It was around 1:40 A.M. in the West Bank. Luisa Kolb was doing a night watch for a Palestinian family that’s faced increasing levels of harassment from Israeli settlers in recent weeks.
And then a truck pulled up. A mob of settlers got out, armed with bats and sticks and started beating the 28-year-old American.
She was just one of several victims of the brutal attack. The mob of settlers then went after a Palestinian grandmother and two little boys, brutalizing them and issuing a horrific threat to them. And it all comes during a supposed Israeli “peace deal” brokered by Donald Trump.
Advocates say the settler attacks on the family and peace volunteers have continued since, alleging Israeli soldiers also came to the scene Thursday, shooting live ammunition at residents trying to come to the family’s aid. Kolb has repeatedly reached out to the US embassy, to no avail. The Israeli police, Israeli military, and US Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Alongside their genocidal violence in Palestine, Israeli soldiers and settlers have unleashed a wave of violence against Americans, in the past two years, and stretching back decades. 22 years ago, Israeli soldiers killed young American peace activist Rachel Corrie. Last year, they killed young American peace activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi. The history wasn’t lost on Kolb.
“This makes me a little bit emotional, I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just, I don’t put my life above Palestinian life. And this is something that they go through every day. I know that if I am to be killed, it’s not more important just because I am an American citizen.”
She says the Palestinian family she’s been supporting has given her so much love, and she hopes her fellow Americans can see their own families in those in Palestine being attacked.
“They’re just an ordinary family. They’re just like my family back home. And I would want the world to come and stand in solidarity with us if this was happening to us.”
Listen to our conversation above to hear the shocking details behind the alleged Israeli settler attack against the Palestinian family and the young American, why the Israelis are targeting this specific village, and what other horrifying acts settlers have done there.
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