Israeli settlers force Palestinian family to exhume and rebury their father

UN condemns confrontation in occupied West Bank as ‘appalling and emblematic of the dehumanisation of Palestinians’.A Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank has been forced by Israeli settlers, reportedly under military protection, to dig up their father’s grave and rebury him, which the United Nations is condemning as “appalling and dehumanising”.Eighty-year-old Hussein Asasa died of natural causes on Friday and was buried shortly after in a cemetery in Asasa village near Jenin.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Shoot Palestinians, not settlers: Israeli general exposes double standardlist 2 of 3‘In the days of old, the world was safe’: West Bank family’s enduring unitylist 3 of 3Israeli settlers set fire to homes and cars in violent West Bank raidsend of listHis son, Mohammed, said the burial had been coordinated in advance with Israeli security forces, which provided all necessary permits.However, shortly after the burial, settlers threatened the Asasa family, ordering them to exhume the body, claiming it had been buried on land that formed part of an Israeli settlement. Under international law, such settlements are considered illegal and are not recognised as Israeli territory.“They said the land was for settlement and that burial was not allowed. We told them that this is the village’s cemetery, not part of the settlement,” Mohammed Asasa said.The family was left with no choice but to comply with the settlers’ demands after they threatened to use a bulldozer to exhume the body themselves.According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli soldiers were present during the confrontation and also pressured the family to bury their loved one elsewhere.“We found that they [the settlers] already dug the grave and reached the body,” Asasa said.“We continued digging and got the body and buried him in another cemetery.”The Israeli military has denied giving reburial instructions to the family, saying soldiers were sent to the area after receiving reports of a confrontation involving settlers. The military said soldiers confiscated digging tools from the settlers and remained at the scene to “prevent further friction”.