On Saturday, 7 May 2022, while ‘Abdallah Ghaneimat (81) was working alone on his land, he was attacked with stones by settlers who arrived from an outpost established 200 meters from the settlement of Bat Ayin.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari, ‘Abdallah Ghaneimat, who lives in the area of al-Baq north of Surif, recounted:
I left the house as usual and went with the donkey to our land, which lies northwest of Surif, at around 5:00 A.M. I worked the land alone and everything was quiet until about 8:00 A.M., when two stones suddenly landed next to me. At first I thought it was one of the farmers joking with me. I moved to a higher place, about 50 meters away, and then I saw about 40 settlers who looked like they were in their twenties. They started throwing a massive amount of stones at me. I hid behind trees so they couldn’t hit me. But at one point, three of them approached me holding canisters and sprayed pepper spray in my face.
I felt sharp pain and stinging in my eyes. I couldn’t see anything and fell down. I was writhing in pain. The three settlers started beating me viciously. They stepped on me and kicked me in the head. I shouted loudly in the hope someone would hear. After they beat me for about 10 minutes, I heard the voice of my grandson, who lives about 150 meters from the outpost they put up on our land. He shouted at them and they ran away. A lot of soldiers arrived, but they didn’t offer me any help.