ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/VILLAGERS Palestinian vigilantes patrol villages amid fear of more arson attacks

Record ID: 144206

  • Title: ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/VILLAGERS Palestinian vigilantes patrol villages amid fear of more arson attacks
  • Date: 11th August 2015
  • Summary: QUSRA, WEST BANK (AUGUST 10, 2015) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN "NIGHT GUARDS" AGAINST FAR-RIGHT ISRAELI ASSAILANTS SEARCHING WITH LIGHTS VILLAGER HOLDING LIGHT AND STICK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HEAD OF QUSRA VILLAGE COUNCIL, ABED AL-ATHEIM ADI, SAYING: "The youths in the village have formed teams to defend the rights of their children and families and provide more security during the night time. Because the houses in the southern part (of the village) used to be attacked by the settlers: they used to break the glass, destroy the houses, burn the mosque and burn the vehicles in the southern part of Qusra village." VILLAGERS SITTING AROUND FIRE LIGHTS IN ISRAELI SETTLEMENT AS SEEN FROM THE PALESTINIAN VILLAGE / VILLAGERS AROUND FIRE MASKED PALESTINIAN VILLAGERS SITTING AROUND FIRE FIRE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HEAD OF QUSRA VILLAGE COUNCIL, ABED AL-ATHEIM ADI, SAYING: "The number of the team members can be seven, 17 or 40 - that depends on who is free to defend his village and to provide security to the people of his village. These teams don't get support or funding from anyone." VILLAGERS SEARCHING THE SCENE USING LIGHTS VILLAGER HOLDING AXE CLOSE OF AXE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MEMBER OF THE VILLAGE NIGHT GUARDS TEAM, MOHSEN HASSAN, SAYING: "When we see the settlers trying to enter the village we call the head of the village council or the members whoever is available or we call the Imam (preacher) of the mosque and ask him to call on the people to move to the scene (where the settlers are)." VARIOUS OF VILLAGER MAKING COFFEE VILLAGERS SITTING AROUND FIRE
  • Embargoed: 26th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVARB2M02QY745Q9JXTLDKDR3EB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Armed men stopping cars at checkpoints in the West Bank are usually Israeli security forces policing the occupied territory, but in some areas they are Palestinian civilians patrolling their own villages.
    Fears of attacks by far-right Jews have increased since a Palestinian man and his 18-month-old son were killed when their house in Duma village was set ablaze on July 31, giving the farmers-turned-volunteer watchmen a renewed sense of urgency.
    "The youths in the village have formed teams to defend the rights of their children and families and provide more security during the night time," said Abed al-Atheim Adi, mayor of the village of Qusra where locals have been patrolling the streets at night since 2001.
    "The houses in the southern part (of the village) used to be attacked by the settlers: they used to break the glass, destroy the houses, burn the mosque and burn the vehicles in the southern part of Qusra village," he said.
    Reuters accompanied a patrol in Qusra this week. Watchmen, some of whom were masked, carried cudgels and a pick-axe as weapons and used a flashlight to peer into the dark fields on the thorny plains near the city of Nablus.
    They had no guns, perhaps fearing crackdowns by the Israeli army, which, under interim peace deals that set up the self-ruling Palestinian Authority (PA) in the 1990s, has overall responsibility for security in the area.
    In a nearby village, Turmus Ayya, residents sometimes set up checkpoints on the access road at night, where they question motorists and search their vehicles.
    "The number of the team members can be seven, 17 or 40 that depends on who is free to defend his village and to provide security to the people of his village. These teams don't get support or funding from anyone," Adi said.
    If an intruder is spotted, the watchmen phone the village imam, who summons reinforcements over the mosque loudspeakers.
    "When we see the settlers trying to enter the village we call the head of the village council or the members whoever is available or we call the Imam (preacher) of the mosque and ask him to call on the people to move to the scene (where the settlers are)," said Mohsen Hassan, a member of the night guards team.
    Qusra was the scene of a run-in with a group of Jewish settlers in January 2014. Accusing the Israelis of throwing rocks at them, villagers detained and beat them before handing them over to the Israeli army. A representative of the neighbouring Jewish settlement of Esh Kodesh disputed the Palestinians' account, saying the Israelis were set upon while on a hike in the area.
    Among the settlers involved was Meir Ettinger, a far-right Jewish activist who, following the Duma arson, has been jailed without trial by Israeli authorities scrambling to stem what they fear is a surge in hate crimes.
    An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment on the self-defence patrols. One Israeli army general, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, voiced cautious sympathy for the villagers but also concern about possible unanticipated flare-ups.
    "Our special forces often carry out counter-terrorism operations in the area, sometimes in plainclothes disguises. What happens if these self-defence groups mistake them for vandals? It's a recipe for escalation," the general said.
    Adi voiced confidence in the restraint of the Qusra watchmen, saying that they haven't made any mistakes in the past four years and that they don't go out when the Israeli army is operating in the village.
    The village vigilantes pose a dilemma for the Palestinian Authority, which coordinates West Bank security with Israel.
    But an authority official who monitors settlement activity in the Nablus area told Reuters that he he hoped the PA will soon make a decision to support them.
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