BURIN, West Bank (AP) – Rabbi Arik Ascherman’s right middle finger is still bandaged from a recent confrontation in the West Bank, when a suspected extremist Jewish settler lurched at him with a knife, punching and kicking him.
Almost two weeks after the Oct. 23 attack, when the liberal rabbi was helping Palestinians harvest their olive trees, no arrests have been made – part of what critics say is a culture of impunity for extremist settlers.
Palestinians say that Israel’s seeming inability to prosecute settlers accused of violence is a key factor in a nearly two-month wave of violence that shows no signs of slowing down.
Ascherman heads a group called Rabbis for Human Rights, which for more than a decade has been accompanying Palestinian farmers to their olive groves during the harvest season, when attacks by extremist settlers typically spike. While the presence of Israelis sometimes prevents violence, Ascherman said the attack on him shows how extremists – seemingly free from the threat of punishment – are often undeterred.
“We’ve created … a Frankenstein’s monster that’s turned on its creator,” said Ascherman as he stood this week among a group of Israeli volunteers and Palestinian farmers raking olives from trees.