An intentional activist working with International Solidarity Movement is currently with Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley. They sent this dispatch
Last night there was a settler attack on another community, however. Settlers entered the village, fired shots in the air, injured a Palestinian, and stole 350 sheep. Of course, the authorities ended up arresting Palestinians in the community and did not investigate the settlers or seek out the stolen sheep.
The pogrom last night left the communities shaken, as it was intended to do. People are anxious and on edge; even Palestinians who are usually cool and composed in the face of settler violence are visibly impacted by this scale of aggression.Β
Our volunteers who were there last night went out with the community tonsearch the hills for sheep in the darkness, discovering dozens of sheep who had been stabbed by the settlers. It was a horrifying sunrise with blood and corpses across the hills. So far, we have heard that about 120 sheep have been found dead and 60-70 are injured but were brought back home for treatment. My small contribution today has been working on social media about the attack, which I’ll link to when it is publicly available. It’s brutal footage to watch and I can’t imagine what it has been like for the people who were there during the night and the early morning. And for the people who are targeted — Palestinians just trying to live their lives and graze their sheep on their land — I have no words.
This kind of violence isn’t an aberration. It was fully supported by the army — some soldiers even hugged the settlers after the attack. The government supports the settlers financially. Other nations, including the USA, also support the settler movement politically and financially. The power imbalance here is so difficult to wrap one’s mind around.
For now I’ll just end with the face of one of the settlers who perpetrated last night’s attack. We don’t (yet) know his name.[shown at top of page]
Here is a video sent of the state of the sheep (warning this has graphic content)
