Kim Bullimore, West Bank
On September 29, Kim Lamberty and Chris Brown, international peace activists from the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT), were attacked and severely beaten as they escorted Palestinian children from Tuba in the Hebron region past the illegal Israeli settlement of Maon. The children were going to school.
Lamberty's arm and leg were broken. Brown was hospitalised with broken ribs and a punctured lung. The attack was the first in a series of attacks carried out by the gang of masked settlers dressed in black and armed with clubs, chains, sticks and slingshots. In the past 10 days, two subsequent attacks on international peace activists and schoolchildren have been carried out by the gang.
According to Israeli police, the attacks were "not spontaneous outbreaks of violence, but rather the work of a well-organised group, whose members wear black, don ski masks and arm themselves with wooden clubs, chains and rocks".
Despite this, however, the police and army have blamed international peace activists for the attacks. An IDF spokesperson told Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper that, in future, peace activists accompanying Palestinians to school would not be allowed to pass, saying, "a terrorist might try to infiltrate them and hurt the settlers". The spokesperson went onto say, "As soon as the peace activists are gone, things will calm down".
Peace activists from Israeli and international peace groups, however, have condemned the IDF's stance and its lack of action against the settlers. Ezra Nawi, an activist with Israeli peace group Ta'ayush highlighted the difference of approach by the Israeli security forces regarding the recent attacks. "If the assailants were Arabs they would have arresed the whole village and found those who were guilty", said Nawi.
Peace activist from the CPT and other Israeli peace organisation have said, however, that they will not be intimidated by the attacks and will continue to carry out their solidarity work in the region.
[Kim Bullimore is a member of the Socialist Alliance. She is currently working in Palestine with the international human rights organisation, the International Women's Peace Service. <http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org>]
From Green Left Weekly, October 27, 2004.
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