Redeployment Diary
29 December 1995
Meanwhile in the nearby settlement of Bet El, part II
The language of co-existence
Right: During our short foray into the settlement, rifle practice was underway on the Beit El firing range, puffs of sand filling the air around the human-shaped targets. The hostility to the goings on in Ramallah was clear, articulated at every level, from one shop owner who complained, "Nothing good is happening now, everything is bad," to the road sign opposite the settlement, which had the Arabic town names painted out.Israeli Labour Party politician Abba Eban stated, while addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee in late 1988, that the juxtaposition of two peoples on the soil of Eretz Israel was "a 100% recipe for violence." The Intifada is often seen as the "reason" for Israeli settler violence against Palestinians but, in fact, many serious human right violations took place before then. A 1985 report by the Palestinian Human Rights Campaign published incidents of settler violence in the years 1980-1984, long before the Intifada:
| SETTLER VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIANS, 1980-1984 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 |
| Palestinians killed | 1 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 4 |
| Palestinians injured | 11 | 35 | 40 | 83 | 22 |
Click Here for DIARY INDEX
Photos: © Nigel Parry. All available.