Ynet, a leading Israeli news website, published an account Wednesday afternoon of the suffering of the Jewish inhabitants of Peki'in at the hands of a violent Druze nationalist gang – then abruptly pulled it from the front page and hid all direct links to it.
The account contradicted other accounts of the recent violence at Peki'in, which is generally held to have been caused by Druze riots against a cellular transmitter that was installed in New Peki'in. However, according to this version of the story, the Jewish families living in the ancient village say that the transmitter was "just an excuse" for violence and that six of the eight Jewish families' homes in ancient Peki'in were either burned or ransacked, the report said. At least one victim, Orit Zegelman, said she did not intend to go back to her home after it was torched. "I don't intend to be a victim," she said.
"All night long masked youths roamed about, armed with clubs and live weapons, guns and grenades," she recounted the previous night. "There was constant firing in the air. Overnight our car was burned, again. Then the police came, with all of the stories that were in the media. We went out in the morning as if everything was normal… but there was something bad in the air. It was clear that something bad was about to happen. 30 minutes after we left we were told that our house had been completely burned. To the ground."
Margalit Zenati, an aged Peki'in native whose family has lived there continuously since Second Temple times, said the troublemakers are Druze nationalist youths: "Until yesterday, we thought there were only a few dozen of them, but now it's clear there are between 100 and 200 of them."