Israel forces prevent Israeli activist solidarity with Huwara

Israeli forces take protesters into custody during a demonstration in support of Palestinians in Huwwara, those who were subjected to Jewish settlers’ violence, in Nablus, West Bank on March 03, 2023. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli occupation forces and military police on Friday blocked hundreds of left-wing Israeli activists from staging a solidarity rally in the Palestinian town of Huwara.

This came less than a week after the town was set ablaze by extremist Jewish settlers, leaving tens of homes and hundreds of vehicles in ruins. Father and Palestinian aid worker Sameh Aktash was killed and many others wounded.

Activists from Israeli rights organisations said Israeli army soldiers and border police prevented busloads of protesters from entering Huwara.

READ: Hamas condemns Israel’s release of Huwara pogrom perpetrator

In one case, soldiers shoved and wrestled with one of the demonstrators before briefly detaining him, AP reported Sally Abed from the group Standing Together as saying.

AP disclosed that some 500 people holding signs of solidarity and Palestinian flags, both Jews and Arab citizens, stepped off the buses and headed down the highway toward Hawara in defiance of the army’s orders.

Palestinian motorists honked in support and the protesters chanted, “No to occupation” and “End Jewish terror.”

READ: EU representative: ‘Settler violence must stop’

Facing the mass of police and troops deployed to halt their peaceful protest, they shouted: “Where were you when Hawara happened?” referring to the intense rampage that went largely unchecked and unpunished.

Earlier in the day, a delegation of European diplomats toured Hawara and a neighbouring village to survey the damage and denounce the atrocities.

Ambassador Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, heading one of the biggest European Union delegations to visit the West Bank, said the officials wanted to see with their own eyes the damage left by Sunday’s violence in and around the Palestinian village of Huwara.

“It is absolutely necessary for us that accountability is fully ensured, that the perpetrators be brought to justice, that those who lost property be compensated,” Burgsdorff expressed.

OPINION: Who will pay the price for the killing of the Palestinian aid worker in Huwara?

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