Saturday, May 14, 2005

The IDF fires on residential areas nr. Nablus; conducts arrest raids, house searches in nearby Askar r.c.; raids, searches the Bil‘in home of Abdallah Abu Ramah, the coordinator of the local Higher Comm. Against the Annexation Wall, arresting him. Jewish settlers fr. Yitzhar detain a Palestinian farmer plowing his nearby land at gunpoint, take him to their settlement, beat him, threaten to bury him alive; the IDF observes the abduction, beating but only intervenes when settlers threaten the man’s life, ordering him to leave the area and never come back, saying it is a closed military zone. Jewish settlers fr. Ma’on set fire to 50 d. of nearby Palestinian crops. Jewish settlers fr. Elon Moreh erect a tent on nearby Palestinian farmland. (IMEMC 5/15; OCHA 5/18; PCHR 5/19)