Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – Extremist Jewish settlers on Friday attacked leftist Israeli youths during a tour in the West Bank city of Hebron. The Israeli Army Radio quoted the leftist Israeli Meretz part as saying that the settlers cursed at the youth activists, calling them “Nazis.” The report added that the settlers started hitting the activists when they tried to film the attack. Meretz said that two one of the activists was lightly injured, but did not require medical attention. The party added that it said it would file a complaint to the police about the incident. Leftist Israeli activists use to rally in Hebron to protest the Israeli policies in the city and the closure of a major street in it. Al Shuhada Street in Hebron also has been closed to Palestinians by Israeli forces since February 1994, when the extreme-rightist Jew Baruch Goldstein, burst into the Al Ibrahimi mosque in the city, where he shot and killed 29 Muslims while praying during holy month of Ramadan, and wounded between 70-150 people. No Palestinian also is allowed to use the street, only Jewish occupiers and the Israeli military. Hebron was divided to two areas according to Wye River agreement, signed by then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 1998. H1 area, under complete Palestinian control, and H2, which is under Israeli security control. The number of Palestinian living in the two areas is around 150,000. The total number of Jewish settlers living in H2 is about 400 permanent residents. Israeli government policy in H2 has forced thousands of Palestinian residents to abandon more than 1,000 homes and at least 1,829 businesses and turned the area into a ghost town, B'Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.
