Ynet reports that two masked settler assailants attacked (Hebrew and English) an elderly Palestinian shepherd, Hassan Barhoush, with metal bars and broke both his arms and hands, saying they intended to kill him. He was from the village of A-Lebed near Tulkarem. He believes his attackers were not from the nearby settlement, Avney Heyfetz.
The victim’s son told Ynet that if everyone does whatever he pleases and beats whomever he wishes, the only thing remaining will be anarchy. He further noted that relations between the nearby settlement and his village had always been good with no previous such incidents. Residents of Avney Heyfetz visited Barhoush in the hospital and the settlement administrator denounced the attack and called for apprehension of the assailants.
Despite this it must be noted that no matter the level of goodwill, Occupation begets impunity. Incidents like this are either never investigated or assailants are never apprehended. If, by some chance they are, they are rarely charged. If by an even slimmer chance they are, they are never convicted or punished. That will of course be the circumstance here as well.
At Achilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, he underwent an operation to place platinum rods in both hands.
More pictures of Hassan Barhoush from Kfar al-Labad before he was transferred to an Israeli hospital:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=580562
Wonder who’s going to pay the bill, sometimes the victims of Israeli terror have to pay themselves.
Two days later, i.e. last Sunday, seven Palestinian children were injured when settlers threw stones at their schoolbus near Nablus.
The reader commentary under the article you cited is just outrageous, also.
The settlers and the government are now one and the policy is to discourage Palestinians from living in any part of Palestine. It seems incredible that anyone could believe that an entire people and culture can be driven from their land forever. It’s a kind of insanity and it leads to increasingly violent even unthinkable “solutions.” Zionism grows uglier by the minute.
It seems Ynet published this report merely to deny any settler involvement. And unless I am missing something from the Google translate of the Hebrew page, it appears to be filed under “politics.” In both versions, the victim is identified as an Arab Palestinian, yet the attackers are “unknown assailants” without kippas. As they spoke, surely the victim would have known the mother tongue of his assailants. Yet the attackers are never called either Palestinians (it is conceivably possible) or Israelis. Again, the victim would have heard them speak in Hebrew or in Arabic–native or accented. Why are such efforts made to call the attackers neutral terms such as “unknown assailants,” “two people,” “youngsters,” “vandals,” whereas the victim is announced in the title as Arab/Palestinian? Balanced journalism would mean saying either “Israeli youths attack elderly Palestinian” or saying “Youths attack elderly shepherd.” Ynet is clearly doing damage control. Until the visceral loathing behind these crimes is acknowledged and addressed, such news merely incites more of the same. Attacks such as this are not political or security issues. They are hate crimes.
The settlers know that at the end of the day, Netanyahu supports them.
Why anyone would support these violent psychos, I don’t understand
How else do you expect Bennett’s boys to pass the time?
Could such settler outrages be periodically collected and sent to several thousand travel agencies in the northern hemisphere, worldwide?
Your assessment of the easy punishment Jews get for attacking Palestinians is not very accurate. Jack Teitel was sentenced for two life sentences today, he was also ordered to compensate his victims by 360K NIS and 2*300 to others. The son of MK Struk is serving time in jail for attacking a Palestinian. And these are just the ones i remember there are others.
What a shame that you couldn’t come up with more than two names in that long list of Israelis being sentenced for assaulting Palestinians.
Since you mention Orit Struk’s son, here’a an article on the agression. That Palestiian was a 15-years old kid ! And please read the Yesh Din statement at the end: “According to our data, some 90% of complaints filed by Palestinians against Israeli citizens that hurt them or their property end without an indictment. Yesh Din stressed that Struk’s accomplice was never caught”.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985625,00.html
Imagine if is was the other way around: in order to find a Palestinian accomplice, they would torture the main suspect to get the name, and make a pogrom in his village. Zvi Struk was sentenced to 18 months in prison. How much do you think a Palestinian would get for doing to an Israeli Jewish kid what Struk did to that Palestinian kid ?
I don’t know if you’re hasbarising for patriotic reasons or if you get paid but no matter what reasons motivate you, you have all my contempt.
My G*d. This Zvi Struk and his buddy need psychiatric intervention. I mean that this was a thinly veiled homoerotic assault, a kind of rape.
The worst part of it is that his mother, Orit Struk, a leader of the settler movement in Hebron – who said that “the verdict grants victory to lying Arabs who are waging a national war against the Jewish farmers” – was elected to the Knesset for Jewish Home during the last elections, her standing up for her son made her very popular in settler circles. Zvi Struk is not really to blame, he’s probably been brain-washed since he was a kid.
Zvi is certainly damaged goods. And why not apprehend the accomplice? Zvi can identify him. It is too sick and shallow.
As for your contempt, I really appreciate it. Thank You, have no idea what i would have done without it.
I guess you are violating a comment rule or two with your personal note’s, i hope Richard will put an end to your vile personal attacks.
Talking about substance, I was only stating the facts and didn’t opine about the political situation in the disputed area/ west bank. with respect to the post , Richard stated “Despite this it must be noted that no matter the level of goodwill, Occupation begets impunity. Incidents like this are either never investigated or assailants are never apprehended. If, by some chance they are, they are rarely charged. If by an even slimmer chance they are, they are never convicted or punished.”
I came with two examples that showed he’s wrong, there are more.
I think DY’s “contempt” is directed at the assailants AND their supporters. I suppose that the citation of two counter instances means you are a supporter. The contempt is driven by sympathy for the oppressed. As much as anything else, and more than most, the program of annihilating Palestinian identity, life and patrimony in the West Bank is worthy of contempt. There is no excuse other than wantonness and craven self-interest. For me, the settlement and expropriation of the West Bank and Gaza were the end of the line for Zionism. Having failed to make peace with the OTs, which Israel might have done, and an outcome I could have tolerated personally, the state elected to seize this land tacitly and permanently. It so doing, it undid any vestige of decency adhering to the Zionist enterprise, and betrayed an entire narrative built around the ambiguities of “democracy.” As though to seal the bargain, some MK recently introduced a bill putting the “Jewish” character of the state ahead of, or prior to, its democratic character. The racial content of the bill is explicit for all the world. It is a message to the world of what fate now holds for the Palestinian people, but a message that may not resonate with Americans and that could be the fatal flaw that can undo the entire enterprise. One small step for an MK could become one unconscionable step for Americans. Then again one is sometimes challenged in the attempt to underestimate the American public.
Supporter of what ? of accurate reporting ? absolutely
Supporter of the shenanigans caused by idiots ? absolutely not.
You call the murder and maiming of Palestinians “shenanigans??” Shenanigans are juvenile pranks. I maintain that your dismissal of the severity of these crimes is a big part of the problem & part of the reason people here see you as a partisan hasbarist.
While waiting for your list of Israelis sentenced for assaulting Palestinians (I’m sure google can help you): You didn’t answer any of my questions:
1. Do you think a Palestinian would have been sentenced to 18 months in prison if he’d done to a Jewish kid what Zvi Struk did to the Palestinian kid ???
2. We all know that if Jack Teitel had stuck to killing Palestinians he wouldn’t have been sentenced as he did today. He killed a Palestinian back in the late ’90s, he was arrested and released because of ‘lack of proof’. When it comes to killing Palestinians, they don’t really invest a lot of energy in fiding these proofs, do they ? Like the Palestinian family (including two small kids) burnt by a molotov thrown at their car in August last year close to the settlement of Bat Ayin. The IDF or whoever tracked the agressors back to that settlement, arrested three youngters, and released them, ‘lack of proof’. Why didn’t they torture them to make them confess, as they do with Palestinians ? Why didn’t they tear down the place looking for ‘proofs’ ?
Yours are the exceptions that prove the rule. Bringing two examples of Israeli Jewish terrorists charged for their crimes proves nothing other than that 2 criminals committed a crime so public & heinous it couldn’t be ignored. For every one hoodlum charged 100 or 1,000 never are. I’m very tired of this game you’re playing. It’s insipid & boring.
This poor man was beaten far more brutally than I was when I was attacked by illegal Jewish settlers from the Itamar settlement near Nablus in 2002. I was 68 then, and shocked that young thugs most likely from Brooklyn would beat a woman old enough to be their grandmother. The IDF sat and watched it happen. The Israeli police admitted they knew who did it but there were no arrests, even though I was robbed of my US & UK passports, all my credit cards, cash, travellers checks, camera, cell phone and everything I was carrying, including my jacket. It was the first time Israeli settlers had attacked inernationals. The message was clear: “You will not be held accountable…” Just four months later Rachel Corrie was murdered, then James Miller and Tom Hurndall. These three were killed by terrorists wearing IDF uniforms. Settlers and soldiers have concluded that even internationals are fair game; Palestinians are attacked for sport.
I would be interested what the IDF guys feel when they allow this kind of thing. Do they empathize with the victim but are commanded to stand down. Do they suffer this moral dilemma? How can young men with guns and uniforms stand down when unarmed people are assaulted by thugs? We asked this question of Germans apropos of Kristalnacht and other pogroms. There was one report of a policeman crying because he could do nothing on Kristalnacht. And worse yet — what does standing down in these circumstances do to them, their lives, the values they enact in later life?
Answering my own question — later in life these IDF soldiers who stand around and do nothing as Palestinians and their sympathizers are assaulted by armed “settlers”, will say that they did it for “their people.” They will say that they thought they were doing the right thing for a stronger better safer bigger Israel.
Davey, According to the story there was no IDF soldiers around when the incident took place, so what do you mean by allow ? you think there is a soldier on every inch of land ?
I had confused one story with another. Suffice it to say that I have seen many videos of IDF looking the other way while Pals are harassed, even by children. So, in general, my comments stand. Interesting that you will not respond to the provocations of terms like “annihilating Palestinian identity” or (Israel’s) “wantonness and craven self-interest” expressed in the occupation. Cynical nitpicking is not a discussion of ideas.
Davey, you seem a sincere person, so i will give you some sort of answer.
1. I have been personally attacked here and called names by many (including the site owner, though i think/hope he was joking) , simply for presenting facts. You think such a behavior and name calling can be counted as a discussion stimulant ?
2. You intend to initiate a discussion through the provocations of terms ? One who does that isn’t really interested in having a discussion only in swinging his jabs. What’s the point in that ? If this is a place for the exchange of ideas what’s the point in exchanging jab’s ? and if this is all about the Jab’s then excuse me but i don’t want to take part in it.
3. English isn’t my first language and sometimes it’s hard for me to follow.
There are soldiers who routinely stand by when violent cr,miles are committed. Please do not even begin to argue that the IDF exists to protect law abiding Palestinians, because we know it exists to protect Israeli settler hoodlums & thieves.
@Elad Provocative words are not “jabs.” They are not aimed at the person but at the ideas, the interpretation of the realities. I say nothing about you as a person, no name-calling. I say Israel is “annihilating Palestinian identity” and this you do not respond to. I expect someone to respond, no that is not true or something like that. And then on to the discussion of what constitutes “annihilation” etc. etc. There is a point in formulating what one thinks/feels, finding the words, filling out the picture. That is discussion. Harping on details can be cynical denial insisting, for example, it was not 3 o’ clock but 2 55″, you see. That kind of thing closes discussion because the difference is immaterial. Can’t help you on the language problem.
@Elad, I teach English to adults. From your writing, it is clear to me that your English level is fluent, and as such, you are perfectly capable of understanding what is being said to you here.
I absolutely do not understand your rather mealy-mouthed lack of condemnation for this horrific assault. Is the prejudice against Arabs that strong, and the mindless loyalty to Israel in spite of the horrors it commits? How can you commit yourself to insisting that Israel actually prosecutes fairly against Israelis who attack Palestinian Arabs, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary that you yourself have access to simply by googling? How, I have to ask, do people like you live with themselves when faced with these facts?
I would be interested in hearing your response to this, Elad.
Where in the YNET article did it say this horrific attack was committed by settlers? The article you linked describes the perpetrators as “unknown assailants” .
Please don’t be stupid. The attack happened on the West Bank. That is where there are settlements. People who live in settlements are settlers. Hence the assailants were settlers. Unless you’re claiming the attackers were Palestinian.
If you google, you’ll find that all Palestinian media speak about settlers attacking. Here’s PressTV (I know it’s Iranian…. but at least as ‘neutral’ as Ynet), there’s an interview with Hassan Barboush in his hospital bed and with his grandson.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/30/295857/80yearold-palestinian-shepherd-left-wounded-following-a-violent-settler-attack/
If settlers are capable of attacking kids on their way to school (in the South Hebron Hills, Internationals are accompanying the Palestinian children in order to protect them, cf. videos on the net of settler aggressions), do you really think they wouldn’t attack a 80-years-old shepherd ?