Clashes between settlers and Palestinians continued for a second day as some 20
settlers on Wednesday night entered the Palestinian village of Jalud near the
Esh Kodesh outpost, according to the IDF.
The settlers threw stones at
Palestinians, damaged two vehicles, entered a home in the village and beat a
Palestinian, who was lightly injured and taken to the hospital by the Red
Crescent, the IDF said.
The IDF views incidents such as this very
seriously, a spokesman said. They inflame the area and divert the security
forces from their primary mission of protecting Israeli citizens, the spokesman
said.
The IDF was still investigating the incident, which stemmed from a
land dispute between the Esh Kodesh outpost and nearby villages, including
Jalud, which is 30 km. south of Nablus.
The dispute has generated a
number of violent incidents in the past few days, as a military order allowed
Palestinians to plow a parcel of land that Esh Kodesh residents say is
theirs.
Aron Katsof of Esh Kodesh said that settlers from his community
had not attacked anyone in Jalud and scoffed at the idea that they were
wandering around at night looking to harm Palestinians.
He said some 50
Arabs had headed from Jalud in the direction of the nearby Achia outpost on
Wednesday night.
As of press time, the IDF could not confirm this
incident.
Esh Kodesh residents are engaged in a prolonged struggle with
Palestinians for ownership of the farmland around the outpost.
A military
order, from two months ago, however, recognizes Palestinian ownership over some
of the land in question and allows for villagers to plow it, including the field
that Esh Kodesh residents believe is theirs.
On Wednesday morning,
soldiers and Border Police officers protected Palestinians as they worked the
field with tractors.
At one point, a number of settler women walked among
the tractors and tried to stop the Palestinian men from working the
field.
Rabbis for Human Rights caught some of the incident on camera. The
short video, which was posted on YouTube, shows a Jewish woman, wearing a long
brown skirt and a kerchief over her hair, walking up to one of the tractors.
She
holds out her hand, asking the driver to stop, which he does. Then she sits on
the tractor’s small metal ledge, until Border Police officers pull her
away.
A number of other women, some with children, can be seen in the
video, similarly wandering around the field, seeking to stop the tractors. In the distance, a number of fires are burning.
On Tuesday, Esh Kodesh
residents, including women and children, also went to the field to stop the
tractors, but Border Police officers and soldiers dispersed them. The settlers
have distributed a video from the incident. It shows soldiers pinning an unarmed
man and at some points using their batons against settlers who appear to simply
be standing there. Settlers and Rabbis for Human Rights say that the Border
Police also fired tear gas and stun grenades at the women and children. Clashes
also broke out between security forces and Palestinians, who gathered by the
field, and in some cases threw stones. Two Border Police officers were lightly
wounded during Tuesday’s clashes.
Security sources said that in the
pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, settlers entered the nearby Palestinian village of
Kusra, broke windows and vandalized some 100 olive trees.
Katsof denied
that the attackers were from Esh Kodesh.