Palestinians shoot back at Israelis -- with cameras

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

SUSIA, West Bank (Reuters) - In the stony hills south of Hebron, Palestinian shepherds complain of frequent attacks by militant Israeli settlers encroaching on their land.

Israeli troops and police rarely intervene even when they are on the spot, Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups say. So now the victims are pulling out small video cameras to document abuses and spur the authorities to act.

Settler violence is growing, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which recorded 222 incidents in the first half of 2008, versus 291 in all of 2007. It said 23 of this year's cases led to Palestinian casualties.

Shepherds who graze their sheep on the arid slopes of Susia in the occupied West Bank say they have endured harassment since an Israeli settlement, whose trees and red-roofed houses nestle by a well-watered vineyard, was established there in 1982.

The Palestinians grow some wheat, barley, olives and grapes, but have lost water sources and pasture to the settlement. They have to buy fodder for the sheep, and water by tanker truck to supplement what their women draw by hand from stone wells.

There is no mains electricity. To watch television, they hook the set to car batteries charged by a small windmill.

"The settlers try to frighten people and make them leave," said Nasr Nawajah, 25, sitting in a tent with other farmers. "The Israeli authorities deny it, but with the cameras, we can prove what happens and force them to do their jobs."

Nawajah acts as a camera coordinator with Israel's B'Tselem human rights group, which launched a project called "Shooting Back" last year to promote law enforcement and accountability.

"The idea is to give Palestinians the technology and know-how to document the reality of their lives, thereby exposing human rights violations and the reaction, or non-reaction, of the Israeli authorities," said B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli.

B'Tselem has released several chilling clips of abuses that gained international media attention and shocked many Israelis.

On July 7, a Palestinian girl filmed from her house as a soldier, believing he was obeying an order from his battalion commander, fired a rubber-coated bullet at the feet of a bound, blindfolded Palestinian detainee standing next to them.

Ashraf Abu-Rahma, 27, who was wearing a thick boot, suffered only a minor injury to his toe, but the shooting at Ni'lin did not come to light until B'Tselem issued the footage on July 20.

The Israeli military has since charged Lieutenant Colonel Omri Borberg and the soldier with "inappropriate conduct".

PATTERN OF ABUSE

"The defense minister called it a very serious and unusual incident," Michaeli acknowledged. "But B'Tselem's point is that this is not unusual. Mistreatment of detainees is very common."