Last Wednesday Israeli Settlers attacked two Americans, Chris Brown and Kim Lamberty, while escorting five Palestinian children to school. Brown and Lamberty are members of the Christian Peacemaking Team and were asked by Palestinian villagers to escort their children to school in order to ensure their safety. At first, Chris and Kim were confused as to why these children (ages ranging from 6 to 11 years) would be in danger; after walking them through an Israeli settlement that morning they understood.
Five Israeli settlers rushed at them with chains and bats. The first thing Chris told them was "Please don't hurt the children. Please don't hurt the children!" "Why are you doing this? All we're doing is walking children to school - we're nonviolent," Chris told them. "We're Americans." An attacker laughed, and Chris heard a man say, in a heavy Israeli accent, "They're Americans."
This is not the first and probably will not be the last instance that American peace activists were senselessly beaten or even killed by Israeli extremists. Rachael Corrie was run over by a bulldozer when she stood in front of a building that was about to be unjustly bulldozed by the Israeli Army. An eerie picture taken just before she was run over shows the man in the bulldozer clearly looking at Rachael; the fact is the Israeli Soldier just didn't care.
Lamberty suffered a broken arm, a severely injured knee, and bruises across her head and body. It is still difficult for her to move. Brown has a punctured lung and broken ribs and is similarly covered with cuts and body-wide contusions. He is still in the hospital. The children were able to flee immediately and were largely unhurt, at least physically. But attacks like these leave 85 percent of all Palestinian children with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Israeli Settlers are largely comprised of religious fanatics who believe that only Jews have the right to live in Israel. They move onto Palestinian land, they say openly to "redeem" it and to "cleanse" it of Christians and Muslims. These settlers are notorious in Israel for their extremism, violence and deeply racist religious beliefs.
