Rights group camera catches men beating Palestinian shepherds

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The shaky video shows four men, wearing makeshift hoods and wielding sticks or batons, as they walk up a grassy hill to a middle-aged Palestinian man tending his sheep in the Hebron Hills.

The man in the royal blue T-shirt and matching mask takes the first swipe at the shepherd, a vicious left-to-right swing, as the video begins jerking even more.

It's difficult to see anything that follows except the occasional glimpse of the hooded men swinging their implements and three Palestinians scurrying to avoid blows. Someone is screaming in the background.

The June 8 incident marks the first time police have used a video from B'Tselem in an investigation. The Israeli human rights group has distributed more than 100 cameras in Palestinian communities and has asked recipients to document what B'Tselem calls daily harassment by Israeli settlers. Watch the beating »

Police have arrested two men from the nearby settlement of Susya in connection with the videotaped attack, but authorities say the shepherds could have provoked the attack by not wearing traditional Arab garb.

B'Tselem's director, Sarit Michaeli, says the arrests show that their project -- dubbed "Shooting Back" -- is having an impact.

"We are hoping this will break the equation of the Palestinian versus the settler or soldier," she said. "We know that the Israeli security forces are much more willing to believe settlers and soldiers and distrust Palestinians when they report this kind of violence."

In the June 8 incident, a Palestinian woman was herding sheep with her husband and brother-in-law when the men attacked them. The woman, who shot the video, was badly beaten herself.

B'Tselem staffers interviewed her immediately after the incident. The woman has a bloody eye and cradles her face as she talks into the camera.

"At first, there were two people riding a tractor," she said. "They came from the Susya settlement. I was with my husband and my brother-in-law.... I told them to get out of here."

"After about 10 minutes, four men came and two more were riding a bike," she added. "They had clubs in their hands. They beat me on my cheek and they broke my arm."

B'Tselem was started in 1989 with the goal of changing Israeli policy in the occupied territories.

So far, B'Tselem's cameras have captured a number of incidents, many of them taking place in the Israeli-occupied West Bank -- a place where there are routine reports of Palestinians hurling rocks, and occasionally crude bombs, at Israelis passing in cars.

Last year, a Palestinian family in Hebron used B'Tselem's cameras to record harassment by Israeli settlers living across the street. The video shows young Jewish boys spitting at the Palestinians, throwing rocks at their home and threatening to "exterminate" their neighbors.

Israeli soldiers are visible in the video, ignoring the Palestinians' pleas for help. The incident prompted Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to say he was "ashamed."

Israeli police insist the June 8 attack was anomalous.

Despite making two arrests, police say they are investigating whether the Palestinian shepherds may have provoked the attack by not wearing traditional Arab dress, thereby arousing the suspicion of neighboring Israeli settlers.

"This is something that doesn't normally happen," Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. "The way they were dressed could also possibly have been something which was provocative and this might have been something which led to the actual incident itself."

B'Tselem says it will continue to deploy cameras ready to record whatever may happen next.

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