Hebron, Occupied West Financial institution – Aisha al-Huraini has not had a full evening of sleep for greater than every week.
“On daily basis, the [Israeli] troopers are raiding the village,” she says, seated on a sofa in her residence within the village of al-Tuwani within the Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Financial institution. On a sofa adjoining to her rests a big poster bearing the picture of her husband, 52-year-old Hafez, who was launched from a 10-day stint in Israeli detention on Thursday.
“The troopers shoot tear gasoline and stun grenades immediately at our residence,” provides Aisha, a mom of eight. “It by no means ends.”
On the ground outdoors her entrance door is residue from these grenades; a rug on the bottom has charred marks on it. From the home, an Israeli flag is seen, fluttering above Israel’s Ma’on settlement and the Havat Ma’on outpost, situated only a few hundred metres away. Israeli settlements within the occupied Palestinian territory are thought-about unlawful underneath worldwide legislation.
On September 12, Hafez and different Palestinian farmers have been approached by a gaggle of Israeli settlers from the Havat Ma’on outpost, wielding steel pipes and an M-16 rifle, because the farmers have been tending to the household’s small farm plot, the place they plant olives, figs, tomatoes, zucchini, and different greens. A video of the incident reveals Hafez grabbing a shovel and swinging on the group, putting one of many settlers and fracturing his cranium. Based on Sami, Hafez’s 25-year-old son, one of many settlers started beating Hafez with a steel pipe, fracturing his arms.
Moments later, the armed settler fired his M-16 into the air. That is when Aisha heard the commotion outdoors and ran in the direction of the farm. “Once I arrived, Hafez was already on the bottom with blood on his palms,” she says.
A Palestinian Crimson Crescent ambulance arrived, together with Israeli police officers and troopers, and the household put Hafez on a trolley. However they have been intercepted by Israeli police and troopers who knowledgeable them Hafez was underneath arrest. Based on Sami, the settlers pulled out knives and stabbed the tyres of the ambulance.
Hafez arrived in Israel’s Ofer army court docket going through an allegation of tried homicide, which was later decreased to a cost of grievous bodily hurt – with two giant plaster casts round his arms. He was launched on bail after 10 days. Not one of the settlers concerned within the incident was arrested.
“That is occupation: the sufferer is arrested and jailed whereas the perpetrator continues to stroll free,” Sami tells Al Jazeera. “This case reveals an instance to different settlers that in the event that they maintain attacking us they are going to by no means face any penalties.”
‘Very violent’
Israeli settler assaults are a typical prevalence in al-Tuwani, and Hafez has been arrested a minimum of 4 occasions earlier than. A distinguished human rights activist, Hafez comes from a protracted line of outspoken Palestinians. His mom, Fatma Huraini, a Palestinian refugee who died in July on the age of 95, was a notable determine within the resistance motion in Masafer Yatta. She suffered a number of accidents throughout confrontations with Israeli forces and settlers over time, inflicting her to lose a watch and ear, in accordance with the household.
Sami has been arrested a number of occasions and says he was deliberately run over by an Israeli settler in 2018, which fractured the bones in his leg. His 18-year-old brother was first arrested on the age of 12, and has since been arrested a minimum of six occasions, in accordance with Aisha.
The Huraini household’s neighbour, 68-year-old Khadra Rabia, was born and raised in al-Tuwani. She remembers when the primary settlers got here to the world within the Eighties, establishing the outpost that will increase into the Ma’on settlement.
“They’ve all the time been very violent in the direction of us since they got here right here,” she tells Al Jazeera, sitting on the ground of her small residence. Rabia says she has been attacked quite a few occasions whereas herding her sheep or making an attempt to entry her farmland.
Based on the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, the violence escalated with the institution of the Havat Ma’on outpost in 1997 after which once more in 2000, with the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada. The violence contains makes an attempt to burn down Palestinians’ tent dwellings, attacking shepherds and farmers, stopping them from accessing their pastures or agricultural plots, vandalising olive and fruit timber, setting canines on individuals, and stealing and harming sheep.
The group says Israeli authorities typically don’t intervene in these assaults and fail to implement the legislation on violent settlers.
Rabia has a big scar that protrudes from the facet of her mouth. She says she sustained it in 2014 when confrontations erupted with about 25 Israeli settlers who tried to stop her and two different farmers from accessing their land. A rock struck her within the mouth, inflicting a gash on her face that despatched her to the hospital. Two years in the past, she was hit immediately within the chest with a tear gasoline canister shot by Israeli forces, which brought on burns.
“They make life very troublesome for us,” she says. “We have been dwelling a easy life earlier than. We by no means bothered anybody. We have been simply herding our sheep, farming, and caring for our kids. However these settlers have disrupted all the things.”
Based on the Huraini household, al-Tuwani has seen a noticeable uptick in Israeli raids and settler assaults since a Might 4 Israeli Excessive Courtroom determination to reject a petition from households in Masafer Yatta who’re amongst 1,300 Palestinians dwelling in an space designated as a “firing zone” by the Israeli military for the reason that Eighties. Al-Tuwani village lies adjoining to this zone.
The Huraini household has been energetic within the motion to stop the compelled elimination of communities inside the firing zone, that are going through imminent expulsions. Each day raids and periodic demolition campaigns have outlined life for these communities for the reason that Might determination, which UN specialists say might quantity to a doable struggle crime.
“As soon as they end evicting everybody from the firing zone, they are going to come for us too,” Rabia says. “No Palestinian is secure right here.”
Hafez was launched on bail of 10,000 shekels ($2,890) and into the nice and cozy embrace of his household and supporters, who’ve since been lining up at his residence in al-Tuwani to greet the activist. The court docket additionally dominated that Hafez not be allowed to enter the location of the incident – his personal land – for 30 days.
“We’re very pleased to have him residence with us,” Aisha tells Al Jazeera. “He is an effective man who’s defending his residence, his land, and his household. However we all know it’s solely a matter of time till the settlers come again to assault us – and the police as soon as once more take him away from us.”
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