A spa for Samaria - Gideon Levy

Ha'aretz - Gideon Levy
...... the battle for this spring has thrust another Palestinian village into what has become known as the "white intifada." For the past four months, the residents of the village of Nabi Saleh, accompanied by left-wing activists from Israel and abroad, have staged demonstrations over the spring, which settlers have appropriated for themselves. One more piece of stolen private land - this time for a spa in Halamish, once known as Neve Tzuf, a settlement in Samaria.

The Israel Defense Forces, of course, didn't waste any time in declaring the spring a closed military zone on Fridays. Signs put up by the Civil Administration's staff officer for archaeology now prohibit entry into what has been designated an "antiquities site." On one sign, someone scrawled: "No Arabs allowed," and also, "The Lord is the king." Dozens of Stars of David have been plastered on the white agricultural building in the Palestinians' fields at the foot of the spring - the settlers' handiwork.

...... The spring lies in the heart of private land belonging to the inhabitants of the adjacent village, Nabi Saleh.

.........To date, 70 villagers have been wounded, 15 of them moderately or seriously; 18 young people, some of them minors, are being held in detention. At one recent demonstration, a 13-year-old boy, Ihab Barghouti, was seriously wounded when a rubber bullet was fired at his head from close range...   Full story