A gang of settlers from Shilo settlement organized a provocative tour on the lands of the villages in East Ramallah district. Starting from the village of Turmosayya they moved to the lands of Kufr Malik, Mazraâa ash-Sharqiyyeh and Taybe and then headed further south in the direction Hizma, close to Jerusalem.
***image2***Israeli Occupation Forces accompanying the settlers opened heavy fire in the villages of Kur Malik and Mazraâa ash-Sharqiyeh when inhabitants went on the fields to protest the settlers presence and to stop them from encroaching on their land. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported.
The people in the affected villages consider this a serious escalation and are worried settlers will continue with this new form of provocation. In the past, settlers have organized similar tours in other districts, which often mark the beginning of a harassment campaign against the local Palestinian inhabitants and culminate in land theft and further colonization.
It seems that Occupation authorities and settler gangs have organized this tour as part of their celebration of the declaration of Israel on Palestinian ethnically cleansed land â or what for Palestinians and the rest of the world is known as the âNakbaâ [catastrophe]. The Nakba is commemorated on May 15th .