Left-wingers arrested for vandalism at Samaria outpost

Police suspect the four set fire that damaged stone hut and vandalized a nearby makeshift structure.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN
left-wing vandalism 224.88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
left-wing vandalism 224.88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Police detained four left-wing activists on Wednesday morning they suspect set a fire that destroyed the interior of a stone hut and vandalized a nearby makeshift structure near the Shilo settlement in Samaria. The vandalized building outside the Adi Ad outpost was home to six young single adults. The activists - three men and a woman - said they were innocent of all charges and had arrived in the area solely to help Palestinian olive growers. But according to Tzuri Ami-Or of Adi Ad, scores of Palestinians arrived in the area in the morning and appeared to be heading for a grove that belongs to the outpost. When settlers went out to to protect the trees, they saw smoke rising from the area of the hut on a hilltop they call Givat Hachousha. As they got closer, Ami-Or said, he saw four Israeli left-wing activists leaving the hut and one of them had a match in his hand. The activists also killed one of the watchdogs that belonged to the singles at Givat Hachousha, he said. The settlers tried to catch the activists, who were caught by Shilo's security chief as they fled toward a nearby Palestinian village. The security head placed them in police custody. Binyamin region police detained the four activists until the evening, when they were released, even though they are still under investigation for arson. Police are also investigating what they believe was an act of retribution, in which they allege settlers damaged two Palestinian vehicles shortly afterward the fire. Although settlers sent The Jerusalem Post a photograph of the dead watchdog, police said they had not received a complaint regarding the animal and were not investigating the matter at this time. The attorney for the four activists, Gabi Laski, said her clients were innocent and that she believed the investigation was now limited to allegations of incitement and that her clients were not arson suspects. One of the activists, Ben Ronen, 26, from Tel Aviv, said he and the other volunteers had come to the area to help Palestinians from Turmus Aiya harvest their olives. "We met about 60 or 70 people from the village and we went to the olive groves," Ronen said. The entire event was coordinated with both the IDF and the Border Police, who were on the scene, he said. They had only been in the olive grove for a few moments when they saw a fire in the distance. Fearful that settlers had set fire to trees belonging to Palestinians, they went closer to investigate and to take photographs, Ronen said. All of a sudden they were approached by a car, he said. A man and a boy, who looked as if they were settlers, got out and threw stones at them. The man got close enough to hit him hard enough so that he fell, Ronen said. To escape from the settlers they ran back in the direction of the Palestinian village, he said. "There were only four of us, we did not know what to do, we were really scared," Ronen said. Just then a white jeep appeared and a man came out who identified himself as a security officer from the settlements. "He took out a pistol and pointed it at us. He said, 'Stop, I will shoot. I will kill you, I have a right to do it. "We put our hands in the air and said, 'We are not armed. We only came here to harvest olives," said Ronen. The Shilo security man then relaxed, put his gun down and called the IDF. They were taken to the police station, where they were held for nine hours and then released, but were ordered to stay away from the West Bank for 15 days, Ronen said. He added that one of the settlers who claimed they had set fire to the hut was then charged with giving false testimony. One source in the area who preferred to remain anonymous told the Post he believed it was Palestinians who set fire to the hut. Palestinian Mahmud Hazana told the Post he owned the land on which the hut was located and that since it was erected in April, he had filed four complaints against the settlers with the Binyamin police, but that no action had been taken. The settlers, he said, had also been swimming in his family's drinking well. Before the settlers moved to the hilltop, his family would make use of caves there and the children would play under the trees. But for the last six months they had been afraid to make use of the land, Hazana said. Each time they complained to the police, they were told, "The matter is complicated." In a separate incident, settlers complained that a border policeman assaulted a young man as he stood with his wife outside the Gilad Farm outpost, southwest of Nablus, on Monday afternoon, hours before the start of Succot. They lodged their complaint with the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Department, in which they said that the officer was not wearing an identity tag and refused to provide his name. They also said that other border policemen stood by as the assault occurred. The police then blocked the entrance to the outpost until just before the start of the holiday, the settlers said. Police said it was their officers who had come under attack by youths from the outpost. "We take a completely different view of what happened. The Civil Administration and Border Police were in the area to secure [Palestinian] olive farmers," Border Police spokesman Moshe Pinchi said. "Officers came under attack from a number of youths from Gilad Farm. One of the youths approached a group of Border Police officers and began to curse at them and provoked them. These are the same security forces who protect the residents. Only a month ago, security forces killed a terrorist in the area. Now the Border Police are the target of attack," Pinchi said. He expressed the Border Police's "disappointment" with the conduct of the settler youths, adding that the police viewed the assault on its officers with "the utmost severity." One of the suspects in Monday's attack had been released from custody hours earlier in honor of Succot, Pinchi said. Addressing the complaint, he added, "It is possible that an officer used too much force while responding to the attack. If one of the officers acted improperly he will pay. Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report.