JEWISH SETTLER BEATS CHILD TO DEATH AS NETANYAHU APPROVES SETTLEMENT EXPANSION

On Sunday 27 October, a Jewish settler from the Betar settlement near Husan village, Bethlehem, beat a Palestinian child to death. The eleven year old child, Hilmeh Salim Hilmeh Shushah was playing with some of his relatives near his parents' house. The house adjoins a settler bypass road linking the Betar settlement with Road 60.

According to witnesses at the scene, at 2:30 p.m. a blue jeep belonging to the head of the settlement security stopped near the children. A settler known as "Nahum", the head of the settlement's security, got out of the jeep. With his rifle butt, the settler beat Hilmeh all over his body and his head. After Hilmeh fell unconscious, the settler carried the him to a nearby Israeli military camp. Hilmeh was brain dead by this time. Afterwards the boy was transferred to Hadassah hospital and was pronounced dead. Nahum was arrested by Israeli police.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced the approval of the sale of 3000 newly-constructed apartments located in settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Some of these apartments are located in the Betar settlement where the settler who murdered the Palestinian boy resides. These apartments were built under the Rabin/Peres administrations but were kept off the market by the Labor government during the Oslo negotiations. The Netanyahu government announced that the sale of these apartments will bring in necessary revenue for the budget deficit.

LAWE - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment looks upon this murder with grave concern. The beating of a child in cold blood is inhumane and inexcusable and calls for an immediate investigation and charges brought against "Nahum". At the same time, LAWE holds the Netanyahu government responsible for this act as it continues to support the Jewish settlers militarily, financially and morally in their vigilante and colonialist acts in the West Bank.

LAWE calls on the international community to protest this beating and to demand a freeze of all settlement expansion, construction, and sales of apartments. With each new apartment enters another settler family of four or more, armed and ideologically opposed to ending the Israeli military occupation. LAWE believes that Netanyahu's policies, like his announcement yesterday, only increase the tensions and hostilities in the area and can lead to further violence and suffering. LAWE calls on all those interested in preventing further horrid acts and opposed to the expansion of the settlements to send faxes to your governments and to the following: Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, fax: 972-2-637891 YESHA Settlers Council, Foreign Desk, fax: 972-2- 5814072

LAWE - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAWE is also an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.