Rampaging settlers use fake gun to sow panic among Palestinian commuters

By Edo Konrad May 17, 2016 | Edit

Two Israeli settlers use a fake gun to threaten a bus full of Palestinian workers. The police make a quick arrest, yet the media totally ignores the story.

Two acts of political violence committed by Jewish residents of the West Bank against Palestinians went almost completely unreported by the Israeli Hebrew media last week, even as the police responded with remarkable alacrity.

According to Israeli police, last Wednesday two residents of Efrat, a settlement near Jerusalem, began circling a Palestinian vehicle on their motorcycles on a road near the settlement. One of the settlers then forced the vehicle to the side of the road at gunpoint and pulled the driver out.

A few minutes later the settlers stopped a bus carrying Palestinian workers on the same road. According to the police, the settlers threatened the passengers and removed them one by one at gunpoint. After all the Palestinian passengers were standing on the side of the road, one of the settlers put his gun to the head of one of the workers, allegedly telling him to “pray for your life.” The settlers then fled the scene.

Earlier this week one of the Palestinians filed a complaint with Hebron police, who promptly arrested two suspects from Efrat. The two admitted to the crime during their interrogation and handed over the gun, which turned out to be made out of plastic.

The police’s quick response to the incident is praiseworthy. According to Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, the majority of complaints filed by Palestinians with the police in the West Bank are closed, many of them because of “perpetrator unknown.” Other times Israeli forces stand idly by as settlers commit violent attacks against Palestinians, usually with the aim of forcing them off their land. Just last night, a former IDF soldier recalled to Channel 2’s Ohad Hemo how during her army service, she witnessed firsthand how soldiers backed settler vigilantism — whether tacitly or explicitly.

Unlike the police, the Hebrew-language media ignored the story entirely. Try imagining a situation in which a group of armed Palestinians overruns a bus full of Israeli settlers and threatens to shoot them in the head. My guess is that the story would find its way to the top headline for the vast majority of Israeli media outlets, would likely refer to the Palestinians as terrorists, and would provide up to the minute coverage of the developing story.

The quick action of the Israeli police is a welcome development. Yet one has to wonder why the story was not reported.

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Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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