Description

Settlers injured during the Kfar Kursa incident on Tuesday. Photo by Zachariah, Rabbis for Human Rights

Israeli settlers in the second floor of the home where they sought refuge from villagers in Qusra, which they allegedly invaded in order to carry out a price tag attack. (Photo: Zacharia Sada/Rabbis for Human Rights)

Israeli soldiers evacuate the settlers from the village of Qusra, which they invaded, allegedly to carry out a price tag attack. (Photo: Zacharia Sada/Rabbis for Human Rights)

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Palestinian Villagers Detain, Protect Settlers Who Attacked Child

by IMEMC News, Jan 8, 2013

A potentially violent confrontation was defused Tuesday in the Palestinian village of Qusra, south of Nablus, after a group of 11 Israeli settlers invaded the village to carry out a "revenge attack", after Israeli troops dismantled one of their illegal settlement outpost structures.

The settlers attacked a young boy, according to local villagers, and many of the local residents ran outside to try to defend him.

The attack led to clashes, while another group of settlers invaded Jaloud nearby village, and clashed with local residents.

The invading settlers ran into a partially-constructed Palestinian home for cover.

There, the settlers found themselves surrounded by angry local residents, some of whom apparently wanted to attack them for harming the child, and for inhabiting a settlement outpost illegally built on land stolen by force from the villagers.

A group of Palestinian peace activists set up a human chain to prevent further escalation, that would pententially have led to casualties.

The Israeli military then stormed the village, and accompanied the 11 settlers out of Qusra.

The settlers live in the Esh Kodesh outpost, a settlement which is considered illegal under both international and Israeli law.

One of the Palestinian journalists who was on the scene taking pictures, Ahmed Talat Hasan, was later kidnapped by the Israeli military.

Following the incident, dozens of Palestinian security officers were deployed in the village, and around it, to prevent further attacks by the settlers.

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Published Jan 8, 2013

Incident follows the uprooting by Civil Administration officials of settler olive trees planted on Arab land.

By Chaim Levinson for Haaretz

A group of some 10 settlers from the outpost of Esh Kodesh, in the Nablus area, were apprehended and beaten by Palestinian villagers on Tuesday after trespassing on their land. The settlers were later handed over to the Israel Defense Forces.

The incident began on Tuesday morning, when Civil Administration officials arrived at the outpost to uproot olive trees that had been planted on private Palestinian land. Based on the experience of previous such incidents, residents of the surrounding Palestinian villagers immediately organized themselves into security details.

In the early afternoon, the Esh Kodesh settlers, some of whom were activists known to the police, arrived at the village of Kfar Kusra. The infiltrators, who were masked and wore gloves, were apprehended by the security detail of about 30 villagers, who surrounded them, took them to an abandoned building and began to beat them.

The incident lasted for about an hour. The settlers, who did not have telephones with them, could not request help. Eventually, the Kfar Kusra villagers contacted the Israel Defense Forces and requested that a unit be sent to remove the settlers.

The settlers, some with wounds from the beating, were taken away by the soldiers and are currently in military custody. It is not known what the army intends doing with them.

"After a [Civil Administration] action at the illegal outpost of Esh Kodesh this morning, a group of Israeli civilians entered the villages of Kursa and Krayot, with the intention of harming the villagers," said a spokesman of the NGO Yesh Din in response to the incident. "The Palestinians themselves reported the incident to the security forces and requested that they arrive to arrest the attackers. The attackers were taken by the army and we hope that, in contrast to previous incidents, they will be transferred to the police for investigation and clarification about what they were doing in the village."

"Settler retaliation against Palestinians following action [by the civil administration] has become a regular and well-known phenomenon, particularly in that area," Yesh Din added. "The fact that the IDF was not deployed to protect the Palestinian villagers is symptomatic of a policy that completely abandons the Palestinian residents of the area and ignores the basic duty of the IDF as the sovereign authority in the area."

"Unfortunately, past experience teaches us that today's incident will be followed by further revenge attacks against Palestinians. We expect the security forces to deploy as necessary in order to avoid all harm to the local residents."

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Published Jan 7, 2013

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Palestinian villagers from the Nablus town of Qusra on Tuesday held at least 18 settlers captive after they raided their village and tried to uproot olive trees, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, a PA official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that settlers from the illegal outpost of Yesh Kodesh tried to uproot olive trees belonging to Qusra residents.

Israeli forces present in the area fired tear gas at the Palestinian villagers, but no injuries were reported.

In the nearby village of Jalud, dozens of settlers attempted to uproot olive trees south of the main entrance. Jalud residents quickly mobilized to stop the attacks, leading to clashes.

Daghlas said that Qusra villagers managed to contain 18 settlers for several hours in an area between Qusra and Jalud.

The governor of Nablus, Jibrin al-Bakri, later confirmed that the settlers had been transferred to Israeli military forces via Palestinian liaison officials.

The Nablus official praised villagers for their resilience in stopping the attack by extremist settlers and called on the PA to support farmers in rural areas.

An Israeli army spokeswoman told Ma'an that Israeli military forces "vacated Israelis from a building in Jalud. It is unclear why they were in the building."

The settlers, numbering around 11, were lightly to moderately injured following clashes with local Palestinians, she added.

Settlers routinely attack Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank.

Over 7,500 olive trees were damaged or destroyed by settlers between January and mid-October in 2012, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

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By Michael Omer-Man for 972Mag.com
published Jan 7, 2013

Palestinians catch settlers allegedly attempting a 'price tag' attack

Settlers invade the village of Qusra, where they are trapped by village residents. Palestinians eventually call the Israeli army to evacuate their attackers. Qusra has a long history as the target of settler violence.

Palestinians in the West Bank village of Qusra caught a group of Israeli settlers who they said invaded the village to carry out a so-called “price tag” attack against locals, leading to a standoff that lasted nearly two hours on Tuesday.

The incident began late Tuesday morning when the Israeli army demolished an illegal structure in the settlement of Esh Kodesh, Israel Radio reported (Hebrew). In response, some 25 settlers descended toward the neighboring village of Qusra to carry out a “price tag” attack.

The settlers physically attacked a Palestinian family and farmers and attempted to uproot olive trees in fields between the settlement and the village, explained Zacharia Sada, a field worker for Rabbis for Human Rights who witnessed the events.

Villagers quickly arrived on the scene and light clashes broke out until the army arrived to separate the two sides, Sada said. A smaller group of settlers, however, went around the soldiers and ran into the village, ostensibly to carry out a “price tag” attack in retaliation for the demolition in the settlement.

Villagers quickly spotted the invading settlers, who after some clashes ran into a Palestinian home and sought refuge on an unfinished second floor. Several were lightly injured by the villagers as they were chased into the house.

A Palestinian Authority officer who was in the village, along with Palestinian human rights workers, put themselves in between the enraged villagers and the would-be Israeli attackers, Sada recalled.

The Palestinian officer then called the Palestinian District Coordinating Office (DCO), which in turn helped dispatch Israeli security forces to the scene to evacuate the Israeli settlers, Saad added.

If they hadn’t been there, the human rights worker said, things could have turned out badly.

According to the witness, at least some of the settlers who were caught inside Qusra were the same people who attacked the Palestinian family and farmers earlier in the day.

The Israeli army released the settlers after evacuating them from Qusra, the Times of Israel reported.

Qusra has been a regular target for settler violence, especially in the past year. In February of last year, settlers descended toward Qusra and shot at least one Palestinian while the Israeli army watched and backed them up, an incident that was photographed. A number of Israelis were arrested in connection with the shooting but were never charged.

A month later, settlers torched six cars in Qusra in an apparent “price tag” attack. The police investigation into that incident is a story in and of itself.

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NABLUS, January 7, 2014 (WAFA) – Palestinian villagers from three Nablus area villages Tuesday confronted Israeli settlers who entered their fields to uproot and destroy olive trees, according to a local official.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlements in the north of the West Bank, told WAFA that settlers, protected by soldiers, proceeded to uproot newly-planted olive trees in the villages of Qaryout, Jalout and Qusra when villagers rushed to their fields to stop the settlers.

He said confrontations broke out between them and soldiers fired tear gas canisters towards the Palestinian residents. No injuries were reported.

At one point, villagers were able to hold more than a dozen settlers in the fields in spite of the Israeli army protection to the settlers.

T.R./M.S.

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