By Mohammed Torokman
ASASA, West Bank, May 9 – Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank forced Palestinians to exhume the body of their father from his freshly dug village grave, his family said, near a settlement re-established by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Hussein Asasa, 80, died on Friday of natural causes and was buried that evening at the cemetery of Asasa village near Jenin, with all the necessary permits from Israel’s military, whose forces were at the site, his son Mohammed said.
But shortly after the burial, the family was called back by some of the villagers, who said settlers were at the grave, ordering the grave be dug up.
“They said the land was for settlement and that burial was not allowed. We told them that this is the village’s cemetery, not part of the settlement,” said Asasa.
The settlers then threatened to dig the grave up with a bulldozer, Asasa said, so the family decided to exhume their father’s body themselves.
“We found that they already dug the grave and reached the body,” Asasa said. “We continued digging and got the body and buried him in another cemetery,” he said.
VIDEO SHOWS PEOPLE REMOVING A BODY
Video circulating on social media appeared to show settlers watching as people dig in the ground of a hill slope. They then carry away what looks like a body as Israeli troops walk behind them. Reuters verified the location as Asasa.
The Israeli military said that the funeral had been coordinated with it and that it had not instructed the family to rebury their father. Soldiers were sent to the scene following a report about a confrontation with settlers who were “digging in the area,” the military said.
“The soldiers confiscated digging tools from the Israeli civilians and remained at the location in order to prevent further friction,” the military said. It added that it condemns actions that violate the “dignity of the living and the deceased”.
The UN Human Rights Office condemned the incident.
“This is appalling and emblematic of the dehumanisation of Palestinians that we see unfolding across the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories). It spares no one, dead or alive,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of the OHCHR Palestinian office.
Reuters could not reach settlers from the nearby Sa-Nur settlement for comment.
Sa-Nur was one of 19 settlements evacuated under the 2005 Israeli disengagement plan, which also included Israel’s withdrawal of settlers and troops from Gaza.
Netanyahu’s government approved Sa-Nur’s re-establishment a year ago and construction has advanced rapidly, according to Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog.
The West Bank is among the territories that Palestinians seek for an independent state. Israel cites historical and biblical ties to the land, as well as security needs.
Netanyahu’s government, which staunchly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, has been accelerating settlement building, while a rise in attacks by settlers on Palestinians has drawn international alarm.
The United Nations and most countries deem Israel’s settlements on West Bank land captured in the 1967 war illegal, a view that Israel disputes.
(Additional reporting by Roleen Tafakji; Writing by Maayan Lubell; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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