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[[The Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya is still reeling after about 400 Jewish settlers, furious over a Palestinian terror attack that killed four Israelis at a gas station nearby, rampaged through the village, destroying property. Seventy percent of the village’s residents are U.S. citizens and they say the U.S. government must do more to keep them safe. Linda Gradstein reports from Turmus Ayya in the West Bank.]]
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/Script ISRAEL - SETTLER VIOLENCE))
HEADLINE: Palestinians Call for US to Pressure Israel on Settler Violence
TEASER Setter Rampage After Terrorist Attack
PUBLISHED: 6/29/2023 at 5:436 p.m.
BYLINE: Linda Gradstein
DATELINE: Turmus Ayya, West Bank VIDEOGRAPHER: Ricki Rosen
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: RH: MAS
VIDEO SOURCES: VOA, AFP, REUTERS, IDF SPOKESMAN, TWITTER
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X__ RADIO _ __
TRT: 2:14 VID APPROVED BY: Jepsen
TYPE: TV/R
EDITOR NOTES: FOR PRODUCTION THURSDAY;
Web desk, please post camera credit for Ricki Rosen))
((INTRO))
[[The Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya is still reeling after about 400 Jewish settlers, furious over a Palestinian terror attack that killed four Israelis at a gas station nearby, rampaged through the village, destroying property. Seventy percent of the village’s residents are U.S. citizens and they say the U.S. government must do more to keep them safe. Linda Gradstein reports from Turmus Ayya in the West Bank.]]
((Mandatory cg: Twitter @Emanuel Fabian))
((NARRATOR))
Turmus Ayya’s Palestinian-American residents are still traumatized from last week’s rampage, through their usually peaceful village by hundreds of Jewish settlers, faces masked and many with guns.
[[Radio Cue: Umm Bilal’s house was completely destroyed.]]
((Umm Bilal, Turmus Ayya Resident, Female (in Arabic, VOA))
“Settlers came into the house. They hit me and then they hit my grandson. They ran out and I ran to hide in the bathroom. And then they set the house on fire.”
((NARRATOR))
Umm Bilal and her husband, Mahmoud Hajjaz, are among the 70 percent of village residents who split their time between Turmus Ayya and the U.S., in their case Macon, Georgia.
Hajjaz says the attack makes him more committed to his property in the village.
(Mahmoud Hajjaz, Turmus Ayya Resident, Male (in English), VOA))
“They want us to move. They want us to leave our houses, our land, our farm, to come and take it. We no move. This is our land, this is our house.”
((NARRATOR))
The settler rampage came a day after a Palestinian terror attack nearby that killed four Israelis. The Israeli government and army reacted forcefully to the attack, but also condemned the settler vigilante violence.
((REST OPT))
[[Radio Cue: Herzi Halevi is the Israeli army chief of staff]]
((Herzi Halevi, Israeli Army Chief of Staff (Male (in Hebrew, NEEDS VOICEOVER)
((Mandatory cg: IDF Spokesman))
“An IDF officer who stands by when seeing an Israeli citizen planning to throw a molotov cocktail at a Palestinian house cannot be an officer.”
((NARRATOR))
Palestinians say that, especially under this far-right Israeli government, settlers are almost never arrested or brought to trial for the violence.
European Union and American officials sharply condemned Israel for failing to stop the settler rampage against Palestinian civilians and called on both Israel and the Palestinians to do more to de-escalate the violence. But these 5,000 Palestinian-Americans who live in or visit their village every summer say it’s up to the U.S. to do more to protect them.
[[Radio Cue: Abdelnasser Rashid is an Ilinois State Representative whose parents live in Turmus Ayya.]]
((Abdelnasser Rashid, Palestinian- American Illinois State Representative (Male (in English), VOA))
((Mandatory cg: Zoom))
“It should be very clear that continuing to give Israel billions of dollars in military funding every single year does not help to advance the cause of peace.”
((NARRATOR)).
Palestinians here say all they want is for the settler violence to stop.
((Linda Gradstein for VOA News, Turmus Ayya in the West Bank.))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)
Turmus Ayya in the West Bank
Embargo DateJune 29, 2023 16:15 EDT
Byline
Linda Gradstein for VOA News
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
