Israeli Press
Washington presses Netanyahu to condemn the settler siege at Qusra
Graphic: Times of Palestine
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The complaint that moved Washington on Qusra came, by Israel's own account, from a passport.
Haaretz reported on Friday, citing American and Israeli sources, that the United States is pressing Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the settler siege of the northern West Bank village in public — and that the American protest began once it emerged that one of the besieged houses belongs to a Palestinian holding US citizenship.
Israel's ambassador to Washington described the men at Qusra to the paper as a band of rioters sowing destruction with violence that has no justification at all. The prime minister had not issued the condemnation Washington asked for by Saturday morning.
Inside the village the siege was still a matter of water. Ofer Cassif, a member of the Knesset for Hadash, said on Friday that he had used his parliamentary immunity to pass the police checkpoint, reach the trapped families and bring them water, food and medicine, and that settlers had wrecked the pipes feeding the houses.
Two Palestinian families have now been shut inside their homes at Qusra across two rounds — the settlers removed by the army earlier in the week returned days later — while the Israeli military and the police argue over which of them is responsible for keeping them out.
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