“We go to heaven, you go to hell,” an Israeli settler taunts Palestinians in a video that was widely shared on social media over the weekend.
The footage was captured by Musab Shaawer of Hebron 90.4 FM radio station on Thursday.
#See settlers attacking the residents of Tel Armidah today with insults and so on...! #MyPhotography
The group of Israeli settlers, including a number of young women, drove into a Palestinian area of the West Bank city of Hebron last week, apparently with the intention of winding up the locals.
“Where are all the Arabs? They left you and joined us,” the young man can be heard shouting into a loudspeaker in Arabic.
“If war breaks out the Jews will come here and evict and kill you all.”
The settler is also seen waving his shoe as an insulting symbol in the direction of the camera, and making offensive hand gestures.
If their intention was to provoke a response, they certainly seem to have succeeded, as an angry crowd can be heard angrily replying to the settlers’ mocking from behind the camera.
Grinning Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers seen nearby only intervene at the end of the two minute clip.
Settlers in the West Bank often enjoy army protection as they engage in attacks on local Palestinians. Just last Friday, Haaretz reported that Palestinian shepherds in the Jordan Valley had been assaulted by three Israeli settlers accompanied by IDF soldiers.
Tensions run high in Hebron, where Palestinians live shoulder to shoulder with Israeli settlers in the heart of the city. While settlements built on Palestinian land in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, the Israeli Knesset last week passed a bill retrospectively legalizing 4,000 settler homes.
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