Israeli settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, have mounted at least two bloody attacks today against Palestinian civilians, injuring at least 13.
The first attack came in As-Sawiya, 18 kilometers south of Nablus:
Settlers on Monday opened fire at Palestinians, injuring three, in As-Sawiya village south of the West Bank city of Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official said.
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Palestinian ambulances could not reach the village as settlers blocked the roads, Doughlas added.
The second, larger attack took place as Israeli settlers were destroying olive trees in Qusra, 28 kilometers southeast of Nablus. This is a common tactic by the settlers, and they have destroyed many thousands of olive trees in recent years, intending to destroy the Palestinian livelihood and drive them out of Palestine. Today, the Palestinians resisted the attacks, and both settlers and Israeli soldiers opened fire with live ammunition:
Settler, soldiers open fire on Palestinians
Ten Palestinians and a Jewish settler were wounded on Monday during clashes in a village near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, a Palestinian official and witnesses said.
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Witnesses said the trouble flared when a large group of settlers began uprooting olive trees near the village. The villagers started throwing stones, prompting a settler to open fire.
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Medical sources said that so far they had treated eight Palestinians -- four of whom had been hit by live fire, and another four who had been injured by rubber bullets.
Already this year, attacks by settlers have killed three Palestinans, wounded more than a dozen, and destroyed vast amounts of property (along with five killed and over 200 wounded by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank alone according to the UN). The Israeli government, which will punish settlers if they attack Israeli soldiers or Israeli property, almost never punishes settlers for their attacks on Palestinians.
As these stories today show, the Israeli soldiers are directly protecting the settlers while they are attacking Palestinians and their property.
The settlers were in the process of destroying Palestinians' olive trees. The soldiers, far from stopping the settlers attack, were protecting the settlers in this destruction. When the Palestinians attempted to protect their trees, both the settlers and soldiers attacked the Palestinians with live ammunition.
If you read about settler attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli or US newspapers, you will generally read some comment from the Israeli government about how they are investigating and whatnot. As this event demonstrates, the Israeli government investigates and prosecutes its own paramilitary thugs (which is the only way to describe these armed settlers who attack civilians) when they attack civilians in the exact same way that any other repressive government does: not at all.
Egypt under Mubarak, Libya, Colombia, etc.; all sorts of nations around the world use paramilitary thugs to suppress civilians demanding rights. The governments in these cases always try to distance themselves from these thugs, but the explanations are never credible. The government is responsible.
As these events today show, these Israeli government is directly responsible for the settlers' violence against the Palestinian people.