Israeli settler youths try to lynch Palestinian teenager

from The World Today (Australian Broadcasting Commission news service)
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1410086.htm

Friday, 8 July , 2005 12:42:00

ELIZABETH JACKSON (anchor): It's an image which many Israelis say has convinced them to support the Government's plan to pull more than 8,000 Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip.

Plastered across Israeli TV screens for the past week have been pictures of settler youths, some as young as 13, stoning and then trying to lynch a teenage Palestinian in a Gaza village.

Two settlers have now been arrested for the attack. But the sickening beating has had other ramifications. Shaken by the public outcry over the attack, settler leaders have drafted a code of conduct for future protesting, of non-violence.

Middle East correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Jerusalem.

(Sound of shouting and a thump)

MARK WILLACY: That thump is the sound of a rock thrown by a teenage Jewish settler hitting an unconscious Hilal Majaida in the head. The 16-year-old Palestinian was set upon by a mob of Jewish settler youth, who'd taken over a house in Hilal Majaida's village of Mouasi in Gaza.

His face covered in cuts, bruises, and plaster, Hilal Majaida describes the attack:

"At the time I didn't feel anything because I was unconscious," says the slightly built 16-year old. "I just woke up in hospital, unaware of anything around me," he says.

The settler youth who stoned Hilal Majaida then tried to lynch him. He was saved by an Israeli soldier and a group of journalists.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has denounced the attack as barbaric.

It's also prompted the Israeli military to rethink its approach to dealing with extreme right wing Jewish settlers.

"I've instructed the security forces in Gaza and the West Bank to act with zero tolerance to any kind of violence," says Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz. "These settlers came to the Gaza strip to provoke and harm Palestinians," he says.

In the Gaza strip, some settlers are accepting that they'll have to leave. In the Gush Katif settlement block, Israeli green houses are already being dismantled.

"We're packing up, because our time in Gush Katif has come to an end," says this settler farmer. "We are taking everything – the green houses, the fixtures, everything, and moving to another place in Israel," he says.

(Sound of women shouting)

But others won't be leaving so quietly.

Israeli security chiefs fear that extreme right wing settlers will refuse to budge when the pullout begins next month. And they warn that there could be more violence against the Palestinians in Gaza.

But after the near killing of Hilal Majaida and the subsequent Israeli outcry, Jewish settler leaders and right wing rabbis have drawn up a code of conduct. It urges the use of non-violent protest. For Hilal Majaida it's come a little late.

"I died and lived again. God wrote me a new life," the teenager says.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Middle East correspondent Mark Willacy reporting from Jerusalem.