Settlers surround Palestinian café with Israeli flags

A new form of intimidation by hardline Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Nearly 20 settlers caught on camera hammer Israeli flags into the ground outside a shop in a Palestinian village, surrounding it by morning. An attempt, says owner Muayad Hussein, to erase Palestinian identity. And they burned the place down. They burned the place down. And they are the same people who put the flags. They left me four times to clean the place. Israeli flags have been appearing in clusters or lining roads right across the West Bank. The apparent brainchild of settler Eyal Spiegel who boasted openly about his plans on Israeli media. There's no difference between Tel Aviv and here, he's saying. The land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. Physical attacks by hardline Israeli settlers against Palestinians have increased dramatically, encouraged, say critics, by an Israeli government engaged in the de facto annexation of the West Bank, approving hundreds of millions of dollars over the summer to build more settlements. Analyst Ibrahim Rabaya likens the flags to psychological warfare. They put more pressure on Palestinians and their property, the idea of ownership, the idea of arresting anyone who can take off these flags. I saw them. I saw them. I was present. And the children were present. I put them in a room. I was afraid that they would come and attack me. Israeli police, seen watching the settlers plant the flags in the night, didn't respond to a CBC News query as to why they didn't intervene. One more reason Hussein fears the settlers will just come back if he removes the flags.