Occupied Jerusalem: 23 October, 2002 (IAP News)

A Jerusalem-based human rights organization has expressed alarm at the massive and wanton violence by heavily-armed Jewish settlers against defenseless Palestinians.

“These settlers are acting in the manner of bandits and outlaws; they defy their own Israeli police and army and mercilessly assault unarmed civilians, endanger the lives of women, children and elderly, steal personal property and commit arson in violation of international, local or basic human law,” said the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in a report published Wednesday.

The report pointed out that messianic Jewish settlers routinely invade Palestinian orchards in villages throughout the northern part of the West Bank, attacking Palestinian olive harvesters and stealing or vandalizing their property.

The report detailed one incident after the other of settler rampage against Palestinian farmers in the Nablus region.

In one incident, which took place on 21 October, 12 armed Jewish settlers riding in all-terrain vehicles and armed with M-16 rifles attacked Palestinian olive harvesters at the village of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah.

The settlers, the report said, assaulted the defenseless Palestinians, including children and old people, with their fists, rifles, kicks, and stones. A seventy-year-old Palestinian man and his sixty-year-old wife were amongst those whom the settlers stoned.

Moreover, the settlers torched six Palestinian-owned cars and burned all of the just-harvested olives that were inside the enflamed cars.

The report assailed the Israeli government and army for refusing to prosecute settlers for their repeated crimes against Palestinian farmers.

“Because their own people are afraid to take a stand against the settlers and their ruthless behavior, a signal of carte blanche is generated to the settlers to continue to act on their own standards. Punishment is meant to deter crime, so if there is no punishment, there is no deterrence.”