Days of Palestine – Bethlehem

Israeli settlers stole Saturday agricultural equipment belonging to a Palestinian resident in the village of Kisan to the east of Bethlehem, in the southern occupied West Bank, according to a local official.

Member of Kisan village council, Nabil Ibayyat, said that a number of settlers broke down the door of an agricultural room and stole agricultural equipment, including metal angels and barbed wires, among others.

He said that this was not the first settler attack against the village.

Kisan faces daily aggression from settlers and soldiers who try to push shepherds and farmers out of the village and area in order to take it over for settlement expansion.

Israeli settlers’ vandalism in the occupied West Bank is routine and is done with full backing by the Israeli authorities, said the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

“Settler violence and vandalism take place with full backing by the Israeli authorities. Sometimes soldiers take part in the assault; at other times, they stand idly by. The police make no substantial effort to investigate the incidents, nor takes measures to prevent them or stop them in real-time,” it said.

Israel benefits from the repercussions, as settler violence has gradually dispossessed Palestinians of more and more areas in the West Bank, paving the way for a state takeover of land and resources, said B’Tselem.