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Al Arabiya
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Israeli settlers, Palestinians clash in West Bank village
Dozens of Israeli settlers and Palestinians clashed Friday in the occupied West Bank village of Sinjil, where a march against recent settler attacks on nearby farmland was due to take place. AFP journalists saw local residents and activists begin their march before locals reported that settlers had appeared on a hill belonging to the village. Palestinian youths marched toward the hill to drive away the settlers, setting a fire at its base while the settlers threw rocks from the high ground. Local Palestinians told AFP that settlers also started a fire. Several Israeli military jeeps arrived at the scene and soldiers fired a few shots in the air, causing Palestinians to withdraw back to the village. Anwar al-Ghafri, a lawyer and member of Sinjil's city council, told AFP that such incidents are not new, but have intensified in recent days in the area, just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah. 'A group of settlers, with support and approval from the Israeli army, are carrying out organized attacks on citizens' land,' he told AFP. 'They assault farmers, destroy crops, and prevent people from reaching or trying to reach their land,' he said, describing the events that had prompted Friday's march. The settlers involved in Friday's clashes could not be reached for comment. Fence erected Israeli authorities recently erected a high fence cutting off parts of Sinjil from Road 60, which runs through the entire West Bank from north to south, and which both settlers and Palestinians use. Mohammad Asfour, a 52-year-old resident, told AFP that the fence was isolating his community, like other Palestinian cities and towns that recently had gates erected by Israel to control access to the outside. 'Sinjil is suffering greatly because of this wall. My house is near it, and so are my brothers' homes. The settler has the right to come to Sinjil -- but the sons of Sinjil aren't allowed to climb up this hill,' Asfour said. Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has soared since the Hamas attack of October 2023 triggered the Gaza war. Since then, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 947 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Over the same period, at least 35 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to Israeli figures.
The Guardian
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
A bitter harvest in the occupied West Bank
Re Louis Theroux's article (If you were shocked by my film on Israeli settlers in the West Bank, you haven't been paying attention, 10 May), some years back I had a brief conversation with Daniella Weiss in an olive grove on the hillside near the settlement of Kedumim. It was during a standoff between Israeli settlers, the Israeli army and the Palestinian farmers who owned the land we were helping to harvest. She said the land was 'empty' when Kedumim was established in 1975, and that the well-established old olive trees were wild. I pointed out that they were growing in well-spaced rows. 'They're wild,' she replied. I noted that the hillside was terraced with stones. 'They're wild,' she repeated. I gave up discussing further. Louis Theroux, in his excellent film, summed her up well with a single word: 'sociopathic'. We no longer go to help harvest those lands as they have been stolen by settlers. Weiss has the full support of the Israeli government. She and the settlers have access to automatic weapons and the protection of the Israeli army. The Palestinians have no protection whatsoever. Anyone with an ounce of humanity can see which side we should be FoyerFounder, The Olive Harvest Trust Louis Theroux's documentary will have been achingly familiar to us Northern Irish. It is no surprise that our divided communities identify with one side or the other, and both Palestinian and Israeli flags are widely flown here, each calling out that we know your pain and we're on your side. One can't make like-for-like comparisons, but the story of a settler community that pushes the other aside but doesn't completely succeed in that, and an incumbent community that is resentful and oppressed, is understood here. Also understood is that it plays out over centuries, not years. Maybe there are lessons too, as we work through our peace and reconciliation process. We're a more hopeful place now, even if there is still a few hundred years to HealyDerry Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
