On Sunday March 16, during the Jewish holiday of Purim, Operation Dove reported that Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and Internationals on Palestinian fields near the illegal outpost of Mitzpe Yair adjacent to Firing Zone 918 in Masafer Yatta.
A settler armed with an iron pipe began threatening four shepherds and their flock at about 9 AM, then ran off when two more shepherds and two internationals arrived and began filming. At 9:30 eight settlers arrived and began violently chasing the flocks toward the valley below the outpost. Palestinians called the Israeli police, and another two internationals and members of the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee and B’tselem also arrived.
When the police arrived they took one international and one of the shepherds, Nail Abuaram, who filmed the incident, to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement where police demanded to look at the video and threatened Nail Abuaram with arrest if he did not agree to sign a paper stating that he will not get closer than 450 meters to the area where the harassment took place for a period of 15 days. Police also told the settler who attacked the Palestinians with an iron pipe to stay 200 meters far from the spot where the harassment took place for a period of 15 days.
Video of the incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkhd_oJ2jkk&list=UUpKXxYTHG80BLPckf_YMHtw
For further information: Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773, http://www.operationdove.org
Full press release at http://palsolidarity.org/2014/03/settlers-from-mitzpe-yair-continue-to-attack-palestinian-shepherds-grazing-on-palestinian-owned-land-even-during-purim/
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
CPT Palestine 
