08 May 2006

Zionist Settlers Exhibit Racist Lunacy to the World

Occasionally, when the crimes committed by Zionist land thieves against Palestinians become so blatant, embarrasing and egregious, the Apartheid government of Israel intervenes with kid gloves in order to preserve what little international credibility remains for their genocidal policies in Occupied Palestine.

Of late, these occasions have become increasinly freqeunt, especially in the Zionist enclave of Hebron - home to 182,000 Palestinians and 450 Jews - where settlers have gotten out-of-control even by the fanatical and savage standards set by the pro-Apartheid government to which they pledge allegiance.

On Saturday, the pro-Apartheid Jerusalem Post reported that, "settlers... threw rocks and cement blocks at the students, mostly young children between ages 6 and 11. One of the settlers, the army said, even commanded his dog to attack... the schoolchildren."

Khalid Amayreh provides additional details of the attack:
On Saturday, messianic settlers affiliated with the Gush Emunim movement (block of faithful) from the small colony of Maon south of Hebron assaulted Palestinian children with stones twice, injuring four children.

One child suffered a head injury, according to Palestinian sources.

The settlers attacked children first in the morning when they went to school and again in the afternoon as they returned home

The Israeli security forces did not arrest any of the attackers.
Amayreh contextualized this attack by describing several others which preceded it.
Last week, children from the neighbouring village of Tuba were attacked by settlers on their way back from school.

The children waited at least three hours for an Israeli army escort as settlers blocked the road.

None of the settlers was arrested....

A fortnight ago, 15 settlers attacked the Cordoba (Cordova) Girls school. Students of the school are normally escorted by foreign peace volunteers.

The Israeli security forces did not arrest any of the attackers.
Occuring roughly simultaneous to the settler attacks on schoolchildren was the action by the Occupying Army to forcibly evict another group of Zionist Settlers from a home they had stolen from a Palestinian family. Jonathan Lis writes in the pro-Apartheid Ha'aretz of the treatment given to the soldiers by the settlers:
Police carried out a Supreme Court eviction order yesterday morning....

The removal of the settlers from what they called the "Shapira Home" lasted three hours and involved police and Border Police forces, who clashed with youth from Hebron's Jewish community....

During the process, the youths threw paint at the officers and refused to be removed quietly....

During the night police and settlers clashed, and the latter threw stones and Moltov cocktails at the officers. As the fighting ebbed, strong police reinforcements were brought into the area. Most of the reinforcements were armed with nightsticks.

Shortly after 6 A.M. the Hebron police chief, Commander Eli Zamir, called on the barricaded youth to evacuate the house, declaring the area a closed military zone.

This followed nighttime efforts by the police to negotiate an evacuation. The three families who lived in the home announced that they would leave the house − which they did once the officers broke into the building − but dozens of youth remained barricaded inside.

The operation was delayed from the onset by a heavy iron gate that took more than an hour to remove. Officers' subsequent efforts to complete the evacuation quickly were delayed by the narrow confines of the home and by the constant rush of girls from the Hebron community, who entered the building's yard to interrupt the evacuation.
Now it is obvious what would have happened to these land thieves if they were Palestinians who had broken into the home of a settler rather than the other way around. The Occupying Zionist Army would have labeled them terrorists and attacked the building with guns blazing.

But one should expect such racially motivated relativism in an Apartheid State.