

Two weeks ago, Israeli Border Police officers sicced a dog on protesters in the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum (Photo: PSCC)

One of the most important WikiLeaks documents on Israel was a cable describing a February 2010 meeting between the Israeli and US militaries in which Amos Gilad, an Israeli defense official, says, “we don’t do Gandhi very well.”

Gilad’s right. The Israeli army’s crackdown last night on the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum is only the latest example of how Israel deals with the popular resistance movement in Palestine. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) routinely raid West Bank villages that resist settlements and the separation barrier, and arrest, harass and beat residents, including protest leaders.

Kafr Qaddum is one of the newer villages to join the popular resistance struggle, holding demonstrations against settlement encroachment for the past 9 months, according to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC). Last night, 20 people from the village were arrested by the IDF. This raid comes a few days after a Monday raid on the village in which the IDF attempted to arrest a 2-year-old.

The PSCC statement has more

Several of the raided houses were ransacked and left with extensive damages to their interior. Soldiers have gone as far as pillaging gold jewelry estimated in thousands of Shekels from the house belonging to Atta Shtawi, whose son Sabri was detained. Among those arrested are three minors–one 16-year-old and two 17 year-old – as well as Riad Shtewi, a member of the village’s popular committee.

Ma’an News also reported on the raid.

Two weeks ago, an Israeli military dog chased after protesters in the village and injured Ahmed Shtawi, a demonstrator.

Popular struggle leaders in Kafr Qaddum say they won’t be deterred by the Israeli repression. After the attempted arrest of his son, one popular struggle leader in the village, Murad Shtayeh, told the Electronic Intifada’s Linah Alsaafin that the army “thought this stunt — whether carried through or not — would serve as a punishment for us, but the truth is that it will not deter us from our protests.”