Israeli settler attacks peace activist in West Bank

A masked Israeli settler carrying a knife attacked a peace activist in the West Bank Friday while the activist was volunteering to protect Palestinian farmers from assaults during the olive harvest season. 

The attack underscores complaints by Palestinians of assaults by Israeli settlers.

The Israeli-American peace activist shown in the video is Rabbi Arik Asherman, president of Rabbis for Human Rights. 

He was confronted by Israeli settlers when he spotted them stealing olives and burning groves that belong to local Palestinian villagers near Awarta, in the West Bank.

Asherman was not stabbed and suffered only minor injuries.

Yariv Mohar, a representative of Rabbis for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera that the attack was only the “tip of the iceberg of what Palestinians are going through".

“If [Asherman] wasn’t a Jew, then the attack might have been much more severe,” Mohar told Aljazeera. “But for Palestinians, this is daily or weekly way of life especially.” 

Mohar said activists often serve as a deterrent to would-be Israeli attackers who are wary of being captured on film.

The activists also help Palestinians fully harvest their crops by accessing Palestinian-owned lands that the Israeli military has designated as off-limits to Palestinians. 

According to Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, from 2005 to 2014, Palestinians filed 246 complaints against Israelis for damaging trees and farmland in the West Bank, reported Al Jazeera.

Human rights organizations, including Israeli group B’Tselem, have complained that Israeli settlers assault Palestinians regularly.

B’Tselem documented numerous attacks by settlers against Palestinians in October including one incident caught on video showing Israeli forces standing by while Israeli settlers assultd the Palestinians.