'Alia a-Nawaj'a, 63

I live in Susiya, near Yata. I am a farmer and have of flock of twenty sheep and goats. My sons 'Ali and Jamal and their families live close by me.

On Monday, 13 March, around 11:00 in the morning, I was standing at the entrance to my tent. My daughter-in-law Sanaa, 18, who is Jamal's wife, and her two-year-old and seven-month-old infants were with me. About 300 meters away I saw villagers planting olive trees on their land, and Israeli army vehicles and settlers standing by them. I thought there were going to be problems, and later I learned that the settlers were bothering the farmers in planting the seedlings, and uprooted some of them.

While I was watching, some ten young settlers, aged 20-25, surprised me. Some of them were holding clubs. They began to throw stones at us, hitting Sanaa and me. We shouted for help, crying out "Settlers… settlers…" Right then, Jamal appeared. He and Samiha, 'Ali's wife, had gone out in the morning to graze the flock. When the settlers saw Jamal, they threw stones at him. We threw stones at them in response, to protect ourselves.

The settlers quickly came up to us, surrounded us, and grabbed Jamal. One of them hit Jamal with a club, and the others beat and kicked him until he fell. The settlers continued to beat him when he was on the ground. Sanaa and I shouted for help. About a half an hour later, soldiers ran up to us from where the farmers had been planting. Some journalists were with the soldiers. The settlers fled when they saw the soldiers. An army jeep patrolling in our area apparently chased after the settlers. A few minutes later, the jeep came to the entrance of my house. Inside the jeep were an officer from the Civil Administration, his name is Amir, some soldiers, and two of the settlers who had attacked us. I gave Amir two skullcaps that had fallen from the heads of settlers who had assaulted us.

Later, army, Border Police, and regular Police vehicles pulled up to my home. Some activists in Tayyush, one of them Yoram, also appeared, as did some villagers. The police officers told us to file a complaint at the Police station in Kiryat Arba. Yoram took us there. An investigator who called himself "Salomon" questioned us. We stayed at the stationhouse until about 10:30 at night, when Ezra, from Tayyush, brought us home. Jamal told me that the guy who questioned us gave him a summons to appear in court in June. On the way home, we stopped in Yata, where Jamal received medical treatment for the bruises he had suffered in the beating.