PLEASE CONTACT THE MEDIA
If 100 Palestinians chanting anti-Christian slogans had smashed a
19-year-old Swedish girl in the face with a bottle, breaking her cheek
bone, it would be headlines in much of the US media.
Yet, not a single American mainstream news outlet has covered this
incident, in which Israeli citizens did just that.
Please contact the media, tell them you have a news tip, and then give
them the basic facts:
**
Yesterday in Hebron, in the West Bank, a crowd of 100 Jewish settlers
chanting “We killed Jesus and we’ll kill you too” attacked a
19-year-old Swedish woman, spitting on her and smashing her in the
face with a bottle, breaking her cheek bone.**
Israeli police stood by and watched.
[More info below]
For more photos and additional information and photos:
http://www.imemc.org/content/view/22740/1/
Media contacts:
Please contact your local media. You can find contact information
online or in the yellow pages for your local newspapers, radio
station, etc.
Following is contact info for some of the American national
outlets as well:
AP: 212-621-1500
NPR: http://www.npr.org/contact/
(202) 513-2000
Washington Post: 800-627-2250
[email protected]
UPDATE, November 21: Tove is still in hospital where she will remain
for the next few days before returning to Sweden to receive ongoing
treatment there. As well as a broken cheekbone Tove has a fractured
skull and damage to her eye muscles. A complaint was filed with the
police in Kiryat Arba where eye-witness statements and photo evidence
was submitted. However, according to a report by Israeli human rights
group Yesh Din 90% of complaints filed against Israelis to the
“Samaria and Judea District” police were closed without indictments
being issued.
A 19-year old Swedish human rights worker had her cheekbone broken by
a Jewish extremist in Hebron today. Earlier the same day at least five
Palestinians, including a 3-year-old child, were injured by the
settler-supporting extremists, who rampaged through Tel Rumeida
hurling stones and bottles at local residents. Palestinian
schoolchildren on their way home were also attacked. The Israeli army,
which was intensively deployed in the area, did not intervene to stop
the attacks.
Tove Johansson from Stockholm walked through the Tel Rumeida
checkpoint with a small group of human rights workers (HRWs) to
accompany Palestinian schoolchildren to their homes. They were
confronted by about 100 Jewish extremists in small groups. They
started chanting in Hebrew “We killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too!” — a
refrain the settlers had been repeating to internationals in Tel
Rumeida all day.
After about thirty seconds of waiting, a small group of very
aggressive male Jewish extremists surrounded the international
volunteers and began spitting at them, so much so that the
internationals described it as “like rain.” Then men from the back of
the crowd began jumping up and spitting, while others from the back
and side of the crowd kicked the volunteers.
The soldiers, who were standing at the checkpoint just a few feet
behind the HRWs, looked on as they were being attacked.
One settler then hit Tove on the left side of her face with an empty
bottle, breaking it on her face and leaving her with a broken
cheekbone. She immediately fell to the ground and the group of Jewish
extremists who were watching began to clap, cheer, and chant. The
soldiers, who had only watched until this point, then came forward and
motioned at the settlers, in a manner which the internationals
described as “ok… that’s enough guys.”
The extremists, however, were allowed to stay in the area and
continued watching and clapping as the HRWs tried to stop the flow of
blood from the young woman’s face. Some, who were coming down the hill
even tried to take photos of themselves next to her bleeding face,
giving the camera a “thumbs-up” sign.
At this point, a HRW was taken into a police van and asked to identify
who had attacked the group. The HRW did this, pointing out three
Jewish extremists who the police took into their police vehicles.
However, the extremists were all driven to different areas of the
neighborhood and released nearly immediately. When one of the three
was released on Shuhada Street, the crowd that was still celebrating
the woman’s injuries applauded and cheered.
A settler medic came to the scene about 15 minutes after the attack
and immediately began interrogating the internationals who had been
attacked about why they were in Hebron. He refused to help the
bleeding woman lying on the street in any way.
Five minutes after the settler medic arrived, the army medic arrived
and began treating the injured woman. When she was later put on a
stretcher, the crowd again clapped and cheered.
Police officers at the scene then began threatening to arrest the
remaining HRWs if they did not immediately leave the area, even though
they had just been attacked.
The injured woman was taken to Kiryat Arba settlement and then to
Hadassah Ein Keren hospital in Jerusalem.
HRWs were later told by the police that they had not even taken the
names of those who were identified as having attacked the HRWs and
that one of the main assailants had simply told the police that he was
due at the airport in two hours to fly back to France.
The incident was the latest attack by extremist Jews in Hebron. The
small group of Khannist settlers in Tel Rumeida regularly attack and
harass Palestinians in the area. The violence sometimes spills over to
the international human rights workers who accompany Palestinians in
an attempt to protect them from settler attack.
The settlers in Tel Rumeida encourage Jewish tourists to come to
support them, as a way of making up for their small numbers. Today,
hundreds had come from tours in Israel for a special event — many from
overseas: France, England and the United States.
For more details and photos contact:
Tove - 054 747 9225
ISM media office 02 2971824 or 059 943 157
Clarified and expanded Novemeber 20.
For a more personal account of the same events, see this journal entry.