“Hundreds of settlers arrived at our village, rampaged through the village, smashed windows, demolished cars, destroyed a lot of property and terrorized the village people, especially the children. The rampage lasted from 8.00 pm until 1.00 am last Saturday (Nov. 24). Not only did the army not prevent it, but some of the soldiers actively helped them” said Feras Talal Beileh, mayor of Funduk Village, to a group of sixty Israeli peace and human rights activists who arrived for a solidarity visit to the village.

Following their visit, the Israeli activists demand the holding of an extensive and impartial investigation and the punishment of both the settlers who perpetrated the pogrom and the soldiers who were present and did not prevent them, and some of whom actively participated in the destructive rampage.

“I understand very well why the settlers were angry at the killing of their fellow said the mayor. “But they know very well that his killer did not come from Funduk. We have always been a quiet village, and the soldiers know that very well because they often come shopping here. The shooter came in a car, shot the settler and escaped. They attacked and caused an enormous damage, just because we are Arabs who happen to live near the place where it happened".

As eye-witness told the Israeli activists, army commanders called upon the settlers not to enter the village, but they ignored the call and broke into the village streets. Soldiers accompanied them, and far from stopping the destruction which they embarked upon, soldiers riding on a jeep turned their spotlight upon windows which were not yet smashed, facilitating the settlers smashing them.

Settlers broke into my marble factory and started to smash marble slabs – the most expansive kind, which are imported from italy and cost between 130 and 150 dollars apiece" said to the Israelis Hani Salman, owner of Funduk’s “Daliah Marble” factory. A settler girl, 17 or 18 years old, tries to push a marble slab and smash it, but it was too heavy for her. Then, solders said ‘wait, we will help you’, and they overturned and broke the slab. I saw all this while being besieged in the factory’s office. Altogether,Funduk’s two marble factories, “Daliah Marble” and “Peace Marble” sustained a damage of at least 200,000

Throughout the pogrom, soldiers demanded of the villagers to remain in their homes and threatened to shoot anyone who would go out. The owner of a carpentry told: “We live above the workshop. The settlers broke into the lower floor and intended to set the wood piles on fire. We might have all been burned. My wife was hysterical with panic. I threw pieces of iron on them. Suddenly policemen came and told the settlers ‘Get out of there, the Arabs might hurt you’ – but I was arrested and kept in detention for four days, just because I tried to protect my wife and children. Now my wife went back to her parents' home in another village, she is afraid to come home because she thinks the settlers might come again.”

The Israeli activists decided to set up a team of lawyers, who would help the villagers sue for compensations for the damage caused to their property, and also to organize a visit of physicians and psychologists to visit the village and offered needed help. Villagers told that they would lodge complaints with the Israeli police only as a matter of principle, because they don’t trust the police to seriously investigate the settler violence.

The Israeli visitors also heard of Funduk Village’s most serious problems – that under the classifications of the Oslo Agreement, only a small part of the village is considered “B” area where the Palestinian Authority can issue building permits. Most of the village is defined as “C” area where a permit from the Israeli military authorities is needed – and is no given. This Israelis visited the sites of several houses which were built without permit – since the authorities refused to give one – and were demolished by the army. The mayor told the visitors that there is an urgent need for a new school. But all suitable plots are in the “C” area and the military government refuses to issue a permit.

Tzfira Yonathan of Kibbutz Sarid, widow of the well-known poet Nathan Yonathan, sent a message which was read out at the meeting in the Funduk Town Hall: “To the people of Funduk, greetings! I am sorry that the state of my health prevents me from being physically with you. I hope my words can also help. From my youth in HaShomer Hatzair Movement I have felt sympathy for the suffering of oppressed people and those expelled from their land, whether it is the neighbouring people or in the ruins of war in Europe or hunger-stricken Third World countries. In October 1973 my son Lior was killed in an unnecessary and terrible war, exposed in a tank turret at Suez. I have said at the time a sentence which cost me many friends: “I don’t hate the Egyptian soldier who killed my son”. I hope that together we will push war away and expel the evil which brings war about.

Ya'akov Manor Oded Efrati