Sam Forster

First thoughts after being pepper-sprayed in the face by an Israeli settler in the village of Burqa today. Follow me on Instagram (@finlookedintoit) for my full report on today's events.

My latest for @TorontoStar, reporting from the occupied West Bank as settlers continue rampaging through Palestinian communities with impunity. My report starts in Taybeh, the only remaining village in the West Bank with an overwhelmingly Christian population. Taybeh is referenced in both the Old and New Testaments as the town of Ephraim, where the Gospel of John says Jesus sought refuge before his crucifixion. Over the last few decades, Taybeh has seen more than 90% of its population emigrate out of Palestine due to mounting economic restrictions and settler violence. Without a state of their own or meaningful protection under Israeli law, one of the only protections Palestinians have is a small but growing number of Israeli activists who are flocking to the West Bank to support them. In a group chat with more than 200 members, Israeli activists co-ordinate their protective presence in Taybeh and the surrounding area. Many face harsh reprisals from their communities for helping Palestinians. “My family and the religious community don’t really like this. Part of it is because they are right-wing or nationalist chauvinists ... and part of it is because they genuinely don’t understand what’s happening here,” said Yonatan Rothschild, an Orthodox Jew whom I met in a Bedouin community near Taybeh. “I’m here because I think that as a Jew I have no other choice ... it’s written in the Torah that one must rescue the oppressed from the hand of his oppressor. And there is really a situation here of severe oppression and theft,” Rothschild said.