Mufid Abu Hussein, farmer

I have a flock of 50 sheep and goats that I graze on the hills by the village. Since the settlers were evacuated from Homesh, I’ve been grazing the flock not far from where the settlement was, but at least a kilometer away because settlers and soldiers are still there most of the time.

Last Thursday [24 April 2008], I left the house at around 7:00 A.M. and headed with the flock to al-Ksur, east of Burqa and the Homesh settlement. I was about two kilometers from the houses of my village. Nobody was around.

Sometime between 9:00 and 9:30, I saw two men in civilian clothes approaching me from the west. I thought they were collecting za’atar [an herb]. At first, I didn't mind, but after a few minutes passed, I realized they were settlers. They yelled at me. One of them shouted, “Get out of here.” I noticed that they had knives. When I began to move my flock to get us further away from them, they threw stones at the flock and me. I tried to calm the settlers, and told them we are like brothers. I offered them some cold water to drink but they just shouted, “Go to Saudi Arabia. This land is ours.” I spoke to them in Hebrew. I had a stick in my hand, and one of them said to me, “Throw the stick away. We want to talk.” I threw the stick far away. Then the two of them started to throw stones at me.

I started to back away to avoid a confrontation, but then I saw they were trying to take my animals. Each time they managed to grab one, I ran after them and threw stones at them so they would let it go. I didn't get too close to them. They had slingshots which they used to stone me and the flock. They threw stones at me for about an hour and stabbed some of the animals with their knives. At some point, I noticed there was a third person, who was standing at a relatively high spot. The settlers killed two goats and broke the leg of another goat. The settlers took two goats and put them in their van, a beige Toyota with a closed trunk. One of the goats escaped. While they were taking the goats to the van, I managed to run away with the rest of my flock. Due to the stress, two goats had miscarriages later in the day.

After I got back home with the flock, I went to the gas station on the village’s main road and used the phone to call the governor of the Nablus governate in the Palestinian Authority. Later, someone called me from the Israeli coordination and liaison office [DCL] and told me to stay put and wait for him. I waited a couple of hours, until he called and said he wouldn’t be coming. It was then around 3:00. Afterwards, I saw the settlers riding in their van with my goat.

I returned home exhausted. The stones thrown by the settlers hit me in my right leg and in my forehead. They aimed to hit me. I aimed the stones I threw so they would land near them and not hit them because I feared getting jailed or shot – I was afraid that the guy standing a distance away was armed.

Mufid Shaker Muhammad Abu Hussein, 61, married with eight children, is a farmer and shepherd and a resident of Burqa in Nablus District. His testimony was given to 'Atef Abu a-Rub in Burqa on 28 April 2008.