuries to his back. Another activist had her arm broken, DeMalach said.
Although only three settlers were initially involved in the attack, a pickup truck with some ten more, who turned up in the village to back them up soon after, he said.
“They have been trying to uproot these people from Mu’arrajat for nearly a year now, and it’s gotten really bad in the last week,” he said following the incident.
“There is an organized, systematic effort to intimidate the community and get them to leave,” he added.
DeMalach said that herders from Mu’arrajat were too frightened to take their sheep out to graze for fear of attack by the settlers and have been forced to buy animal feed as a result.
“Upon reports [of the incident], IDF and police forces went to the spot, dealt with the clash, and arrested several suspects at the site,” the military said in response to the incident. It said that two Palestinians were arrested over the alleged assault against the settler shepherd.
A police spokesperson said no Israelis had been arrested for the attack in Mu’arrajat East, but added that an investigation was underway.
Mu’arrajat East is a Palestinian hamlet north of Jericho that does not have construction or zoning permits and is therefore illegal. Obtaining such permits is extremely difficult for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, where Israel has full security and civilian control.
Residents have reported a series of violent attacks and harassment by local settlers in recent months.
Since October 7, over 1,000 Palestinian residents of some 15 small communities have fled their homes due to settler violence and harassment, particularly in the South Hebron Hills and Jordan Valley regions.
Three Israelis indicted for August attack on Palestinians
Separately, three Israelis — one adult and two minors — were indicted on Monday for conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism over an incident in which they violently attacked Palestinians in their cars in the northern West Bank in August.
Such acts of terrorism are punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the 2016 Law for the Fight Against Terrorism.
The attacks took place in the early hours of August 9, between midnight and 4 a.m. in an area close to the Palestinian villages of Burin and Awarta in the northern West Bank.
According to the indictment, the three suspects set out from the settlement of Itamar to attack Palestinians after a friend of theirs told them he had been attacked by Palestinians on a nearby road.
The three suspects — an 18-year old from Bat Yam, and two 17-year-olds from the settlement of Elon Moreh and a Jewish neighborhood of Hebron — then set out in their car to find Palestinians to attack.
They blockaded one of the entrances to Burin and, when a Palestinian-owned car stopped, exited their vehicle and attacked the car, smashing the windows and windscreens with metal baseball bats and throwing rocks at the car as the driver and his passenger fled the scene.
The Israeli assailants then drove toward Awarta, forced another Palestinian car to stop, and once again smashed the windows and windscreens of that vehicle, striking the driver with a baseball bat.
All three suspects were charged with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, as well as aggravated assault, intentionally damaging a vehicle, and stone throwing, all with “nationalistic or ideological motives with intent to arouse fear and panic among the public,” among other offenses.
“The security forces will continue to thwart and prevent terrorism of all kinds, in all sectors. More arrests are expected in the coming days,” say the Shin Bet and police in a joint statement announcing the indictments.
There has been a significant increase in settler attacks against Palestinian civilians since October 7. In August, two extremist residents of the illegal outpost of Givat Ronen, just north of Awarta, were indicted on terrorism charges for a violent attack against Arab Israelis.
Last Wednesday, olive groves belonging to Palestinians in the town of Burin, a few kilometers northwest of Awarta and close to the radical settlement of Yitzhar, were set on fire.
