Israeli settlers caught on film beating elderly Palestinian woman

Friday June 13, 2008 16:52

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

After an Israeli human rights group handed out small video cameras to Palestinians in the West bank, those cameras have been used to capture a number of attacks that would otherwise have gone unreported. In the latest example, an attack by a group of Israeli settlers on a Palestinian farming family Sunday was filmed, and the video released on the internet.

Settlers caught on video attacking Palestinian woman

Israeli settlers caught on film beating elderly Palestinian woman

Attacks by extremist Israeli Jewish settlers against the indigenous Palestinian population of the West Bank are common, and the incidents have increased as Israeli settlements have expanded on Palestinian land over the last 15 years.

In Sunday's attack, an elderly woman, Thamam al-Nawaja, was herding her family's sheep when four masked and armed Israeli settlers came running toward her from the settlement of Susia. When her son and husband saw what was happening, they came over, and the settlers beat the whole family with baseball bats. Al-Nawaja, who suffered the brunt of the beating, spent three days in the hospital after the attack. Her face was beaten badly, and one cheekbone was shattered. But when approached by reporters upon leaving the hospital, she stated, "They don't want us to stay on our land. But we won't leave. We'll die here. It's ours."

Israeli police claim they are investigating the incident, but no one has been arrested. It is extremely rare for Israeli settlers to be charged with attacks against Palestinians, as it is the mandate of the Israeli police to protect the settlers from attacks by Palestinians, and the police claim they have no jurisdiction to charge settlers who attack Palestinians.

The British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, obtained the rights to the video, which can be viewed at the link below.