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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221024-we-will-stay-here-until-palestine-is-free-says-farmer-beaten-by-jewish-settlers/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">'We will stay here until Palestine is free,' says farmer beaten by Jewish settlers</h1>October 24, 2022</div>
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<img src="cid:ii_l9mw4b5s0" alt="image.png" width="435" height="290"><br><p>Last month, a 51-year-old Palestinian farmer was tending to his
family land on the outskirts of the village of At-Tuwani, where they
grow olives, figs, tomatoes and zucchini. A group of five masked Israeli
settlers, armed with MI6 rifles, bats and metal pipes, emerged suddenly
from the nearby illegal settlement outpost of Havat Ma'on and assaulted
him.</p>
<p>In an attempt to defend himself, Hafez Hureini lifted his shovel to
block their strikes. Despite this, his arms were dislocated and broken.</p>
<p>"When the settlers started shooting," he told me, "I used all my
energy to get away from them and sat nearby waiting for the ambulance."
However, when the Palestinian ambulance crew arrived and started to give
him first aid, a large force of Israeli soldiers arrived and detained
him.</p>
<p>The Jewish settlers, he explained, shouted to the soldiers to arrest
him, even though the ambulance crew from the Palestinian Red Crescent
(PRC) showed them his broken arms. The settlers alleged that Hureini had
attacked them, and the soldiers then destroyed the stretcher on which
he was lying, slashed the tyres of the ambulance and attacked the PRC
crew.</p>
<p>"They arrested me for trying to kill a settler and even used
handcuffs on my ankles before taking me to the investigation centre in
the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba in occupied Hebron. They
interrogated me and I gave them my testimony in all honesty with every
detail. I explained to them that I was the one who was attacked on my
land and had my arms broken by the settlers."</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_588580" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/898104e0-6ef8-42ed-896f-b91140856d18.jpg?fit=460%2C800&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="51-year-old Palestinian farmer Hafez Hureini" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="250" height="435"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><font size="1">51-year-old Palestinian farmer Hafez Hureini</font></p></div><p>The family's lawyer was only allowed to speak to him briefly, and was banned from being present during the interrogation.</p>
<p>According to Israeli security officials last month, "A group of
Palestinians approached the outpost, prompting two Israelis to confront
them. One of the Palestinians then attacked one of the Israelis, and the
other Israeli fired in the air. Soldiers then arrived at the scene to
separate the two sides."</p>
<p><em>Haaretz </em>reported that the Palestinian "suspect" was "lightly
injured in the confrontation." The newspaper failed to mention the fact
that both of the alleged suspect Hureini's arms were broken by the
settlers during their attack; that is what "lightly injured" means,
apparently. "How can a man with broken arms beat someone?" he asked.</p>
<p>During his ten days in detention, Hureini had to appear at the
Israeli military court in Ofer Prison. He was transferred to the court
in a vehicle in which Palestinian prisoners are handcuffed on metal
chairs. This was an extremely painful experience for him to be
transported in such a way to and from the court. He was released on bail
of 10,000 shekels ($2,890) after 10 days of such physical torture. None
of the five settlers who were involved has been arrested or even
questioned.</p>
<p>"This is what Israel means by 'justice'," said Hureini. "Palestinian
victims are turned into 'criminals' and made to suffer. I spent more
than 24 hours without sleep, and was then interrogated for hours over
and over. Apparently, I am the 'criminal'."</p>
<p>Born and raised in At-Tuwani in the Masafer Yatta region of the
occupied West Bank, Hafez Hureini is a prominent human rights activist.
Over the years he has observed ever more attacks by illegal Israeli
settlers and occupation troops. It's all part of Israel's ongoing ethnic
cleansing of occupied Palestine.</p>
<p>He remembers when the first settlers came to the area in the 1980s,
and they established the outpost that would become the illegal Ma'on
settlement. "At the beginning of the eighties, the Israeli occupation
authorities started to implement an apartheid policy as the ethnic
cleansing continued. They separated the entire area from the city of
Yatta by the well-known bypass road 317 and divided it into two parts: a
settlement area and the other military firing zone 918."</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_588581" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/21dd8927-c5d3-41c4-9458-38eed7345e9a-e1666619512401.jpg?fit=933%2C622&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="51-year-old Palestinian farmer Hafez Hureini" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="435" height="290"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text"><font size="1">51-year-old Palestinian farmer Hafez Hureini</font></p></div><p>Masafer
Yatta is to the south of Hebron and falls within Area C, which is 60
per cent of the occupied West Bank. It is under Israel's military and
administrative control and, as a result, the occupation state reserves
the area largely for the benefit of illegal Jewish settlers. The area is
not connected to the water and electricity grids which supply the
surrounding illegal settlements and outposts. Israel forbids the
Palestinians in the area from building or connecting their properties to
public services. It also restricts their access to their pastures and
enables settler violence in order to make Palestinian lives so
unbearable that they will leave of their own volition.</p>
<p>"The Israeli occupation began by stealing and confiscating lands and
building settlements on them for extremist settlers," Hureini pointed
out. "From the eighties until today, Israel continues its apartheid and
ethnic cleansing policies through the military administration that
governs and controls us. Land is confiscated and stolen; areas are
closed to Palestinians; and military checkpoints are placed at the
entrances to villages. We also face a constant barrage of insults and
harassment."</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a title="Rachel Corrie wanted to ensure she could always return to Gaza, says her mother. 'In a way, she never left'" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220920-rachel-corrie-wanted-to-ensure-she-could-always-return-to-gaza-says-her-mother-in-a-way-she-never-left/">Rachel Corrie wanted to ensure she could always return to Gaza, says her mother. 'In a way, she never left'</a></strong></p>
<p>He noted that his family has had more than 60 per cent of its land
stolen and handed over to Israeli settlers. "This is a war crime."</p>
<p>As well as being released on bail last month, Hureini was also banned from tending to his own farmland for 30 days.</p>
<p>The local Palestinian community has noticed a surge in Israeli raids
and settler attacks since the Israeli High Court approved in May the
demolition of the homes of more than 1,000 Palestinians living in some
eight communities in Masafer Yatta to make room for Israeli military
training. The decision prompted strong local and <a href="https://middleeastmonitor.com/20220517-un-israels-expulsion-of-palestinian-community-inhumane-illegal/" target="_blank">international condemnation</a>.</p>
<p>"That court ruling is evidence that the Israeli occupation state
continues to carry out the crime of ethnic cleansing of the
Palestinians," said Hafez Hureini, "However, we won't stop our peaceful
protests even as they try to expel us from our land. For us, that's how
life is, until Palestine is free."</p>
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