July 08, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 4, 1429

Al Khalil (West Bank), July 7: Jewish settlers tied a Palestinian to a pole in the occupied West Bank and beat him before he was rescued by Israeli soldiers, the man and an Israeli human rights group said on Monday.

Ta’ayush, a Jewish-Arab group, released a video of the incident on Saturday in which a settler dressed in white is seen kicking a bound man in the abdomen as Israeli soldiers stood by.

One of the soldiers is then seen restraining the settler.

Midhat Abu Karsh, 30, a Palestinian teacher who lives near the West Bank city of Al Khalil, said he was attacked by settlers who falsely accused him of setting fire to fields near the settlement of Eshael. Karsh denies any wrongdoing.

An Israeli police spokesman said: “Two settlers from Eshael were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a Palestinian man.”

Karsh said he was working in his wheat field near Eshael when he spotted a fire and rushed over to douse the flames.

“They tied me to the pole and I thought I was going to die,” he said, adding that settlers in the area had in the past threatened to kill him if he did not stop coming to the field.—Reuters