For the full article, footage, and videos on this story follow the link at the bottom
Activist Tal`s account:
On Friday, a group of Israeli activists from various groups came down to sit
with Yasin on his land, drink coffee, eat something, plant a few symbolic trees,
and raise a Palestinian flag on his plot. We were certainly not looking for
trouble. We were a small group, women and elderly people among us.
As we were sitting there, eating and laughing, Yasin received a call on his
mobile phone, and the settlement`s security officer threatened him that `people
want to come up and beat you to a pulp, if that`s what you want, keep the flag
there`. The phone call was recorded. You can listen to it here:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4129467,00.html
Afterwards, seven police and military vehicles appeared on the main road. They
stood there for half an hour. Then a few civilian (privately-owned) cars drove
up to them, and there seemed to be an exchange going on. All of a sudden, all
the military vehicles disappeared, except for one police car, and within minutes
tens of private cars gathered on the road. Around 50 people came out of these
cars, led by an army officer and a border police, who were not trying too hard
to stop them…The rest is history. They came up to us, cursed us, beat us with
stoned and clubs and iron rods, plundered. Yasin was thrown to the ground, his
head cracked open with an audible bang (he`s not a young man, and he suffers
from a heart condition and diabetes). He lay motionless on the ground for a few
minutes, his wife holding his head and trying to stop the bleeding. We formed a
protective ring around him, so that the bloodthirsty settlers don`t reach him.
At that time I thought he was dead. I yelled `get an ambulance`, but no one paid
attention. Miri (an activist) saw another activist, Edo, being beaten right next
to a police officer, the settlers taking his camera. The officer was speaking on
his phone. She approached him and said: `They stole Edo`s camera and now they
are hitting him!`. The officer`s nonchalant response was `you`re interrupting my
conversation`. I stood there trying to prevent the attackers from reaching
Yasin. A police officer came and took me away saying he`s doing it to protect
me. None of the officers protected Yasin. None of the attackers were pushed back
or detained. Three of us were arrested on false charges and released later that
evening because there was no case against them. The settlers chased us with
their cars, causing damage to our cars, all the way up to West Jerusalem. Police
officers who drove along, escorting us, did not think something had to be done
about that. An entire spectrum of Anatot settlers, children, youths, women, the
young and the elderly participated in the attempted lynching. No one would have
cared if we had been killed there. Only the police who would have had to account
for this…
