West Bank settler extremists widen campaign against Palestinians
Taylor Luck and Fatima AbdulKarim
RAMMUN, WEST BANK
First the Bedouin shepherd family spotted the truck, then the five armed men dressed in white. Then the gunfire started.
Israeli settlers, drawn to another shepherd’s flock grazing in the valley 200 yards below, fired what appeared to be M16 rifles in the air and toward the shepherd.
Only weeks before, the Al Araareh family was driven off their land and lost half their possessions. On Saturday, perched up the hill from the skirmish, it looked to them like they would have to pick up and move again – fast.
To prevent the settlers, whom they’d encountered before, from recognizing them, Al Araareh brothers jumped into their cars and hid them behind the hill. Mohammed Al Araareh yelled at his grandson to push their sheep hurriedly into their pen.
As the gunshots moved closer, 5-year-old Shahid ran to her father, Ali, and hid behind his legs. She tugged at his pants.
“Daddy, let’s go. Let’s move from here,” she says trembling, tears streaking her cheeks. “Let’s move again before they get us. They will get us.”
From atop a rock, Nayef Al Araareh monitored the approaching clash.
“We can’t relax for a single second,” he says, eyes trained on the gun-toting settlers and an Israeli army jeep idling above them. “They just won’t leave us in peace.”
Three months earlier, after the eruption of war in Gaza, deadly attacks by far-right Israeli settlers shook the West Bank, prompting concern from President Joe Biden and assurances from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel would rein in the violence. While the attacks have decreased in lethality, they have slowed only modestly, and targeted more people.
Having driven most of the nomadic Bedouin from their land, the extremist settlers are increasingly targeting Palestinian towns and villages, encroaching on densely populated areas and inciting larger-scale brawls.
With fresh green grass heralding the West Bank winter grazing season, extremists are seeking to prevent village-dwelling farmers and herders from grazing their flocks or reaching their farms – sparking an economic and security crisis.
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