An investigative investigation by Al-Jazeera channel, entitled "Crimes Without Punishment", revealed new information and secrets about the role played by Israeli settlers in the attacks that took place in May 2021 against Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The investigation revealed the most prominent faces that led the settler groups, and the most prominent settlers who committed crimes against the Palestinians, as well as tracking the background of each of them, leading to the presentation of their criminal records and the state’s condoning of them.

The film worked on dismantling the relationship between these settlers and the institutions of the "Israeli state": the army and the judiciary, as well as their relations with the government and leaders of Israeli parties, leading to the conclusion that the occupation police placed these settlers as the first line of confrontation with the Palestinian Arabs in the occupied interior.

In a return to history, the investigative film recalled the “events of Lod” in May 2021, when brutal attacks by groups of Israeli settlers took place on the residents of the Arab city, then the attacks spread to Acre, Haifa, Jaffa and Ramle, where Lod contains a large number of Arabs, which made it It has the largest and most extreme share in these attacks.

The program team returned to the crime scene in the city of Lod, and went to the lawyer Khaled Zabarqa, who witnessed these attacks and described them as an attack by a military intelligence policeman, and saw that terrorism is achieving political goals and changing the demographic balance in the city of Lod through violence, intimidation, deterrence, weapons, and assault on property.

"Death to the Arabs"

The settlers' attacks led to live bullets being fired directly at the Arab youth, as one was killed and two survived.

The program team was able to interview the survivors and listen to their testimonies, as they confirmed that they were shot directly.

On the day of mourning the martyr Musa Hassouna, settlers infiltrated his cemetery and wrote on it in Hebrew, "Death to the Arabs."

And about ways to organize the settlers themselves, the work team began its research on social media, and revealed that it relied on closed WhatsApp and Telegram groups.

The founder of the "fake reporter" Uri Cole revealed that the reason for choosing Telegram is that it hides the identity of the speakers, as the groups used to coordinate between settlers were completely anonymous, and many people did not reveal their identities.

The program team revealed evidence of violence and compelling evidence of the existence of weapons of various forms. It also monitored groups on WhatsApp with names such as "revenge" or "the Jews do not concede" or "the Jews do not remain silent", and there were clear calls for violence, massacres and beatings.

The program team asked questions about armaments to the general manager of the Democratic blog, Ran Cohen, who explained - through secret leaks from those groups - that there had been sales of tools, pistols, knives and batons.

Dealers were taking advantage of the situation to sell weapons, which they justified as self-defense.

Secret leaks

Secret leaks also revealed in one of the groups messages calling on settlers to be present in the Lod shopping center for struggle, and that it would become under the control of the Jews.

There were also calls for the need to wear the veil to confront the Arabs by using hammers and electric saws to cut off their organs.

Despite the danger surrounding the work team, it was able to reveal the position of the Israeli police towards the settlers in the square, which contented itself with arresting those accused of killing Hassouna, then violating the court's decision and releasing them.

A confidential document showed that the court judge rejected the petition submitted by the lawyer of the four suspects in the killing of Musa Hassouna for their release, but two days later the defendants were released under political pressure, in clear violation of the court's decision.

It is noteworthy that before the outbreak of confrontations in Lod, specifically on the tenth of May 2021, a demonstration took place in which the people of the city went out, coinciding with the Israeli attacks in Jerusalem and Gaza, and the resigned member of the Lod Municipal Council, Fida Shehata - who witnessed the demonstration and the ensuing behind the scenes of events - explained Raising the Palestinian flags and calling out with Palestinian chants is a scene that disturbed the Israeli occupation.