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by Richard Kastelein
Publisher's Note: If 100 Palestinians
chanting anti-Christian slogans had smashed a 19-year-old Swedish girl in the
face with a bottle, breaking her cheek bone, it would be headlines in much of
the US media. Yet, not a single American mainstream news outlet has
covered this incident, in which Israeli citizens did just that.
 A 19-year old Swedish human rights worker had her cheekbone
broken by a Jewish extremist in Hebron on November 18th while walking hrough the Tel Rumeida checkpoint with a small group of human
rights workers (HRWs) to accompany Palestinian schoolchildren to their homes.
Tove Johansson from
Stockholm and the rest of the group were confronted by about 100 Jewish extremists in small groups. They
started chanting in Hebrew:
"We killed Jesus, we'll kill you too!
— a refrain
the settlers had been repeating to internationals in Tel Rumeida all
day.
Earlier the same day at least five
Palestinians, including a 3-year-old child, were injured by the
settler-supporting extremists, who rampaged through Tel Rumeida hurling stones
and bottles at local residents. Palestinian schoolchildren on their way home
were also attacked. The Israeli army, which was intensively deployed in the
area, did not intervene to stop the attacks.
After about thirty seconds of waiting, a small group of very
aggressive male Jewish extremists surrounded the international volunteers and
began spitting at them, so much so that the internationals described it as "like
rain." Then men from the back of the crowd began jumping up and spitting, while
others from the back and side of the crowd kicked the volunteers.
The
soldiers, who were standing at the checkpoint just a few feet behind the HRWs,
looked on as they were being attacked.
One settler then hit Tove on the
left side of her face with an empty bottle, breaking it on her face and leaving
her with a broken cheekbone. She immediately fell to the ground and the group of
Jewish extremists who were watching began to clap, cheer, and chant. The
soldiers, who had only watched until this point, then came forward and motioned
at the settlers, in a manner which the internationals described as:
"ok… that's
enough guys."
The extremists, however, were allowed to stay in the area
and continued watching and clapping as the HRWs tried to stop the flow of blood
from the young woman's face. Some, who were coming down the hill even tried to
take photos of themselves next to her bleeding face, giving the camera a
"thumbs-up" sign.
At this point, a HRW was taken into a police van and
asked to identify who had attacked the group. The HRW did this, pointing out
three Jewish extremists who the police took into their police vehicles. However,
the extremists were all driven to different areas of the neighborhood and
released nearly immediately. When one of the three was released on Shuhada
Street, the crowd that was still celebrating the woman's injuries applauded and
cheered.
A settler medic came to the scene about 15 minutes after the
attack and immediately began interrogating the internationals who had been
attacked about why they were in Hebron. He refused to help the bleeding woman
lying on the street in any way.
Five minutes after the settler medic
arrived, the army medic arrived and began treating the injured woman. When she
was later put on a stretcher, the crowd again clapped and cheered.
Police officers at the scene then began threatening to arrest the
remaining HRWs if they did not immediately leave the area, even though they had
just been attacked.
The injured woman was taken to Kiryat Arba
settlement and then to Hadassah Ein Keren hospital in Jerusalem.
HRWs were later told by the police
that they had not even taken the names of those who were identified as having
attacked the HRWs and that one of the main assailants had simply told the police
that he was due at the airport in two hours to fly back to France.
The
incident was the latest attack by extremist Jews in Hebron. The small group of
Khannist settlers in Tel Rumeida regularly attack and harass Palestinians in the
area. The violence sometimes spills over to the international human rights
workers who accompany Palestinians in an attempt to protect them from settler
attack.
The settlers in Tel Rumeida encourage Jewish tourists to come to
support them, as a way of making up for their small numbers. Today, hundreds had come from tours in Israel for a special
event — many from overseas: France, England and the United States.
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