Unbelievable attempt to stab a member of Rabbis for Human Rights, who was lucky not to be severely injured. The Israeli army didn't shoot the terrorist settler dead. They blamed it on leftwingers and anarchists!
Could there be any more defining proof that the Israeli army acts as a backup to settler violence?
Tony Greenstein
WATCH: Jewish extremist tries to stab 'rabbi for human rights'
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man
|Published October 23, 2015Volunteers and activists were accompanying Palestinian olive harvesters in the West Bank to help protect them from settler attacks.
A right-wing Jewish extremist threw stones at attempted to stab president of Rabbis for Human Rights, Arik Asherman, following an olive harvest coordinated with the Israeli army on Friday. Nobody was significantly injured in the incident.
Rabbi Asherman and a group of Israeli and international activists arrived to accompany Palestinian farmers to their privately owned olive orchard, located near the illegal Israeli outpost of Gideonim, which is an offshoot of the Itamar settlement.
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| British National Injured by Settlers when Protecting Olive Groves |
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| US consular vehicle with marks of rock thrown by settlers |
At that point, the masked man who set the fire, ostensibly a settler from the nearby outpost, tried to prevent Rabbi Asherman from reaching the site of the blaze, threw stones at him and pulled out a knife and repeatedly swung it toward him. The man kicked and punched Asherman.
Rabbi Asherman and other activists remained at the scene in order to direct the army and police toward the attacker, he said in a statement, but it took police 30 minutes to arrive. At that point the attacker had already fled.
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| An illegal outpost demolished by army |
Settlers inc. Meir Ettinger are captured by Palestinians trying to carry out a 'price tag' attack
Rabbis for Human Rights often accompanies Palestinian farmers in order to help protect them from settler attacks.
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| Car damaged by settlers |
The organization’s website explains: “Our presence in the groves with the farmers helps keep them safe, as extremists are far less likely to cause problems when they know Israelis and internationals are present.”
A police spokesperson responded to the attack on Friday by blaming the incident on a provocation by “left-wing activists and anarchists.” She said officers were searching the area for the suspect.
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| Meir Ettinger and 7 settlers escorted out of Palestinian village after having tried to engage in 'price tag' attack. They could have been killed by villagers. Ettinger is under administrative detention suspected of having committed arson at the Dawabshe home in Duma which killed 3 people including an 18 month baby |
Between 2005 and 2014, according to human rights group Yesh Din, only four out of the 246 criminal complaints of damage to olive trees that it monitored resulted in indictments. In total, only 7.4 percent of West Bank Israeli police investigations into complaints from Palestinian victims of offenses committed against them or their property by Israeli civilians result in indictments, according to the organization.
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| Graffitti daubed on Dawabshe home which was set ablaze |
“From the moment the olive harvest begins, we witness a series of serious incidents involving attacks on harvesters and damage to trees,” Noa Cohen of Yesh Din’s research department stated last year.
“This recurring phenomenon is a result of failure to enforce the law.”
The incident on Friday was far from the first time Rabbis for Human Rights and the Palestinians they accompany have come under settler attack.
For an in-depth look at Israeli settler violence and the authorities’ inability to cope with it, I suggest reading Larry Derfner’s feature, “Settler violence: It comes with the territory.”
VIDEO: Right wing activist attempts to stab human rights activist in West Bank
A video of the attack, which occurred on a brown rocky hillside, was posted on YouTube and sent to the media.
It showed a masked man with a rock in his left hand pushing Ascherman down the hill.
The man then drew a knife out of his back right pocket and pulled it on Ascherman as he forced him backwards down the hill a bit before running after a Belgian journalist.
When Ascherman went to help the Belgian journalist, the masked man turned on him again and the journalist was able to get away safely.
The two men continued to tussle, with the masked man kicking Ascherman several times and swinging the knife, without actually stabbing him.
Ascherman at one point was able to grab hold of his leg as the masked man swung and in return, the man briefly put his arm around Ascherman’s neck in a headlock, before running away up the hill.
Ascherman told The Jerusalem Post that he had arrived with a group of left-wing activists to help Palestinians harvest olives down the hill from an outpost that is close to the settlement of Itamar, which is located in the Samaria region of the West Bank.
The olive harvest was coordinated with security forces, who asked the farmers to stop work as of 12:30 p.m., he said.
Ascherman charged that after the security forces left, people whom he presumed to be settlers entered the Palestinian groves. They stole olives and equipment as well as lit some of the trees on fire.
He went up to the grove with a Belgian journalist to see if they could help put out the fire, when the masked man attacked them, Ascherman said.
“He pulled a knife on me and I started to move backward on a steep hill. I lost my footing a bit. At that point I tried to grab his arm and his left. He made a motion as if he was going to stab me, but then he ran away.”
A Judea and Samaria spokesman said that the incident happened after an altercation between left and right wing activists. The National Crimes Unit has opened an investigation into the matter, he said.
“We take violent incidents like this very seriously and have zero tolerance for law breakers,” the spokesman said.
An earlier statement, however, referred to Ascherman’s group as “anarchists” and “provocateurs” whose actions led to the attack.
Ascherman said that such accusations were insulting.