Settlers attack Left-wing activists in West Bank

The well known activist now heads an interfaith organization called Haqel–Jews and Arabs in Defense of Human Rights.

Arik Ascherman (photo credit: SARAH LEVIN)
Arik Ascherman
(photo credit: SARAH LEVIN)
Settlers attacked a group of Left-wing activists who had gone to the West Bank on Friday to protect Palestinian goat herders.
The attack took place over a kilometer away from the Baladim outpost on a rocky hilltop so remote that even a vehicle cannot access it, explained Rabbi Arik Ascherman.
The well known activist now heads an interfaith organization called Haqel–Jews and Arabs in Defense of Human Rights. He was there along with members of the Ta’ayush organization and Sarit Michaeli of B’Tzelem.
A five-minute video filmed by the activists showed the group of teenagers and young men charge across the barren terrain.
Some of them wore hooded sweatshirts. They picked up rocks and threw them at the activists. A few of them hit the activists with sticks, yelling at them, “get away from here.”
Ascherman told them “stop acting crazy.”
According to B’Tselem, which released the video to the media, he was one of three activists who was lightly wounded.
The activists reported the incident to the police, who did not respond to requests for a comment.
Just last week, settler teens in the area of the Baladim outpost were caught on video throwing stones at an IDF jeep.
Both attacks occurred on the edge of the Binyamin region of the West Bank, very close to the Jordan Valley.