Jewish Settlers Shoot Palestinians, B'Tselem Releases Graphic Video

guardian.co.uk:

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has released graphic video footage showing settlers fighting with Palestinians in Hebron and shooting two men at close range in the hours after a settler house was evacuated by police yesterday.

The film, recorded by a Palestinian resident in Hebron, shows settlers attacking his house, which was in a valley close to the three-storey building where dozens of settlers were evicted by Israeli riot police. In the hours after the eviction, Jewish settlers rioted in Hebron, throwing stones at police and Palestinians and setting fire to Palestinian trees and attacking Palestinian homes. Most of the violence took place between the evicted house and the nearby hardline Jewish settlement of Kirya Arba.

Read the whole story: guardian.co.uk

Comments

[JerryG1]

06:24 PM on 12/06/2008

The most important thing is that this topic, these stories, these debates, are published, and kept open for debate.

[tiradintim]

08:45 PM on 12/06/2008

There will always be some who will want to test the censors to see if they can cross the line....a free press can only endure and thrive when there is a consensus of opinion to keep it so, and to forthrightly expose and condemn attempts to infringe on this freedom....it appears that i s r a e l has a much freer press than the usa

[tiradintim]

09:11 PM on 12/06/2008

agreed, 100%

[mrskorn]

05:51 PM on 12/06/2008

Maybe pictures could be posted here of the DAILY rockets being sent into Israel from Gaza, killing and maiming many Israeli civilians....lest you all forget, Israel gave back Gaza to the Arabs in trade for peace. HAH! If you just give this to us we can live in peace, an on it goes.

Until the Arabs give up their idea of obliterating Israel, there will never be peace and it is about time people just admit that.

[tiradintim]

01:43 AM on 12/07/2008

As long as that "it's what THEY are doing to US" mentality prevails, you can forget about peace. Grow up

[hrhkat29]

07:46 AM on 12/07/2008

I say, have an all out war, whoever wins, wins...its called survival of the fittest...its easy to think conceptually, but sometimes the simplest suggestions are often the best...life is just life, if all these people value it as all of them say, then everyone will put down their weapons and bombs and just live their lives...or have a revolution, if it suceeds then it was ment to be...both sides are being babys, stop the dumb rocket attacks, and the kicking people out of settlements, and have a war, if land is more valuable then life, then move away, if not, fight for it.

[baffy]

12:46 PM on 12/07/2008

Very few Israelis have been killed in the last 5 years by rockets from Gaza while many, many Palestinians have been killed in retaliation. The most recent back and forth is a good example. Only Palestinians have been killed.
Sharon did not withdraw from Gaza as a peace offering (he is after all the most brutal killer of Palestinians in history). He did so because the cost to Israel of protecting 8000 crazy settlers was much to high in both money and lives. What he left behind was a small strip of land completely cut off from the rest of the world. The borders, airspace and coastline are completely controlled by Israel which is simply trying to starve the population into submission. Israel not only blocks fuel deliveries but even restricts food and medicine. This is brutal collective punishment which has been stongly criticized by everyone except of course Bush and co.

[Clare53]

04:20 PM on 12/06/2008

There are many comments here discussing the politics of this attack, but almost no one has comments on how horrific the video is that shows people being murdered. This right after the video of the Mexicans being murdered. Are we immune to this evil?

[baffy]

02:50 PM on 12/06/2008

Last time I looked, America was not illegally occupying either Canada or Mexico. If it were, I expect that Canadians and Mexicans would be resisting violently.
Hebron is a powder keg and the city has been completely rezoned to accomodate a small minority of settlers who have repeatedly attacked Palestinians and their property (including graves). This has been going on for a long time.
There are "illegal" settlements all over the West Bank and while the government had committed to remove these we now know that not only have they not done so but they have also continued to supply them with electricity and water. The government can shut them down any time it wants.
As regards Israeli democracy, tell that to Palestinian prisoners held without charge or to those separated from work or school or even family by the barrier or to those who contend with roadblocks for hours everyday. This idea of Israel being "the only true democracy" in the Middle East and having a commitment to the rule of law is totally absurd. It is even worse than the aparteid governments that existed in South Africa years ago. What other democracy has illegally occupied another peoples land for over 4 years? Even the US is committed to getting out of Iraq sooner rather than later. What other democracy assassinates "suspects" or fires rockets into busy Gaza streets or drops cluster bombs on civilians etc etc. Democracy is much more than "one man, one vote".

[GZLives]

03:55 PM on 12/06/2008

"This idea of Israel being "the only true democracy" in the Middle East and having a commitment to the rule of law is totally absurd. It is even worse than the aparteid governments that existed in South Africa years ago."

Would you care to back this up with any evidence or is it just something you read/heard/ or imagine because its sure not accurate.

As much as you may hate the idea of Israel and all it stands for , at least try and be blatantly dishonest or wildly reckless with your "facts"

[baffy]

05:20 PM on 12/06/2008

I guess you didn't read all of my comments which listed numerous actions by Israel that are atypical of functional democracies. Perhaps you could read my comments and then give examples of democracies that behave like Israel does toward the Palestinians.

[hrhkat29]

07:54 AM on 12/07/2008

I have a better question....which country other then Isreal in the Middle east would you consider a democracy?....dont worry ill wait.

[UnknownSoldier]

07:47 PM on 12/06/2008

You are confusing Democracy with Liberty. There is no Liberty in that area, but it does have democracy. Part of Liberty is the right to practice your religion freely and without gov't interference good or bad.

[chaos4700]

07:54 PM on 12/06/2008

Which is of course where you see how democracy without liberty simply becomes the tyranny of the majority. Sure, it's democracy when the majority votes to allow the confiscation of a Palestinian village, raze it, and authorize the construction of a Jewish settlement. But it certainly isn't liberty. Or justice.

That's why Jews are so desperate to isolate Israel physically and wall the Palestinians out (or in, as with Gaza). If they couldn't cleanse the ethnic distribution of Israel, then the Palestinians could simply win the conflict with voting power.

[truelie]

01:12 PM on 12/06/2008

We should work with the conscientious Israeli groups like these or at least give them a seat at the table and not just listen to the blindly pro-Israel American Zionist groups. I believe Prez Obama will do that.

[hindy]

11:43 AM on 12/06/2008

As a Jew, I do not support these radical settlers. Neither do the majority of Israelis. Having said that, I do want to point out the differences between "organized, institutional terror" and these Jewish religious wing-nuts. First of all, the Israeli Government rushed in to forcibly remove these "fanatics". Secondly, these horrid abuses were monitored and brought to the attention of the world by "Betzelem" a left-wing (in a good way) Israeli human rights group that advocates on behalf of "civil rights" and Palestinians. Where, in any Arab country, does such a group exist that advocates on the rights of Jews and other non-Muslim ethnic minorities? Let me answer that for you. Its simple - NOWHERE!!!!! Yes, Israel is not perfect. However to equate them to countries that espouse racial and religious hatred from their government-controlled media pulpits is completely ludicrous and the most simplistic, ignorant form of "moral equivalency". Israel has a "free press", a just judicial system and (unlike its Arab neighbors, many "peace movements" that look for reconcilliation between Israelis and Palestinians. If Canada and Mexico were out to destroy the US and breed terrorists to plan attacks on America, like most of Israel's neighbors do, the policies of the US would make Israel look moderate.

[chaos4700]

12:58 PM on 12/06/2008

"Having said that, I do want to point out the differences between "organized, institutional terror" and these Jewish religious wing-nuts."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin#Political_career

"Where, in any Arab country, does such a group exist that advocates on the rights of Jews and other non-Muslim ethnic minorities?"
Iranian Constitution, Article 13
http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/ir00000_.html
Jordanian Constitution, Article 6
http://www.csb.gov.jo/csbwebpage/English_Web_Page/related%20bylow/jordan%20constitution.htm
Lebanese Constitution, Article 9
http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/le00000_.html

"...[Israel has] a just judicial system..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_detention#Israel
http://www.btselem.org/english/Administrative_Detention/Statistics.asp

I could keep going, but I think I've proven my point.

[GZLives]

04:18 PM on 12/06/2008

You've proven you have no point.

I'll just take the first two so as not to completely humiliate you

The Irgun?

You mean a group from 60 years ago that existed pre Israel?
Do they exist today?
After Israel was created did they exist?

How many violent Islamist terror groups exist today?
Hundreds?
Thousands?

yeah good comparison ... next

Menachim Begin?
You mean that guy who was given the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE ?
Well that sure proves your point ...

Iran isn't an Arab country
There were 24,000 Jews living in Lebanon in 1948 and now there are 100 ...
Jordan eh?

"Jews were never permitted to live in Jordan. Civil Law No. 6, which governed the Jordanian-occupied West Bank, states explicitly: "Any man will be a Jordanian subject if he is not Jewish."

What other lies would you like to spread here ?

I

[BayAreaResident]

01:21 PM on 12/06/2008

Would could or should these are all hypotheticals. Besides being per you simply "Not Perfect" Israel is also engaging in a purposeful sabotage of the ongoing peace process by continuing their settlement program both against their earlier pledges not to as well as numerous UN resolutions demanding Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. The settlement activity itself is not a passive process either, and does involves systemic demolitions that are usually preceded by mass evictions, and that is on top of creation of dozens of patches of virtual ghetto zones, where native residents have no basic rights, whether it's the freedom of movement, lack of any basic security or even a literal and grossly illegal semi-starvation. These are the unfortunate facts, and the existence of the "free press" in Israeli is not sufficiently mitigating the severity of the ongoing crimes, certainly not as far as the Palestinians on the receiving end are concerned.

[hindy]

01:58 PM on 12/06/2008

I agree with many of your statements. Unfortunately for many years, Israel - like the US under Bush was ruled by the far right who turned a blind eye to the settlements - and in some cases even encouraged them. Now Israel - like the US is paying the price for voting them in - out of fear of terrorism - the same reason that Americans voted in Bush for a second (deadly) term. Its time for moderates to take over. Unfortunately, even moderates become centrist - when faced with the grave problems in the world today that threaten democracy and innocent civilians. Hopefully the disgust among the majority Israeli population about the settlers - combined with the fact that even Islamic countries are now facing terrorism on their own soil - will allow the voices of reason everywhere to be heard.

When you mention UN resolutions however, Israel would have been much more responsive if the UN had also sponsored resolutions against terror attacks and suicide bombings taking place in Israel. Sadly it didn't. Rather it has countries like Iran and Syria heading up their "human rights" committees. Because of its make-up, the United Nations has not exactly acted against terrorism. Maybe now that the terrorists are targeting more people than just Jews, that ineffective world body may actually take a more egalitarian moral stand.

[baffy]

10:44 AM on 12/06/2008

The next few months will be very interesting. Will Obama stand up to Rahm Emanuel when it comes to policy on Israel? Will Hilary, who no longer needs to ingratiate herself with the NY Jewish population, push hard for a fair settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis?
Hamas is labeled a terrorist group but, as Jimmy Carter pointed out on Charlie Rose, the real terrorists are the Israeli army - just look at the numbers of dead on each side over the last 20 years. Israel kills at least 10 to 1. Firing missiles into downtown Gaza is terrorism. Dropping cluster bombs on Lebanese civilians is terrorism. Lebanon lost over 1000 in the war with Israel while Israel lost 100. Hamas and Hezbolla did not even exist before the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, Golan, East Jerusalem and the Israeli push into southern Lebanon.
We can only hope that Obama becomes fully engaged immediately and doesn't leave it to Dennis Ross and company to negotiate from a strongly pro-Israeli position.

[hrhkat29]

08:13 AM on 12/07/2008

the numbers of dead on each side proves nothing...the american army has killed way more iraqis then the Taliban, but is the american army a terrorist group? I think not...it just proves some terrorist groups arent that great when it comes to aiming....I didnt know that you can only be called a terrorist group if your good at killing....seems to me a couple people from the US can start a group of 20 people can, kill a couple people and take responsibility, be labeled as a terrorist group (because they cause terror) and yet if they went up against the US army, they would be obliterated, and the US army wouldnt be considered a terrorist group....

[janmarie]

08:17 AM on 12/06/2008

A 'One State Solution' is what needs to happen like it did in South Africa.
I'm sick of the USA supporting this crap. Why should someone from Brooklyn displace a family that has been living in a home for generations just because he is Jewish?

[GZLives]

04:24 PM on 12/06/2008

One state solution ?
Yeah that worked out pretty good in Lebanon didn't it?
Even the Palestinians disagree with you on this.

[SuperSam]

10:06 PM on 12/06/2008

No they don't, they don;t want 21.4% of what used to be all theres. How absurd.

[jazzman]

07:55 AM on 12/06/2008

Until the international community and the US strongly stand up to Israel and tells it to stop its settlement expansions into Palestinian territory this kind of stuff is just going to go on and on.

[totaldisbelief]

10:46 AM on 12/06/2008

and what are all the U.N. resolutions that have told the Israelis to back off?

[chaos4700]

10:52 AM on 12/06/2008

And those are the ones that get through the US Security Council veto. The truth is, the United States' unequivocal support of Israel is the sole reason that progress on the Middle Eastern situation has gotten worse, not better, over time.

[ptarantino]

07:34 AM on 12/06/2008

Huffington should bump this news up.

[BayAreaResident]

08:13 AM on 12/06/2008

I absolutely agree, it's strange that as it broke out it was initially placed somewhere on the mid-bottom part of the page. Does Huffington Post fear of "appearing antisemitic"? Obviously that implies that truth is a radical notion.

[califlefty]

02:36 AM on 12/06/2008

Watch the video with a critical eye. The two men are caught out in the open, are backing away anf have their arms out in front of them to ward off the Palestinians who are getting in their face while more of the mob begins to circle around them. They are on the verge of being overrun by an emotional mob and only then do they fire. This looks like self-defense to me, something denied to Jews of course.

[BayAreaResident]

10:23 AM on 12/06/2008

Denied? Oh Please! Everyone knows that Israel is the most preemptively aggressive state, how many thousands did Israel kill in Lebanon in 2006 all for the two of it's captured army men? If that is what you consider a denial than you must surely be in the state of one.

[chaos4700]

11:06 AM on 12/06/2008

A man with a pistol shoots two unarmed men and this is self-defense? Where does the part where Israeli security forces show up, rather conveniently too late, and they start shooting over the heads of the other unarmed Palestinians instead of apprehending to shooter?

I can't believe this. We have it all on video right here and you're still in denial!

[hrhkat29]

08:25 AM on 12/07/2008

You dont understand...while the killings in Lebonon were terrible, Isre al needed to show its people that every Isreali soul is precious, once Isre al turns its back on its people, and devalues Isreali life, and just abandons its army men, isrealis will feel the govt isnt taking care of them and the army would be deserted...

Its funny how the western countries hold Isre al on such a high pedestal that they feel its being unjust and all of the countries around it are not even mentioned for the terrors they commit, its because you expect it from those countries, and not Isr eal, which I guess says alot about you.

[Huffyfan]

03:06 PM on 12/06/2008

ALL Settlers are armed , and walked armed and they Are protected by the IOF all the time Unlike the unarmed palestinians (im not talking about resistance fighters , whose arms are being confiscated by Abu Mazen and his US trained security forces , (with US dollars , trained in Jordan )

[joebiz]

02:12 AM on 12/06/2008

American tax dollars help fund this.

[BlueStateMan]

06:25 AM on 12/06/2008

No they don't.

[RaWash]

06:44 AM on 12/06/2008

umm, yes, they do.

[Theou]

06:45 AM on 12/06/2008

joebiz: American tax dollars help fund this.
BlueStateMan: No they don't
Theou: How so, BSM?

[octo]

02:05 AM on 12/06/2008

What did Obama mean by his statement that "Israel should be a Jewish state for a Jewish people"?

Surely the very concept of a state restricted to or based on a religion is undemocratic?

[BayAreaResident]

11:10 AM on 12/06/2008

Frankly, Obama was and still largely is too weak to be able to independently address issues like that, that is why for all intents and purposes he resorted to the acts of appeasement, which essentially was what allowed him to politically survive in this country given all the Luis Fa(R)(R)akhan and other right wing trash talk. Only time will show if he actually does have the stamina to maintain his initially noble expectancies to be fair to all regardless..

[octo]

10:13 PM on 12/08/2008

Thank you. that is my suspicion also.

[hindy]

12:45 PM on 12/06/2008

Besides Jews there are many different religions and nationalities living in Israel including Christians, Muslims, Druze and others. All are protected within Israel's pre 1967 boundaries. They are of all colours and races. What Barack meant was that Jews have the same rights to a state

[ManyColored]

02:00 AM on 12/06/2008

Just a bunch of sweethearts, aren't they? I remember several years ago when a settler was interviewed on a major network. His sentiments about the Palestinians: "They should all be wiped out." Spoken without a trace of emotion being showed. Of course the United States always looks the other way when Israelis go over the top.

[hrhkat29]

08:50 AM on 12/07/2008

i guess its only ok when palestians or the iranian president say the same thing...one person and you form an opinion about and entire population....how noble of you.

[semorg]

12:32 AM on 12/06/2008

The roadblock to lasting peace are the extremists on both side and both sides have them. Unfortunately, we are often censored from one.