FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Settlers Call for Attacks on International Human Rights Defenders in al-Khalil
”These are not tourists. These are hostile anarchists. Soldiers and residents pay attention, the characters in these
photos are here to harm Israelis for anti-semitic reasons. Act accordingly.”
This message, written in Hebrew, was posted by a machine gun wielding illegal Israeli settler outside the apartment of
international human rights defenders in Hebron. The posters showed pictures of the faces of the volunteers that were
taken yesterday while they were picking olives with the family of the late Hashem Al Azzeh in Tel Rumeida.
Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in al-Khalil on a daily basis with impunity. Settlers have also attacked
international human rights defenders in the past.
In the last month the settlers and the Israeli military have shot dead several Palestinians whom they claimed had
knives. Pictures and videos taken by Palestinian activists and international volunteers have challenged these claims.
The Solidarity Movement states that ”The intention of this threat and is to intimidate international human rights
defenders and to prevent them from continuing to document the acts of violence, abuses and human rights crimes that
illegal Israeli settlers carry out towards the Palestinians.”
Despite the threat the international volunteers intend to stay in al-Khalil.