"Footage from a video camera handed out by an Israeli human rights group appears to show Jewish settlers beating up Palestinians in the West Bank.
(define settlers, doesn't using that term mean acceptance of one view of which country owns the West Bank?)
An elderly shepherd, his wife and a nephew said they were attacked by four masked men for allowing their animals to graze near the settlement of Susia.
(that's the claim, has any contrary opinion been sought?)
The rights group, B'Tselem, said the cameras were provided to enable Palestinians to get proof of attacks.
A spokesman for the Israeli police said that an investigation was under way.
So far, no-one has been arrested.
(Could that be because the investigation has not finished)
For the past year, B'Tselem has handed out video cameras to Palestinians as part of its "Shooting Back" project.
The BBC has been given exclusive access to the footage of this particular attack, which happened earlier this week. The date and time on the camera footage shows that it is Sunday afternoon.
(Why has the BBC been chosen? Presumably because of its renowned impartiality! Surely "The date and time on the camera footage shows that it is Sunday afternoon." is rather accepting, I presume even the BBC realise that one can change the date and time to any date required.)
Over the brow of the hill walk four masked men holding baseball bats. To the right of the screen, in the foreground, stands a 58-year-old Palestinian woman.
Thamam al-Nawaja has been herding her goats close to the Jewish settlement of Susia, near Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Within a few seconds, she, along with her 70-year-old husband and one of her nephews, will be beaten up.
The 1:03 video shows 56 seconds of very shaky footage of 4 younger persons approaching some older persons. Then one of the younger persons swinging a baseball bat twice, then there are two more brief shots of people and beaseball bats interspersed with random shots of the scenery)
As the first blows land, the woman filming - the daughter-in-law of the elderly couple - drops the camera and runs for help.
(We don't see the blows land, we see the bat swinging)
Mrs Nawaja spent three days in hospital after the attack.
(How do we know this, do we know what her injuries were?)
Returning to the small Palestinian encampment close to the red-roofed houses of Susia, she stepped slowly and unsteadily out of the minibus.
(Her slowness is due to the "attack" or her age?)
A dark stain showed through the white gauze covering her broken right arm. Her veil was lifted gingerly away from her lined face. A bloodshot eye and intersection of scars revealed a fractured left cheek.
(Again where is the proof of the injuries?)
"The settlers gave us a 10-minute warning to clear off from the land," she told me, her voice a tired, cracked whisper.
("a tired, cracked whisper", unbiased news reporting or emotive emotion rousing?)
She and her husband had stood their ground. It is at this point that her voice grows louder.
"They don't want us to stay on our land. But we won't leave. We'll die here. It's ours," she added.
Indeed, the rest of the world regards Jewish settlements in the West Bank such as Susia, as illegal, built on occupied territory.
Those settlements have been a large part of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis for the last 41 years. The daily confrontation is not often caught on camera. That, now, is beginning to change.
(Will the BBC be showing video footage of Palestinian youths attacking Israeli cars, of the daily rockets being fired at Israel, etc. etc.)
Video proof
(proof?)
The attack near Susia was filmed with one of 100 video cameras that B'Tselem has handed out to Palestinians in the region.
The thinking behind the project is that when trouble flares, rather than just giving a statement to the Israeli police or army, video carries much more weight.
"The difference is amazing," says Oren Yakobovich, who leads the Shooting Back project.
"When they have the camera, they have proof that something happened. They now have something they can work with, to use as a weapon."
We asked a spokesman from the Susia settlement for a comment on Sunday's incident. He declined.
Inside one of the tents belonging to the Palestinians living near Susia, we watched the footage of the aftermath of the attack - the victims slumped by the roadside, bloodied, waiting for an ambulance.
(Where is this footage? Is it like the usual staged Pallywood ambulance footage?)
The bright, wide eyes of the children shone with the light of the small television screen.
(Some very emotive imagery used to really describe just more brainwashing of Palestinian children)
Violence against Jews as well as Palestinians has long scarred this place. Video may now may be giving us a new and raw view.
(There is violence against Jews (not Israelis as presumably Tim Franks believes that Israel should not exist), a shame that the BBC tend to avoid showing this)
But for most people here, the only answer - a political deal - remains out of sight."
(Just remind me what political deal Hamas want, surely they are pledged to destroy Israel and drive all Jews from "Palestine" as soon as possible, Fatah are moderate only so far as they are willing to delay the destruction of Israel for a few years.)
We are told that the four men are Jewish settlers but how do we know this is the case and that the video is real?
None of the religious "settlers" are wearing tzitzit and none are carrying the usual weapon that an Israeli would carry outside of their "settlement" on the West Bank - a rifle for self defence.
The video is 1:03 long yet most of it is the lead up to the "attack". Do all Palestinians have video cameras, or was it just "lucky" that this "attack" was filmed?
The video is very amateurish, in fact too amateurish. I have rarely used a video camera but even I could keep it steadier than was managed in the pre-"attack" part. Yet when the baseball bat is swung there is some rather neat zoom work to get that into larger relief with the actual landing of the blows just off screen.
The BBC have no interest in unbiased news reporting in Israel, they want Israel gone. The BBC obsession with Israel is bizarre, how many thousands died in Darfur on te day this video was filmed, but what is the BBC priority? Any story that casts Israel in a bad light is NEWS for to the BBC.
UPDATE 17.06.08:
The BBC are reporting that:
"Israeli police say they have arrested two Jewish settlers over an apparent assault of Palestinians that was filmed as part of a human rights project.
An adult male and a minor were arrested in Susia settlement overnight and will appear in court on Tuesday. "
We will see...
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