The Israeli Police attacked on Friday afternoon Israeli leftist protesters and Palestinian activists as they held a nonviolent protest in front of “Har Hazeiteem” illegal Israeli settlement in Ras Al Amoud neighborhood, in occupied East Jerusalem, and kidnapped one Palestinian protester.The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, reported that the protesters chanted against the illegal presence of settlers in the center of Arab neighborhoods, and demanded the police to stop siding by the settlers and to perform their duties as police officers instead of attacking the Palestinians and their supporters while refraining from stopping violence practiced by the settlers.
The settlers were driving their cars in a provocative way, entering and exiting the settlement and attacked local residents by hurling stones at them and spraying them with water cannons. The settlers also attacked the protesters with pepper spray, hurled stones at them, kicked, and punched several residents.
The settlers also chanted racist slogans against the Arabs, the Palestinians and even against Jewish and Israeli supporters.
They further described the Arabs as terrorists and described Jewish leftists as “an obstacle to the Jewish dream”.
Besides firing gas and rubber-coated bullets, the police also used electric shock guns against the Palestinians and their Israeli supporters. The gun temporarily paralyzes its victims and causes them to lose consciousness.
The Israeli police did not disperse the settlers, but instead violently attacked the Palestinians and Israeli supporters and kidnapped seven persons taking them to the settlement where they were violently attacked and beaten.
The police also kidnapped a 19-year-old youth identified as Mohammad Sidir while he was at a local shop that was attacked by a number of policemen.
In related news, the police released Jawad Siyam, director of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, under the condition of deporting him from the Old City of Jerusalem for fifteen days.
Siyam was kidnapped on Thursday, and was interrogated at a police station in Bab Al Khalil (Hebron Gate) in the Old City. The police claim that, last Friday, Siyam hurled stones at them and instructed youth to hurl stones at police and Israeli vehicles in the area.
But a video shot by his friends, proved that he was at the protest tent in Silwan during the same time the police claimed he conducted “his attack”, and dozens of witnesses testified he was at the protest tent.
