‘Sheep are the settlers’ weapon of choice these days’

Israeli settlers are trying to seize land by getting their flocks to graze on Palestinian property; Ben Lynfield meets a rabbi who works with Palestinian farmers trying to stop the settlers

TAYBEH JUNCTION, WEST BANK – At first glance the scene seems pastoral and almost biblical: a lone shepherd grazing his flock of sheep on a Judean hilltop, a half hour's drive from Jerusalem.

It is only upon further consideration that one realises there is something not entirely right here: the shepherd is an Israeli settler and his flock is grazing on privately owned Palestinian property as part of one of Israel's largest land grabs ever in the occupied West Bank.

"Sheep are the settlers’ weapon of choice these days," says Rabbi Arik Asherman, head of the Torat Tzedek (Torah of Justice) human rights group, who works with Palestinian farmers in the central West Bank in a bid to protect their property from the invasive grazing and its accompanying settler violence.

Around Taybeh Junction, near Ramallah, much of the trouble emanates from an illegal settlement outpost run by Neriah Ben-Pazi, who oversees a herding farm with militant young settler inhabitants. By the accounts of local Palestinians, they use sheep and violence to take over Palestinian land.

"It is a base for terror, violence and harassment," says Asherman, who was assaulted by settlers ten times from January to May for non-violently challenging their incursions.

In one case, his ear required stitches and in another he was beaten repeatedly in the arms with a stick by a masked settler. He filed complaints with the police for each assault but "so far the police haven't done a lot," he says.

The Israel police responded that it had opened an investigation that is still ongoing which requires "multiple subpoenas of witnesses and suspects' identifications."