On Sunday morning, Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party was heard during a Knesset Constitution Committee discussion appearing to defend those involved in the violent assault on a car carrying an Arab Israeli family of four women and a child at the Givat Ronen settlement over the weekend. "This was not an Israeli family. Such a seemingly innocent incident could be a case of espionage or data collection. You cannot ignore this," said Son Har-Melech. So far, no suspects have been arrested.
She argued that "when a vehicle with a non-Israeli license plate enters there are no compromises." But contrary to her claims, the women were traveling in a vehicle with yellow Israeli license plates.
Knesset member Zvi Sukkot from the right-wing Religious Zionist Party told Ynet Sunday morning that "this is a very serious incident. I hope the police investigate. I don't like to use the word terrorism in these cases – it's a very bad incident. This is serious crime."
The Al-Ja'ar family from Rahat, whose daughters were attacked, responded to Son Har-Melech's statements. "The Knesset member's words are lies to justify the harm. It's clear she is trying to twist things, but it has become evident that this attack was racially motivated and the racists who committed the assault should be arrested," the family said in a statement.
Radwan Al-Ja'ar, the husband of one of the injured women, said: "There is no place for lies. The police should have arrested the criminals that same day, and what we see is recklessness and the abandonment of women. Son Har-Melech should apologize for her false statements. We were close to war, we didn't harm any Jews but helped and saved lives at the risk of our own. It's shameful that such people sit in the Knesset and defend racists."
"They threw stones and blocks, broke the windows, and asked if we were from the West Bank or Gaza," recalled one of the women who was attacked in a conversation with Ynet at the hospital on Friday. "They sprayed us with tear gas, aimed a rifle at us, and said they would kill us. We were staring death in the eye. Then they set the car on fire."
The Al-Ja'ar women were traveling in the car along with family members, including a 3-year-old girl. They told Ynet from Rabin Medical Center, where they are hospitalized due to head and hand injuries, that the settlers who attacked them even asked if they came from Gaza.
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Graffiti that reads, in Hebrew, "revenge, death to Arabs,"
(Photo: Nasser Nasser / AP)
"We wanted to enter Nablus, but Waze misled us," Nofa recounted. "We saw religious settlers. They started running after us. We turned around to escape the scene, but there was no way out. We couldn't go back and couldn't move forward, it was like a trench. They started throwing stones, like big blocks, even from the hill. There were many people running toward us. Two had guns. After they broke all the windows, one pointed a rifle. Our daughter started screaming. They asked, 'Are you from the West Bank?', 'Did you come from Gaza?', 'Do you have anyone from Gaza?'. 'We want to kill you,' they told us. They didn't stop, even with the child."
She added: "They directed tear gas toward the window and started spraying at us – at my sister, at me, and at my daughter. They shouted at us to get out of the car. We went down a big slope, and they chased after us. The army came, we also called the police – but it wasn't urgent for them. It took a long time, about 15 minutes. They told me, 'Give us the phones, everything you have in your bag.' He pulled the bag from my hand, and everything fell on the floor. I don't know why he did that. I told him I only had an ID card and medical documents."