A group of Jewish colonists took over the home of a Palestinian with a fake deed of sale. The following transpired as a result.
Marilyn.
From AFP and the Daily Star
05 December 2008
Hebron Colonists Attack Palestinians after Eviction
HEBRON, Occupied West Bank: Mobs of colonists rampaged through the Occupied West Bank on Thursday after Israeli police enforced an eviction order of settlers squatting illegally in a Palestinian house. Rabid colonists set fire to Palestinian homes and fields, fired weapons, hurled rocks, clashed with security forces and carried out other forms of vandalism to Palestinian property following the eviction carried out by about 100 officers.
Relatives said three Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds and were evacuated by helicopter, while police said five civilians and two policemen were wounded during the eviction itself. Medics said there were further injuries during ensuing clashes.
A cloud of black smoke covered much of the neighborhood as militant supporters of the colonists set Palestinian olive fields alight and torched two homes and a dozen cars.
In several areas of the city, youths clashed with Israeli security forces, who responded with tear gas.
Witnesses said Israeli soldiers beat up a Palestinian photographer who was involved in an altercation with a settler. The photographer was taken to hospital.
Several people were arrested, according to police.
"It could have been worse," Danny Poleg, a spokesman for Israeli police in the Occupied West Bank, said after officers found objects that the colonists evidently intended to use as weapons, including potatoes studded with nails.
Police used blowtorches to seal the occupied house shut after using stun grenades and tear gas to force the settlers out of the four-storey building.
The eviction followed a November 16 Israeli High Court order for the settlers to leave the house they claim they bought from a Palestinian who denies selling it. The court also found that documents presented by the colonists purporting to prove ownership of the house were faked.
"Israel is a country where the rule of law prevails. It is not a country of vigilantes," government spokesman Mark Regev said.
Doaz Aetzni, a far right-wing leader expressed outrage at the police action.
"They are very aggressive with the Jews and very soft with the Arabs," he claimed. "This country has become crazy."
Human rights groups have long decried the double standard used by Israeli forces in dealing with the two sides. While violence by Israelis is usually met with tear gas and batons by police, Palestinian and international protestors - often demonstrating peacefully - face live ammunition, rubber-coated bullets, armored bulldozers and stun grenades, among other means employed by Israeli authorities.
The police action came just hours after Defense Minister Ehud Barak and settler representatives failed to reach agreement in last-ditch talks.
Elsewhere in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, attackers hurled rocks at Palestinian drivers and scrawled graffiti on a mosque insulting the Muslim faith, according to witnesses.
Outside Occupied Jerusalem hundreds of youths blocked a major highway to protest the eviction, causing massive traffic jams and hurling insults at police, calling them "Nazis."
Israeli authorities declared the whole of the southern Occupied West Bank a closed military zone to prevent Israelis who don't already illegally live there from entering the area.
