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A FORMER AIDE of a lawmaker from Israel’s hard-right governing coalition was among two settlers arrested today over the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported.
Qusai Jamal Maatan was shot dead in Burqah, east of Ramallah, yesterday as armed settlers clashed with villagers.
The UN has warned of a dramatic spike in such cases since the most right-wing government in Israel’s history took power at the end of last year.
Israeli media reported that the main suspect in the deadly shooting had sustained injuries in the clashes and been admitted to hospital.
The second suspect had acted as spokesman to a member of parliament from the far-right Jewish Power party, whose leader Itamar Ben-Gvir is public security minister in the coalition government, the reports said.
At Saturday’s funeral, Palestinian mourners carried Maatan’s body through the streets wrapped in a black and white keffiyeh headscarf and Palestinian flag, an AFP journalist reported.
Since early last year, the West Bank has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities and regular raids by Israeli forces who say they are pursuing militants.
In a statement today on the shooting, the Israeli army cited Palestinian reports and witnesses as saying that both sides had thrown stones at each other before the Israeli civilians had opened fire.
“As a result of the confrontation, a Palestinian was killed, four others were injured, and a Palestinian vehicle was found burned. Several Israeli civilians were injured from rocks hurled at them,” it said, adding security forces arrived after the shooting.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements which are illegal under international law.
The last major case of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians occurred in June.
Revenge attacks on the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya and others followed the killing of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen, which militant group Hamas said was in response to an Israeli army raid on Jenin refugee camp which killed six Palestinians.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA yesterday said it had recorded 591 settler-related “incidents” in the West Bank in the first six months of 2023 resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both.
“That’s an average of 99 incidents every month, and a 39-percent-increase compared with the monthly average of the whole of 2022, which is 71,” spokesman Jens Laerke said.
Also on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli soldiers shot dead Mahmoud Abu Saan, 18, in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. The Israeli army said “suspects fired and hurled explosives and stones” at patrolling soldiers “who responded with live fire”.
Friday’s killings came three days after a Palestinian gunman wounded six people in a shooting at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank before being shot dead himself.
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This must be a typo. Israeli settlers arrested?
Zionists window dressing so they can pretend to be a democracy,
@Richard Brady: Israel is a democracy
@Roj Blake: Tell that to the tens of thousands of Israelis that have been out protesting against the extreme right wing government that have been taking independent power away from the judiciary. Independent judiciary is part of a normal functioning democracy.
Highlights again the difference between Israel, a democracy where law and order exists, and Hamas/PA controlled terrorist areas where murder and brutal suppression of opposition is common place.
@Ollie McGlinchey: I don’t support Hamas / Islamic Jihad
@Roj Blake: law and order yea…so cut and dry with you isn’t it…scratch the surface boy…you must be the most naive person I have ever seen comment here!
@Roj Blake: You support settlement building and oppression. We get it.
@Chris Jordan: try reading the article you posted link to.
The police officer “made an honest mistake thinking he was dealing with an armed terrorist who posed a real danger.”
@damien leen: SF/IRA are as abhorrent and Hamas
@Roj Blake: Yeah, that was the “defence”. Laughable.
@Roj Blake: Zionist state puts everyone else to shame. A rougue state built on right wing extremism.
@Roj Blake: If it were truly an accountable democracy there would be a lot more of this and a lot less occupation of Palestinian land. A fully accountable democracy is an extremely rare find though.
@Diarmuid Hunt: Would put money on it that this guy will get off. They all do. In the case I shared above, the policeman was scared of an Autistic man with the mental age of a child. NOT GUILTY. Bloody shameful
@Chris Jordan: the policeman encountered a man whos actions appeared suspicious, and ran when challenged, the officer then believed a woman was about to be attacked by this man and so acted accordingly. How was he, or anyone else, to know the person was autistic? Or should all autistic people wear a coloured star on their clothes ?
@Roj Blake: As the parent of an Autistic child, you dont know what you are talking about. He fled because he was afraid of these very same “policemen”. He was killed whilst trying to hide and in fear for his life. This man, with the mind of a child. This man, that was no threat to anyone. Killed by an occupying force that had no right to even be there. Very similar circumstances to an Irishman killed by a British soldier in the North. We don’t forget our history. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/british-government-apologises-over-shooting-of-mentally-disabled-man-1.1331878
@Chris Jordan: he was killed as the policeman believed a woman was about to be attacked. Clearly a tragedy, but the policeman acted lawfully and in good faith.
@Roj Blake: Ah you almost sounded sincerely there and then boom ur pro FFG mask fell off….Leo’s little patriot has been caught out
I know the Palestinian situation is a cause celebre among Western liberals, US Imperialism and all that but how can Western “liberals” support a culture that murders members of the gay community by throwing them head first off buildings and finishing them off by stoning if they somehow survive that and treats women so badly.
A Palestinian state would resemble Iran or Syria and ironically Western liberals would then be the first to condemn it for human rights abuses.
Peace is needed not murder and bloodshed.
@roj Blake….24/7…. day and night….ball gargling to the Zionist state
ZION thieves and murderers.
Well, it’s a start
Toi let Toi let? I love your sily name and your even siler comments.
When your next gig ?
I’m going to the John.
Maybe The Journal could tell us the last time a “Palestinian” murderer of a defenseless innocent Jew was prosecuted by the Palestinian Authority?
I am moving to Israel, and starting a chip shop. Fish and Chips is a Hebrew invention after all…
have your say