On Saturday, 24 June 2023, at around 7:00 P.M., settlers gathered near a checkpoint the military placed on Route 5615 between the villages of Shufah and ‘Izbat Shufah. Soldiers at the checkpoint forced Palestinian farmers in plots near the road, as well as Palestinian roadside stall vendors, to leave and denied Palestinian motorists passage in both directions until late at night.
The next day, at around 7:00 A.M., when Tahsin Hamed (72) arrived at his land near the checkpoint, he discovered settlers had sprayed the slogan “death to the Arabs,” a penis and a Star of David on the family’s greenhouses and stolen his donkey.
Tahsin Hamed (72) from the village of Shufah told B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi:
I am a farmer, and my brothers and I have several plots of land where we grow vegetables. The military set up a checkpoint about 30 meters away from one of the plots.
On Saturday, 24 June 2023, at around 7:00 P.M., I found out that settlers were gathering near the checkpoint and that the soldiers made Palestinian farmers and stall owners leave, and prevented Palestinian cars from passing through the checkpoint until 11:30 P.M.
The next day, I arrived at my plot around seven o’clock in the morning and discovered settlers had graffitied racist slogans on our greenhouses like “Death to the Arabs,” a Star of David and an inappropriate drawing. They sprayed illegible slogans on my 77-year-old brother’s greenhouse in the same plot.
I checked my area and did not find the donkey I use to move between our different plots. I asked several farmers in the area if they had seen it. One of them told me that he had come back from Tulkarm at night, and while he was waiting for the soldiers to open the checkpoint, he saw settlers riding a donkey towards a nearby settlement.
Settlers have already stolen my brother’s donkey, about a month ago, and we saw it in that settlement. It was not returned to us. Now, because of the settler’s acts of brutality, I have no way to go between the plots.
I see no point in filing a complaint because I believe there is no justice with the occupation authorities.