Israeli Terrorism

When a group of Jewish settlers came down the street towards them in the old city centre of Hebron, Hamza Abu Khetar’s friends fled from the house that they were renovating. Hamza, a slim, 14-year-old Palestinian boy, was working on the roof of the empty, four-storey building and did not see the threat. It was a Saturday afternoon, the end of Sabbath, a time when, according to Palestinians and Israeli human rights workers, the hardline settlers of Hebron often go on the rampage.
“By the time I saw them they were already on me,” he told The Times. “They started kicking and beating me. I couldn’t protect myself, there were about 25 of them.”
Beatings of Palestinians by radical religious settlers, protected by the Israeli army and police, are a common occurrence in this dangerous city, where Jewish settlements nudge into the heart of a community of about 120,000 Arabs. What happened next was shocking even by the violent standards of Hebron however.
“They pushed me over the edge of the roof,” Hamza said. “They meant to kill me.” A lower roof broke his fall, but Hamza broke the bones in one foot and twisted the other ankle. He was in great pain in his stomach, back and legs when his family found him. Despite his agony, Israeli soldiers kept the Palestinian ambulance waiting at a checkpoint for 90 minutes because the attack happened in an area where only Israeli vehicles are allowed to drive, his father, Sufian, said.
“They consider us nothing more than mosquitoes, not human beings, as though we didn’t exist,” his father said.


continue reading