Bethlehem: Israeli settlers attack farmers' lands and install portable homes
author Monday February 09, 2009 12:07author by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies

   Scores of Israeli settlers attacked farm lands that belong to Palestinian farmers from the village of al-Khadir, located near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, on Monday.

The farmers said that the armed Israeli settlers arrived and installed two portable homes on the farmers' lands.

they added that this is not the first attack the settlers have carried out in an attempt to annex village lands that are located near the illegal settlement of Efrat, which is built on stolen land from Palestinians.

Source: IMEMC

There is a lot about this on most media outlets - it seems that this theft of land is authorised by the Israeli Government and perhaps that's why the new settlers are so arrogant.  If Israel allows this to continue - what hope is there for any Palestinian.  If they fight back and kill a Jew - it will be an excuse for the IDF to shoot a couple of hundred farmers and their families.

If anyone opposes the settlers or gets in the way - they get a thumping even if it is an older woman.


The upset comes after footage from the weekend of four settler youths beating and kicking a Palestinian photographer in the West Bank City of Hebron.

The youths also punched a British human rights activist in the face.

Fifty-three-year-old Janet Benvie says the Israeli army did nothing to intervene.

She said: "The soldiers made no attempt whatsoever. They must have seen some of what was happening, but they made no attempt to stop the settlers."

Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank have annexed tens of thousands of acres of land, some of it privately owned by Palestinians, an Israeli human rights group said on Thursday.

A report issued by Israel's B'Tselem human rights organization said some settlements had grabbed land up to two and a half times greater than their own designated area either by fencing it off or by intimidation.  

Israeli government officials were initially not available to comment on the report but a spokesman for Jewish West Bank settlers said the land annexation was an authorized security measure.