Bani Na’im Hebron District: Israeli settlers who invaded a Palestinian plot where equipment had been stolen bully owners who tries to stop them from leaving and assault him in front of soldiers

 On Thursday, 10 August 2023, at around 10:00 A.M., Muhammad Abu Sbeih (41) and his friend Bilal Abu Mayalah (30) drove to Abu Sbeih’s farmland in a jeep. The land, located south of the village of Bani Na’im, in an area known as Janun al-Batma  , covers about 2.5 dunams (1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters), and the two friends were planning to resume construction of a concrete fence around it. On arrival, they discovered the construction materials Abu Sbeih had left at the site the previous day had disappeared and drove off to look for them and ask farmers in neighboring plots if they had witnessed the theft. After a three-hour search that ended in nothing, they returned to Abu Sbeih’s plot and noticed two settlers about to drive away from it (according to Haaretz, one of the settlers was an off-duty soldier). Abu Mayalah, who was driving the jeep, positioned it to block the settlers’ way, while Abu Sbeih called the police. The two settlers, who were armed with M-16 rifles and a handgun, got out of the car and approached Abu Sbeih and Abu Mayalah, who had also got out of the jeep, and demanded they clear the way, holding their weapons menacingly. 

The settlers then went up to the jeep, opened its doors, began removing items from it and tried to put it in neutral and push it off the road, but Abu Mayalah managed to get into the driver’s seat and brake. At that point, one of the settlers sat in the passenger seat and started removing the car insurance and land ownership papers out of the glove compartment and fiddled with a Quran he found in it. Abu Sbeih picked up a stone from the ground and shouted at one of the settlers: “Shoot me, Kill me!” When Abu Sbeih tried to prevent the settler from damaging the documents, the settler who was standing next to the jeep, grabbed him by the hand and then the neck and pushed him out of the jeep.

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The settlers continued bullying Abu Sbeih and Abu Mayalah for about forty minutes, rummaging through their belongings and removing items from the jeep while holding their weapons menacingly. They even tried to prevent the two from documenting the incident. Some soldiers and an officer who arrived in the area told Abu Sbeih and Abu Mayalah to move the jeep and let the settlers leave. When Abu Sbeih told the officer he suspected the two had stolen from him and they had to wait for the police, one of the settlers punched him in the face in front of the officer, who did nothing more than shove him away. The officer promised Abu Sbeih he would check the military cameras to see if the settlers had, in fact, stolen his property and then ordered him to clear the way. After the jeep was moved, the settlers left. Unsurprisingly, the officer never got back to Abu Sbeih.

About 500 meters west of the plot, the settlement of Ma'ale Hever (Pnei Hever) was established in the 1980s. South of the settlement, the outpost Hevar Desert Farm was established. 

Abu Sbeih and Abu Mayalah gave their testimonies to B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari on 14 August 2023: 

Muhammad Abu Sbeih, 41, a married father of six children between the ages of one and 11, and a Hebrew teacher from Hebron, said:

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On Wednesday morning, 9 August 2023, I went with my brother Taufiq (24) to my land in the Janun al-Batma   area, about 500 meters northeast of the settlement of Pnei Hever. We continued building a concrete wall of about 100-120 meters that I started building around the land about two months ago to prepare it for growing grapevines. At around 1:00 P.M., a Civil Administration cruiser and two Israeli military jeeps came and handed us a stop work order. We had no choice, and we left. We left behind some metal posts, barbed wire fencing and some other construction materials - supplies that cost me about NIS 13,000 (~ USD 3,415). 

The next morning, I went back there with my friend, Bilal Abu Mayalah, who’s helping me build, and we saw that all the building materials I’d left there were stolen. We got into the jeep we arrived in and drove around neighboring plots to ask the neighbors if anyone had seen the thieves. After a few hours of searching, we found nothing and returned to my land. Just when we got there, we saw a car with an Israeli license plate about to leave my private land. We thought they might have been the thieves and that they were trying to escape, so we blocked them with the jeep. Suddenly, two settlers armed with guns got out of the car. They came over to us, and Abu Mayalah and I got out of the jeep and accused them of stealing the construction materials. I called the Israel Police and asked them to come.

In the meantime, the settlers tried to get into our jeep, and later, they also tried to push it, but Bilal was able to get in the driver’s seat quickly and stop them. One of the settlers, who sat down in the seat next to him, tried to tare up my land ownership documents, but I managed to force them out of his hand. He also tried to destroy the Quran that was there, but then Bilal managed to snatch it from his hand. Bilal was filming what was happening on his mobile phone the whole time. The settler who was hanging around outside the jeep started taking things out of the trunk, pushing me every once in a while. I got hit by the barrel of his rifle in my left thigh and right arm. 

It had been 40 minutes since we blocked their car, and the police still hadn’t arrived. In the meantime, some residents arrived and then two army jeeps came too. At first, the soldiers ordered us and all the residents to get away from the jeep. Then, I tried to explain to the officer that the settlers had stolen construction materials from me and that I would not clear the way for them until the police I had called arrived. One of the settlers was standing next to us, and I pointed to my car papers, which he was holding, but the officer didn’t do anything about it. Suddenly, the other settler punched me in the face, and I went flying back. After a few minutes, the officer ordered me again to get the jeep out of the way and promised to check the army cameras who stole the building materials, and if it turned out that the settlers had stolen my construction materials, he would return them to me. Around 5:00 P.M., we moved the jeep, and then the settlers and the soldiers left.

My leg still hurts from the settler’s rifle hitting me.

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Bilal Abu Mayalah, 30, a father of three from the neighborhood of Mafraq a-Saheb  in Hebron, said in his testimony:

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On Thursday, 10 August 2023, at around 10:00 A.M., I arrived with Muhammad Abu Sbeih at his land, and we discovered that the construction materials he’d left there the day before had been stolen. We drove around nearby plots for a few hours, hoping to find the thieves, but it was in vain and at around 4:00 P.M., we returned to his land and saw a car on its way out. We quickly blocked it with the jeep, which I was driving. Suddenly, two armed settlers got out of the car and came towards us. Muhammad called the police, and then we both got out of the jeep. One of the settlers managed to get into the jeep and sat in the passenger’s seat. The other settler also tried to get in, but I managed to get behind the wheel myself. They both ordered us to move the jeep, but we refused and told them we wouldn’t move it until the police arrived.

The settler who sat in the passenger’s seat started rummaging through the documents and found the jeep ownership papers and Muhammad’s land deed. He almost tore them up, but we managed to take them out of his hands. Then the settler tried to tare up the Quran he found in the jeep, but I managed to grab it from him by force. The settler who was standing outside started taking things out of the trunk, and Muhammad got angry and didn’t stop yelling at the settlers. I recorded everything on my cell phone. 

After about 40 minutes, two Israeli army jeeps arrived. Muhammad told the officer that we wouldn’t clear the way for the settlers until they returned what they stole. The two settlers denied stealing the building materials, and while Muhammad was talking to the officer, one of them suddenly hit Muhammad forcefully in the face. The officer kept telling Muhammad to move the jeep. Muhammad refused and said he would clear the way only when the police arrived and when he got what was stolen back. 

The officer promised to check the cameras and again ordered us to move the jeep, and then we complied and cleared the way. The settlers drove towards the settlement of Pnei Hever. The soldier left too, and so did we. Muhammad later told me that he hadn’t gotten a call from the military or the police yet. I’m sure the two settlers are the ones who stole the building materials, but unfortunately, we have no evidence.