Israeli Court Hears Testimony in Assault on CW Activist; Trial to Resume in November
In this note from Israel, Cassandra Dixon (Mary House CW, Oxford, Wisconsin) reports on the September 6 court hearing regarding her assault by an Israeli settler. The settler’s lawyers interrogated doctors and rejected hospital reports in an attempt to downplay the severity of the assault, Dixon says, and the judge ejected her human rights lawyer from the courtroom. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for November 2.
by Cassandra Dixon
Editor’s note: What follows is an email sent by Cassandra Dixon to CatholicWorker.org. Dixon, of Mary House of Hospitality (Oxford, Wisconsin), was assaulted by an Israeli settler in March, See previous stories here.
I attended the September 6 hearing in the legal case against the Israeli settler who assaulted me in March of this year in the Palestinian village of Tuba.
During the hearing, in the district court in Be’er Sheva, the prosecution and the lawyer for the settler questioned two of the doctors who cared for me after the assault. Lawyers for the settler refused to accept written hospital reports and documentation, and insisted on questioning the doctors at length in an attempt to claim that the injury was not serious.
The lawyer for the settler also argued that the settler should be released, however as I understand he remains on house arrest in the home of his parents.
The consulate did not attend the hearing, which was held completely in Hebrew, and fairly early in the proceeding the judge forced the human rights lawyer who was accompanying me to leave the room. As a result I know only what the doctors were able to tell me about their testimony, and what the prosecutor told me during a few minutes of conversation after the day-long hearing. I am trying to get a court transcript.
The court scheduled another hearing on November 2 to hear testimony from the settler, after which the judge will issue a verdict.
Meanwhile in the area of Masafer Yatta, where the attack on me occurred last March, Palestinians continue to confront settler and army violence and harassment. In the majority of cases complaints made by Palestinians to the Israeli police are dismissed before they reach the prosecution stage and legal consequences for settlers involved in assaults on Palestinians are almost unheard of. At this time, in 2023, Palestinians are facing violent attacks by Israeli settlers at the rate of 2.8 per day in the occupied West Bank. The unrelenting pressure and violence is forcing some families to flee, and resulting in the depopulation of villages that will be lost forever. The Israeli military routinely backs up the settlers, and refuses to intervene to protect civilians. U.S. taxpayers send Israel $3.8 million per day in aid, the majority of which is received by the Israeli military, so really I feel some responsibility for the untenable situation faced by these families.
Cover photo: A woman sits on the ruins of her house following its demolition by Israel in Masafer Yatta in January 2023. By שי קנדלר – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
