On 18 and 19 Nov. 2022, Israeli settlers marked the reading of the Chayei Sarah [Life of Sarah] Torah portion in the Hebron city center. That weekend, dozens of settlers attacked Palestinian homes with stones, vandalized cars and market stalls, raided a clothing store and assaulted residents, at least one of whom was taken to hospital by ambulance. Israeli soldiers were present throughout yet arrested none of the settlers, and occasionally fired tear gas canisters and threw stun grenades at Palestinians trying to defend their property.
On 19 November 2022, at around 2:00 P.M., Suzan Jaber, who volunteers with B’Tselem’s camera project, filmed soldiers detaining a young Palestinian at the Jaber checkpoint. Settlers swore at Jaber and at her son Mahmoud (17), who swore back. One of the settlers threw a stone that hit Mahmoud. The soldiers then raided the family’s home, detained Mahmoud and threatened to detain his 14-year-old sister, Lama. The soldiers took Mahmoud and the young man they detained on the street earlier to the police station in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, where they were held for several hours and released with no further action.
On 20 November 2022, Suzan Jaber, a 47-year-old mother of seven, said:
Suzan Jaber. Photo provided by her
On the night of 18 November 2022, the settlers roamed the streets almost all night long. They shouted and danced, and I know they attacked the al-Ja’bari family’s home and vandalized cars there.
The next day, 19 November 2022, settlers spread out in the Wadi al-Hussein area starting in the morning, setting up tents for their “Life of Sarah” celebrations. I also saw lots of soldiers deployed throughout the Jaber neighborhood and in the areas near the Kiryat Arba settlement. I saw large groups of settlers on the street and some of them attacked Palestinian passersby. The soldiers who were next to them didn’t stop them but only protected the settlers. We saw on social media that the settlers attacked Palestinian homes and residents in the Old City and the Tel Rumeidah area, too. I’ve never seen so many settlers before. It was frightening.
I took the children inside and closed the front gate. I was afraid the settlers or the soldiers, who were more agitated and aggressive than usual, would attack us. Around 2:00 P.M., I was sitting in my bedroom when I heard shouting outside. I grabbed the camera and went out to the balcony. I saw two soldiers pushing a young man up against a wall on the street. They were really violent. His mother, who was also holding a little boy, was trying to pry her son out of their hands. There were also some settlers around them. I started filming what was happening. The soldiers led the young man behind one of the houses. I told his mother to go with them so the soldiers wouldn’t hurt him, and she followed them. The soldiers came back to the street with him and made him sit in a kneeling position with his hands tied behind his back. There were several settlers around him, swearing at him and trying to attack him. I kept filming the whole time, while yelling at one of the settlers to leave him alone and stay away from there. In the meantime, more and more settlers arrived. They started swearing at me, too, and making obscene gestures at me. My son Mahmoud, 17, got angry and yelled and swore back at them. The soldiers ordered us to go inside, but we refused and demanded they release the young man they detained. The settlers kept hanging around him and provoking him for ten more minutes, until some soldiers drove them away, and then the soldiers took him to the yard of a nearby grocery store and detained him there.
I kept filming, and the settlers kept swearing at me from the street. Mahmoud swore at them again, and one of them threw a stone that hit him in the left shoulder. The soldiers saw that but did nothing. Then, suddenly, some of them tried to break down our door. My son Ahmad, 14, opened it for them. They came in, and one of them attacked me and tried to snatch the camera from me. Mahmoud protected me and told the soldier not to come near me. Then, two of them jumped him and took him outside. They led him onto the street while my daughters – Ahmad’s twin sister Lama, 14, and Jud, 12 – screamed and cried. The soldiers put Mahmoud in the settlement’s security car and took him away. I went out into the street and asked a police officer who was there to give me back Mahmoud, and he replied that it had to do with the military, not him.
I went home and the soldiers were still there. One was standing on the balcony and two others were on the roof, holding Lama and Jude there. I tried to get to them, but the two soldiers stopped me and claimed Lama had attacked one of them. After about 10 minutes, the soldiers brought them down from the roof to the front entrance area. One of the soldiers demanded to see Lama’s birth certificate, but I ignored him and took the girls and Ahmad inside. My husband Fawaz and I also went inside, and I locked the door.
The soldiers kicked the door until we opened it, and again demanded I get Lama’s birth certificate. I went and got it, and then the soldier wrote down her ID number. He claimed again that she had attacked the soldiers and said he’d be back later to arrest her. Then the soldiers left the house.
Mahmoud came home after about three hours. He said the soldiers had taken him to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement along with the other young man, claiming they’d both thrown stones. He said there was a female officer there who refused to admit them because of the Sabbath and the holiday, and she let them go. He had marks on his hands from the zip ties the soldiers had put on very tightly. He told me it hurt a lot and that he’d begged the soldiers to loosen them, but they ignored him. The settlers kept dancing and shouting on the streets until midnight.
Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Israel has acted in a coordinated and deliberate manner to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, committing genocide against its residents. In light of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the public statements made by Israeli decision-makers, and the international community’s failure to take effective action, there is a serious risk that the Israeli regime will expand the genocide to other areas under its control—first and foremost, the West Bank.
B’Tselem calls on the Israeli public and the international community to use every tool available under international law to bring an immediate end to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
