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Omar Assad’s family says ‘unjust’ US decision will not end push for justice
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/16/omar-assads-family-says-unjust-us-decision-will-not-end-push-for-justice
Palestinian American Omar Assad, far left, with his nephew Assad Assad, second from left, and other relatives in 2018 in the West Bank village of Jiljilya
Assad Assad says he and his family feel betrayed.
But more than that, the Palestinian American said his first reaction to the United States government’s decision to continue funding an Israeli army unit that bound his elderly uncle and left him for dead could be summed up in a single word: “devastation”.
“We see this [as] hypocrisy — a US government that allows a foreign entity to have this opportunity to kill,” Assad, 36, told Al Jazeera in a phone interview from his home in the state of Wisconsin.
“They murdered my uncle in cold blood. My uncle was not armed, was not,” he continued, his voice trailing off. “He was just going home from a night with his friends, his cousins, playing a card game.”
Israeli forces raid occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem: Report
Israeli soldiers have stormed the city of Tulkarem, Wafa news agency has reported. According to Wafa, two Israeli military vehicles were seen on Nablus Street near the Tulkarem camp and the as-Salam neighbourhood.
More ‘tangible’ options needed to halt Israeli settler violence
There is an urgent need to address Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which is emboldened by the Israeli military, Eli Clifton of the Quincy Institute says. “The one-off sanctions that have been put on individual settler leaders were often walked back later and seen as often just a badge of honour for some of these people. It has not seemed to shape Israeli behaviour,” he told Al Jazeera.
“There is growing pressure here in the United States that something more can be done, something more tangible.”
Moreover, Clifton says the broader conflict, including the status of the occupied West Bank, would have to be addressed to allow for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. “Unfortunately, it seems as if this [Biden] administration, as well as the previous one, tried to sidestep these important issues by instead going all in on the pursuit of normalisation agreements between Israel and other countries in the region,” he added.
“All of these seem to be efforts to sort of kick these bigger issues down the road, but these issues, just like this attack … are not going to go away,” he said.
People examine a burned car a day after an attack by Israeli settlers on the village of Jit near Nablus in the occupied West Bank
