August 31 2024 - In northern West Bank in Occupied Palestine, illegal Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli Occupation Forces, attack international activists and Palestinian villagers whom were protecting the village of Qusra.
In the video, masked Israeli settlers throw rocks at international activists under the protection of Israeli Occupation Forces. The international activists demand accountability, but the Occupation Forces turn their guns on the activists, protecting the masked gangs.
An injured Faz3a activist reports to the camera that many dozens of illegal settlers came to Qusra, throwing rocks and shooting live rounds into the village, injuring multiple people. Settlers set Palestinian homes on fire, destroyed Palestinian property, and attempted to burn down Palestinian olive fields. One volunteer was beaten with fists, while the activist speaking was hit in the head by a rock thrown by a settler, her face swelling beneath her eye.
Qusra has been the target of many violent Israeli settler terrorist attacks and pogroms over the years. Unlike Israeli settlers, Qusra villagers have no weapons to defend themselves besides rocks, and instead formed their own neighborhood watch to protect themselves.
In 2011, settlers vandalized the village's mosque and tried to set it on fire. They smashed windows, rolled burning tires inside, and wrote "Muhammad is a pig" in Hebrew on its wall. When settlers returned and provoked the village after being warned over speakers to leave, the IOF protected them and killed a Palestinian man.
In 2013, masked settlers from Esh Kodesh trespassed in Qusra and destroyed village property, Qusra villagers apprehended them and handed them over to the Palestinian security forces.
In November 2017, illegal settlers purported to have went on a hike around the frequently terrorized Qusra area, armed with an M16 rifle and pistol, and killed a local Palestinian farmer while he was tending to his land. Qusra villagers responded by throwing rocks at the illegal settlers. The IOF arrested 20 Palestinian Qusra residents, and ruled the settlers killed the Palestinian farmer in "self-defense." Members of Otzma Yehudit, the Jewish Power party, later attacked Qusra residents in response, severely injuring several Palestinians. At the same attack, the Israeli police also failed to investigate the shooting of one Palestinian teen who was standing on his own balcony, and for months failed to review the plethora of security footage outside his home or question any witnesses.
On October 11 2023, three Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli settlers (2 teenagers and a 25-year-old man); a 21-year-old was killed by Israeli soldiers later on. One day later, Israeli settlers confronted the funeral procession and murdered a father and his son.
The International Court of Justice deemed West Bank settlements illegal under international law and found Israel guilty of the crime of apartheid, mandating that Israel dismantle it's settlements, end it's illegal occupation, provide full reparations to Palestinian victims, and facilitate the return of displaced people. Despite this, the Israeli government instead has significantly increased its colonizing efforts in the West Bank by expanding the illegal settlements.
Qusra has been under occupation since 1967. Over the years, over 177 dunams of village land was confiscated by Israel in order to build the illegal settlement of Migdalim. They also confiscated land to build the illegal Israeli settler outposts of Ahiya and Esh Kodesh, and bulldozed 400 square metres of the Qusra's historical stone walls.
Settler pogroms and lynchings against Palestinians like these happen every single day in Occupied Palestine, and the Israeli settlers responsible are rarely ever held accountable. Israel cannot claim to be the side of peace and be the victims of unprovoked attack while this is what life is like everyday for Palestinians living under Israeli apartheid, where violent illegal settler militias lynch Palestinians and burn down their villages in organized pogroms under the protection of the Israeli military and governance.
