'You're not Israelis, you're Arabs': Settlers, soldiers harass Palestinian family picnicking in West Bank

Video footage circulating the internet showed a Palestinian family that was having a picnic near Kafr Jibiya in Ramallah forced to vacate the area after Israeli settlers reportedly from an illegal settlement called soldiers to oust them.

The video shows the family being approached by Jewish settlers who aggressively told them to leave. When the family refused, one of the settlers took their belongings and threw their drinks into the campfire.

One of the settlers can be heard saying: "You’re not Israelis, you’re Arabs, we did you a favour when we let you stay". 

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Israeli forces later arrived at the scene and told the family they had to leave and that they did "not want to use too much force".

"You’re not allowed here," they added.

The mother of the Palestinian family told the soldier their picnic space was public, but the soldiers told them to leave.

There is an illegal settlement near the site called Zvi’s Farm, according to Haaretz, and the Israeli army is reportedly "looking into" the soldiers' conduct.

According to international law, Israeli settlements established in occupied territories, including the West Bank are illegal as they are a violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice and the High Contracting Parties to the Convention have all affirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to Israeli settlements.

The illegal expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is a topic of concern for the international community, and the International Criminal Court ruled last week that it had jurisdiction over the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, paving the way for the tribunal to open a war crimes investigation.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh at the time called on the ICC to speed up legal proceedings over the 2014 conflict in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian prisoners and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"This decision (of the ICC) is a victory for justice and humanity, for the values of truth, fairness and freedom, and for the blood of the victims and their families," Shtayyeh said, according to the official Wafa news agency.

The UN recently called Israeli settlements "major obstacles" to peace.