Last Monday (March 23rd), Israeli civilians attacked Yesh Din field investigator Muneer Qaddus, as he was documenting Palestinian workers building a road. Prior to the attack, the Samaria Settlers Committee called for settlers to come to the place in order to thwart the construction of the road
Israeli civilians stoned on Monday Yesh Din field investigator, Muneer Qaddus, as he was escorting Palestinian workers near the village of Burin. Yesh Din has reason to believe the attack was directed specifically at Qaddus, due to his position as a Yesh Din investigator, who documents violent incidents in Burin and in the vicinity. Qaddus was rushed to a hospital for medical care, and suffers from two fractured ribs, but is well aside from that. The attackers also damaged Qaddus’ video camera.
Qaddus was escorting Burin villagers as they were paving a road in their village, which is near the illegal outpost of Givat Ronen. The paving of the road was coordinated with the IDF, and IDF soldiers were present to defend the workers. Despite the presence of several IDF soldiers, they failed to prevent the attack.
Prior to the attack, the Samaria Settlers Committee called, on its Facebook page, for Israeli civilians to reach the place in order to disrupt the work. The page noted that an earlier attempt to lay a road there was disrupted by settlers – likely a reference to events of last January. The call was repeated by the site of HaKol HaYehudi, whose operators were recently indicted for inciting to racism and violence.
This is the second incident in less than a year, in which Yesh Din employees are attacked by Israeli civilians in the West Bank. The case against the prime suspect in the last attack was closed by the police, as it claimed “the guy is not connected to the residents of Havat Gilad and also doesn’t look like them.” We call upon the Israeli police and its Nationalist Felonies department to investigate Monday’s incident thoroughly. They can begin by summoning the managers of the Samaria Settlers Committee for interrogation.