In West Bank, latest victim of Israeli settler violence shocks in a new way

Atara, West Bank: Cruelty has become commonplace in the West Bank, where extremist Israeli settlers beat and shoot Palestinians, steal their sheep, uproot their olive groves and torch cars and homes. The settlers, outlaws in a multitude of ways, seldom face consequences for their actions.

But even for Palestinians living under the constant threat of being attacked, some violence retains the capacity to shock.

That was the case when a video went viral that showed a settler menacing a 1 1/2-year-old dog with a club in each fist -- and swinging hard, beating her over the head.

In the video, the dog, a Belgian Malinois named Lucy, squeals in pain and tries to scramble away. But she had been chained to an olive tree to keep her in the shade on a hot afternoon.

What follows, recorded by the dog's owners, a Palestinian family in the village of Atara, is extremely difficult to watch, and to describe.

Until recently, the violence in Atara had followed a more typical playbook, aimed at driving Palestinians to flee for safety -- abandoning their homes, pastures and farmlands to the encroaching settlers so that Arab spaces shrink and Jewish spaces expand.

A group of young settlers established an illegal outpost, called Kfar Tarfon, last summer about three-quarters of a mile from the Abu Rejalah family's home in hilly Atara, north of Ramallah.

They pelted Palestinians' cars with stones along the main road into town, residents said. They harassed a Bedouin sheep farmer on the edge of Atara until he gave up and moved. Residents of the village said they felt too afraid last fall to harvest hundreds of olive trees just downhill from the outpost.

Then the settlers took an interest in the Abu Rejalah family, which is growing, and not fleeing, as the seven sons of Hassan Abu Rejalah, 50, begin to marry and have children of their own. Their expanding home, a three-story construction site, is visible from Kfar Tarfon across a small valley.

The settlers herded their sheep through the family's small hillside plot, destroying crops, according to Abu Rejalah, two of his sons and other members of their extended family. They drove up to the family's doorstep as if they owned the place, stealing harvested vegetables and disabling a driveway gate in plain view of surveillance cameras.

And they accused two members of the family of attacking them, according to Abu Rejalah. The family said the accusation was false. On Jan. 9, Israeli soldiers arrested his sons Ibrahim, 31, and Daoud, 26, who were beaten by soldiers, taken to an Israeli police station, imprisoned in a military prison for five days and then released without being charged, Ibrahim and his father said.

Asked about the arrests, the Israeli military confirmed that soldiers had detained Palestinians after an Israeli civilian reported that they had thrown stones at him. It did not address whether the Palestinians had been beaten. It said they were turned over to police, who did not respond to questions about the incident.

Such experiences are all too familiar to Palestinians across the West Bank.

What was unusual was the cruelty to animals.

Last fall, a neighbor of the Abu Rejalahs' who lives closer to the settlers' outpost discovered a dead donkey hanging from one of his olive trees, residents said. It was cited as one of the reasons that villagers forsook the yearly olive harvest, a fixture of Palestinian life and important revenue source.

Members of the Abu Rejalah family said that on Feb. 18, they discovered a settler grazing his sheep on their property and throwing stones at another dog, Angel, a part-Malinois mixed breed. Two days later, the dog died from his wounds.

No one photographed that attack, but on May 14, when a lanky settler showed up at the family's home and threw a stone at a window, Ibrahim Abu Rejalah recorded video from inside the house. He also called Israeli police and Palestinian security services. Israeli soldiers soon arrived, he said, and sent the man away.

Ibrahim Abu Rejalah said that the Israeli and Palestinian officers had cautioned him: "As long as they're around, don't go outside."

The same settler -- whom police said Thursday that they had identified -- returned the next day around 6 p.m. No one went outside. Two family members took out their cellphones and pressed record.

In the videos, which have been verified by The New York Times, the young man, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, holds a wooden club and is accompanied by two white dogs of his own. He paces back and forth, scanning the windows of the house. Then he walks down to the olive tree to which Lucy is chained. Nearby, another dog, Cheetah, not on a chain, is keeping her company.

The man picks up a grapefruit-size rock and throws it at one of the dogs. Cheetah, bloodied, runs away. Lucy cannot.

The man, now holding a club in each hand, begins to beat her, hard.

The dog tries to put the tree between herself and the man. But he reaches around the tree to strike her. Seeing her wounded, he moves in.

He pummels her head, swinging both clubs. Once. Twice. Only on at least the 17th double-blow does the dog collapse.

The attacker doesn't stop. He beats her nine more times.

Ibrahim Abu Rejalah said he called Israeli police while the attack was still underway and was told that soldiers would be sent immediately. He said that police and soldiers only showed up days later, on Sunday.

Asked about the case, Israeli police said in a statement Thursday that it only learned of the incident after video of the attack went viral. It said its investigation had been "intensive" and called on the attacker to "turn himself in, as the long arm of the police will reach him."

In its own statement, the Israeli military added that Kfar Tarfon was an "illegal outpost" and was "expected to be evacuated."

At the settlers' outpost Tuesday, two men approached by Times reporters both refused to comment.

"There's nothing for you here," one said in Hebrew.

When shown a still image from the video of the attack on the dog and asked to identify the attacker, the man said nothing and walked away.

The dog survived, somehow. Her skull was fractured in only two places, beneath a 10-centimeter gash, said Dr. Ashraf Shiban, a veterinarian in Rama, in northern Israel. Her treatment is being paid for by an Israeli animal rescue group.

The dog was blinded in her left eye, but Shiban said Wednesday that she was already eating again. In time, he said, she should recover.

Members of the Abu Rejalah family said they feared further attacks from the Kfar Tarfon settlers, particularly now that they have spoken up publicly. They expressed little confidence that the attacker would be punished.

But they seemed just as disbelieving that the attack had even occurred in the first place.

"I worked for years inside Israel," Hassan Abu Rejalah said. "Every house has a pet, a dog or a cat. They love pets.

"What would make them do such a thing, if not to scare off people?"