Israeli settlers force Palestinian family to exhume and rebury their father

"Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank dug up the grave of an elderly Palestinian man on Friday and forced his family to remove his body from the cemetery where he had been laid to rest. The United Nations Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian territory called the incident a "despicable" example of the "new level of dehumanization of Palestinians that is happening in the occupied West Bank." A video filmed at the scene shows the relatives of deceased Hussein Asasa quickly carrying his body wrapped in a white shroud away from the cemetery, where settlers, armed with weapons and spades, had opened his grave."

""The settlers told us: 'Either you take the dead body away right now or we'll use a bulldozer to remove him from the grave and dump him for you,'" Mohammed Asasa said of the attack on his father's burial site. He spoke with NPR by phone from a tent outside his home, where he was receiving mourners who had come to pay their respects. Asasa said his family has buried their dead in the cemetery of Asasa village, located south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, for generations."

"Then last year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government decided to allow the return of a settlement to the area that had been evacuated under an Israeli disengagement plan in 2005. Now Israelis live in a settlement called Sa-Nur, located some 300 meters from the Asasa village cemetery. When the settlers returned, Asasa said his family was told they would now need to obtain permits from the Israeli military to access the cemetery if they wanted to visit their relatives' graves or bury their dead. So, when Hussein Asasa died, that's what the family did."

"The Israeli military confirmed to NPR that the Asasas had coordinated the burial in advance with security forces. Asasa said the family was given 30 minutes on Friday to lay his father to rest. He said th"

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank dug up the grave of an elderly Palestinian man and compelled his family to remove his body from the cemetery. Relatives carried the body away after settlers armed with weapons and spades opened the grave. The family said settlers threatened to use a bulldozer and dump the body if they did not remove it immediately. The United Nations Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian territory condemned the incident as a despicable example of dehumanization. The cemetery in Asasa village had been used by the family for generations, but after a settlement returned near the cemetery, the family was told it needed permits from the Israeli military to access it. The family coordinated the burial in advance with security forces and was given about 30 minutes to complete it.

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