LONDON: In a scene that Palestinian officials and rights groups say has become routine in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers reportedly attacked farmers from the Bisharat family in mid-January as they plowed their land in Mofiya, in the northern Jordan Valley.
Witnesses said the settlers assaulted the farmers with pepper spray before calling in Israeli soldiers. Israeli forces later detained two sons of Youssef Hussein Asmar Bisharat, Hussein and Mohammed, according to Mutaz Bisharat, a Palestinian official from Tubas.
“This is the daily reality in the Jordan Valley,” Bisharat told Arab News. “It is repeated across all Palestinian communities.”
He described a consistent pattern: “Settlers assault citizens; the occupation army intervenes in favor of the settlers; Palestinians who try to defend themselves and their land are arrested; the occupation police file complaints against Palestinians.”
Palestinian farmers work in a field in Jordan Valley in the Israeli-occupied. (Reuters/File)
