Hebron settler filmed attacking Arab

By Nir Hasson

The Hebron police opened an investigation yesterday of local Jewish Quarter resident Yifat Alkobi, who was documented on video cursing and attacking the Abu-Aisha family in the city.

Alkobi is well known to Hebron police for her alleged attack of a 10-year-old Palestinian child in March 2005, for which she is to go on trial February 1. The boy, Yusuf Aza, told investigators from the human rights organization Yesh Din that he was walking on the path between his home and Alkobi's with two friends, when she began pelting him with stones. Aza added that Alkobi "grabbed me by the shirt and pushed me up against the wall. A soldier tried to help, but she pushed him away, and he fell down. She held me with one hand and with the other pushed a rock into my mouth and forced my mouth closed. I felt my teeth breaking." Aza said the soldier got up and called for help on his radio.

Yesh Din has protested that, nearly two years after the attack, Alkobi is not under arrest.

The spokesperson for the Hebron settlers, Orit Struk, responded that the latest incident and others should be seen as "part of the whole picture and the harassment of Jews by Arabs in the city."
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Videotaped Hebron settler violence just the tip of the iceberg
Press Release, B'Tselem, 11 January 2007

The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem calls on Israeli authorities not to make the settler, Yifat Alkoby a scapegoat for law enforcement failures in the West Bank. Alkoby was summoned for questioning following the extensive airing of a B'Tselem video in which she is seen assaulting and swearing at women and girls from the Abu-'Ayesha family, in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. The incident, as grave as it is, is only the tip of the iceberg of the daily violence committed by Hebron settlers, against their Palestinian neighbors, under the protection of the army. The attacks in Hebron are carried out in full view of Israeli soldiers, who are unable or unwilling to stop them. The Hebron police, who have received hundreds of complaints about settler violence, are also well aware of the situation. The fact that the Defense Minister and the security establishment feign ignorance and mobilize to respond to the problem only following the public controversy generated by this video is outrageous. The widespread settler violence in Hebron is not the result of a specific failure of one kind or another, but is the consequence of a consistent and longstanding Israeli policy to ignore harm to Palestinians, which is aimed at encouraging them to abandon parts of the city. Related Links B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories BY TOPIC: Settlements and Settlers