Beitin, Ramallah District: Masked settlers spray hate graffiti on walls of homes

Hate graffiti sprayed on a house wall in Beitin, 13 May 2020

On 13 May 2020, around 2:45 A.M., Samer Saharan (34) heard noises outside his home. He opened the door and saw two masked men spraying graffiti on a wall about 300 meters away. Saharan alerted the village's emergency committee. When they arrived, the men retreated and fled towards Route 60.

Damage assessment revealed slogans sprayed on two walls: “Our soldiers’ lives come before the enemy's lives” and “I do not sleep when blood is spilled here”.

Such nightly visits are nothing new for the residents of Beitin. The settlement of Beit El (founded in 1977) and the outpost of Givat Assaf (founded in 2002) lie about a kilometer away, and the village suffers repeated state-backed attacks by settlers. In 2019, B’Tselem documented two incidents in which settlers punctured car tires and sprayed hate graffiti, as well as two assaults on residents. In 2018, B’Tselem documented an incident in which settlers punctured the tires of 26 cars from the village.

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