Before dawn, April 14th, young settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzar entered Huwwara village to burn two cars and put graffiti on the stone front of the south village mosque. MPT, IWPS, and Ecumenical Accompaniment (World Council of Churches) interviewed a family whose car had been burned.
Two weeks ago the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) invaded several homes in Huwwara, destroying doors and windows and arresting and imprisoning 6 or 7 youth. (The same date the MPT house was invaded by soldiers.) People in the town have been harassed on previous occasions by settlers who destroy property. Frequently after a settler raid, the village is put under curfew by the Israeli army (IOF)
The Palestinian family whose car was destroyed, reported that at about 2:30 a.m. they received a call from neighbors that their son's car was on fire and burning the nearby tree and electric wires above it. By the time the fire truck arrived, the car was ruined. Later the IOF and Israel Border Police came to investigate. As usual, no action was taken, except that the IOF had local people wash off the mosque graffiti.
The graffiti on the mosque was washed off, but because it is on stone, the Star of David and the letters in Hebrew are still noticeable days later.
(People's shadows show in the afternoon sun.)
The family expressed their frustration with the lack of action by the Obama administration and the continued settlement construction and settler violence. They anguished over the recent deaths of 4 youth who were killed by the IOF in nearby villages. They fear massive Israeli deportations of Palestinians since recently the Israeli military ordered that Palestinians without proper Israeli-issued IDs will be expelled from Palestine. These IDs are impossible to obtain because many of these people are from Palestinians refugee families who fled to Jordan during the 1948 War when Israel took their land in Palestine. A young young woman from this family, who has many young well-educated persons, asked, "Will there ever be peace between us? [Palestinians and Israelis]?"
This incident was published widely by local and international media, including Haaretz, and leading Israeli newspaper and Reuters.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1163045.html
The family showed an article with photos of the burned car from a local Arabic newspaper.
No comments:
Post a Comment