Radical settlers disrupted Baerbock's visit to the West Bank. Palestinians reported their suffering to the minister there. She criticized Israel sharply.
Ramallah – Radical Israeli settlers disrupted a visit by Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) to the West Bank. Baerbock came to Al-Masraa al-Kiblija, a village in the barren hills north of Ramallah, on Monday (January 8) to talk to Palestinian residents about settler violence. People reported to her about distress and existential despair – when suddenly a drone approached from the other side of the valley with a loud whirring sound.
Baerbock: Settler drone should “deter and drive away”
For a few moments, the drone hovered over Baerbock and her interlocutor “like an aggressive insect,” the news agency reported AFP. Then the drone turned away again, back towards radical settlers who appeared to be piloting it. The drone apparently came “to see and hear what we are doing here,” said Baerbock. “A drone that circles over people who are actually at home here every day in order to obviously scare them off and drive them away from here,” said the Foreign Minister.
After Al-Masraa al-Kiblija, Baerbock is right in the middle War in Israel came. To a place where the Middle East conflict erupts into hostilities almost daily, especially since October 7th. Since the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists in which more than 1,200 Israelis were murdered, the situation in the West Bank has continued to deteriorate.
Palestinians complained about settler violence – Baerbock takes Israel to task
At the on-site visit on the outskirts of the village, Samhan Muhammad al-Scharita spoke to the minister. The 70-year-old farmer and ex-teacher complained that no one was coming to the aid of the beleaguered villagers. The people there were “exposed to violence from the settlers,” the old man reported. “They damage our homes, our belongings,” he complained. For more than 40 days, settlers have blocked his path to his fields in the valley, al-Scharita said. The olive harvest is in danger of being lost. “This is my personal story of suffering. But there are thousands like me here,” he said.
Baerbock also agreed that settler violence had “increased dramatically” since the radical Islamic Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th. “This violence must end,” she said. Here “Israel has a duty to protect Palestinians.”
There have already been attempts by Israel to put a stop to settler violence. Israeli Defense Minister Joaw Gallant recently ordered several times that violent settlers be taken into custody for up to four months under Israeli military criminal law. This was reported by the left-liberal Israeli newspaper, among others Haaretz. These arrests are possible because the Israeli military jurisdiction has jurisdiction over many areas in the West Bank. In December, the USA imposed several entry bans on the heads of the radical settler movement.
“Illegal” behavior of the settlers makes “Palestinian life impossible” – Foreign Minister Baerbock
Baerbock, a qualified international lawyer, also stated that the settlers’ actions were “illegal”. Many people here can no longer live there “for fear of violence and radical settlers,” said Baerbock. The settler violence has a dramatic consequence: “Palestinian life is impossible here,” said the Foreign Minister.
What Baerbock sees leaves little room for optimism. She actually traveled to the Middle East to explore possibilities for a future peace order. “Here in the West Bank it is clear how urgently needed a two-state solution is – but also how incredibly endangered it is,” summed up the minister soberly before her departure from Al-Masraah al-Kiblija. (AFP/kb)
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