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Settler assaults Khalil Jaber in an olive grove near Yanun, November 2005 Khalil Jaber, farmer
I am forty-five years old, live in Yanun, and am a farmer. This morning [10 November 2005], my son Firas, 24, and I were picking olives and grazing our flock north of the village, 250 meters from houses in the village, and 600 meters from the fence of the Itamar settlement. The settlement was built on our land. Around 9:30, I saw a settler with an M-16 rifle. He came from a northerly direction and stood about 100 meters from me. Another settler stood about 300 meters away from me. I saw that he had a couple of sheep with him. I became startled when I saw them, and backed away about fifty meters. The [first] settler came toward me and stopped when he got next to me. He said, in Hebrew, "These olive trees are mine. Why are you here? They have belonged to my parents for years." He spoke softly. Firas was with the sheep about eighty meters away. The settler apparently did not want to draw Firas's attention. Suddenly, the settler hit me under my right eye with the butt of his rifle. I fell to the ground, and felt that I was losing consciousness. He ran north, toward the settlement. Blood flowed from by nose and cheek. I tried to get up, but I felt dizzy and fell down. Firas came over to me and bandaged the wounds with tissue paper. He called the head of the Yanun council, Rashed Asbah, and told him what happened. Rashed told us to go to the police who were located in an area some 400 meters from where Firas and I were working. I walked over to the area he mentioned. When I got there, I saw lots of residents picking olives. With them were foreign volunteers who had come to help. An army jeep was also at the site. One of the soldiers cleaned the wound and bandaged it. The soldiers asked me to tell them what happened, and to describe the settler who assaulted me. I told them that he was tall, about 1.80 meters, blond, husky, and had a red beard. He was wearing a skullcap. Later, one of the police officers took a statement from me. Rashed, another resident of my village, drove me to the medical clinic in 'Aqraba. They took X-rays, and the doctor said that bones in my face had been fractured. He referred me to Rafidiya Hospital . A clinic ambulance took me to the hospital. I underwent surgery. The bone in my right cheek had been shattered. The blow also damaged the bone in my nose. The doctor hospitalized me for at least two weeks. He said that, because of the injuries, I can't eat for the time being. When I was on my way to the clinic in 'Aqraba, Firas went with the police to the police station in Ariel to file a complaint and to look at photos to pick out the assailant. Firas told me that while he was at the station, the police officers brought in the settler and Firas identified him. Firas says that the same settler had assaulted him yesterday. The farmers and the Civil Administration agreed that the olive harvest would be from 7 November to 17 November. Although there are soldiers and police in the area, the settlers still come onto our land and assault us. If the police and the army were not present, the settler attacks would make it impossible for us would not be able to get to our land. They assault us in the fields, but in our homes, too, we are not safe anymore. There have been many cases in which settlers came and wandered about in the village and on our land. This is intolerable. The settlers harass us and want to remove us from the village.Khalil Rabi'a Yusef Jaber, 45, married with fifteen children, |
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