JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
UNICEF delivered food, water and medicine over the weekend to a Palestinian family who has been under siege in their home in the occupied West Bank. Extremist Israeli settlers attacked the home for days, and the Israeli military has now sealed off the area. NPR's Frank Langfitt has the latest on this bizarre standoff, which has made headlines around the world because the home's owner is Palestinian American.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: I'm looking out at the house. It's on a hillside surrounded by olive trees. It's a very nice, modern house, 4,000 square feet. Settlers have been trying to basically take it over for more than a week - throwing rocks, cutting off electricity and water. I just saw two buses full of soldiers come up the road to the house. And Qusai Abu Ridi, who lives inside - he can't get out.
QUSAI ABU RIDI: (Through interpreter) The situation is catastrophic here in this household where I'm living with my neighbor and his family and his children. Neither him nor I are able to conduct our normal works, so we are not working at all. Secondly, the children are in panic, are afraid.
LANGFITT: Abu Ridi is speaking to me by phone and NPR producer Nuha Musleh. He says the army has run the settlers off at times but failed to detain them. Abu Ridi says this is all political theater.
ABU RIDI: (Through interpreter) They claim that they are conducting a military campaign in order to evict the settlers. Actually, they are choking us. For four days, they have been here, and they have not worked on getting rid of the settlers.
LANGFITT: The Israeli military said it had sent a battalion to the area and that water was restored. The settlers insist that the land is theirs because God gave it to the Jews in the Bible. Abu Ridi sees it differently.
ABU RIDI: (Through interpreter) These are thieves. They want to take my 3 million shekel house and live in it for free.
LANGFITT: Three million Israeli shekels is about a million dollars. Last week, Ophir Falk, foreign policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement on the siege, quote, "Israel doesn't accept vigilantes in any form. We're investing a lot of effort to curb such sporadic incidents."
ARYEH ELDAD: I support annexation of the West Bank, and I know that they are causing a lot of damage to my cause.
LANGFITT: This is Aryeh Eldad. He's a former member of the Israeli Parliament who lives in the West Bank. He wants to make it an official part of Israel, but he doesn't like the kinds of settlers who've been attacking Abu Ridi's home. Eldad says they're part of a larger group, grabbing land and spreading fear.
ELDAD: Maybe 3-, 400 youngsters - the fringe. Those who expelled from schools. I think, even though they are mostly recognized as religious, I think they have no God.
LANGFITT: What do you mean by that?
ELDAD: I mean, nobody can tell them what to do. They live in the hills among themselves. A lot of them do not recognize the authority of the state of Israel.
LANGFITT: Eldad says the Israeli government doesn't crack down because some of the government's far-right supporters back these young people. Michael Milshtein runs the Palestinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University. He says the attack in Qusra and the lack of consequences for the settlers, fits with a broader government strategy to accumulate land claimed by Palestinians for a future state.
MICHAEL MILSHTEIN: It's not a coincidence. It's quite clear for many people in Israel that this is actually the policy of the government.
LANGFITT: Hani Odeh is the former mayor of Qusra. He says the government's goal is clear.
HANI ODEH: (Through interpreter) They want us to go to Jordan. They consider Jordan as the Palestinian homeland.
LANGFITT: The siege in Qusra is not unique. A couple of miles away, Mahmoud Toubasi tells me how settlers blockaded his two family homes for 23 days.
MAHMOUD TOUBASI: (Through interpreter) They started throwing stones day and night on the walls, on the windows, on the doors, just to disturb us.
LANGFITT: The settlers took control of his homes, only to be kicked out by the military, who are still there. You can see them walking the rooftops of Toubasi's homes on a live feed that plays on a TV in his father's kitchen. I asked him...
Why is the army allowed to live in your house?
TOUBASI: (Through interpreter) Because I'm weak and he's strong.
LANGFITT: Back in Qusra, Abu Ridi sent NPR videos of the settlers chatting the soldiers, driving past his house on ATVs. One appeared to make an obscene gesture. Abu Ridi says he's concerned that when the media moves on, the military will pull out, and the settlers will return.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Qusra in the occupied West Bank.
