The head of a Jewish human rights organization was attacked
Friday, October 23, by a masked settler wielding a knife and stone near a
settlement in the occupied West Bank. The incident, which was caught on video,
was labeled by the police as an “altercation between left and right wing
activists.” The extreme-right assailant was seen accosting Rabbi Arik
Ascherman, who heads Rabbis for Human Rights, and threatening him with a knife
during a Palestinian olive harvest near the settlement of Itamar.
Rabbi Ascherman with a Palestinian agricultural worker in the
occupied West Bank (Photo: Rabbis for Human Rights)
According to Rabbi Ascherman, the incident occurred when he and
a Palestinian returned from the harvest and saw a Jewish settler attempting to
steal olives from the orchard while another was allegedly setting some of the
trees on fire. Ascherman said he moved towards the blaze, approaching the
settler. In the video, which begins at this point, Ascherman is attacked by the
masked man, who beats him and throws a rock at him, before pulling out the
knife. Ascherman is seen attempting to defend himself and confronting another
man at the scene before the masked attacker hits him again, swinging his knife
at the rabbi before fleeing the scene.
The police described the incident as “friction between left wing
and right wing activists during the [Palestinian] olive harvest.” The police
said they view such incidents with the utmost severity and have “zero
tolerance” toward any lawbreakers. But last year the Palestinian Authority
documented more than 1,000 incidents of settler attacks against
Palestinians, a majority taking place in villages in close proximity to Israeli
settlements and outposts. The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din found
that over the past ten years, Israel indicted fewer than 1.9% of settler
attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Video: Israeli
settler tries to stab head of Rabbis for Human Rights
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