Palestine: Al-Khalil: School Children Under Attack

by Ryan Shiffer
In the neighborhood of al-Bweireh, on the outskirts of al-Khalil (Hebron), two settlers from the Givat Ha Harsina settlement attacked seven-year-old Amar Za’atari while he walked home from school with his brother and cousin.  The young settler men threw stones at the three boys and chased them with a dog.  In his panic to get away Amar tripped and fell on his face.

Settlers from Givat Ha Harsina have hurled stones and harassed Palestinian children returning home from school for years, but the situation worsened in May 2009 after settlers moved into a makeshift outpost located on a hilltop about forty meters behind a Palestinian home in al-Bweireh.  The outpost settlers own dogs that they use to attack and threaten al-Bweireh residents, a source of increasing anxiety for the forty families living there.

CPT has been responding to a request from al-Bweireh residents to be present in the neighborhood as their children return home from school.