From her home in Karnei Shomron in Samaria (48 km northeast of Tel Aviv), Rachel Shnerb, 79, talks to Israel National News' (INN) Yoni Kempinski about her traumatic experience on the way home from Kfar Saba, a town just outside Tel Aviv.
“I was driving in the early evening,” she begins, “it was pleasant, still light outside. I listened to music on the radio, enjoying the drive immensely.”
“Suddenly, I saw that the car ahead of me began to slow down a bit.” She explained how decades of experience driving in Judea-Samaria, especially during the intifada years, taught her to look on all sides when something unexpected takes place.
“On my right, I saw a large man and two smaller men standing. One was holding a rock. Before I grasp what is happening, he throws it one-handedly, as if throwing a basketball into the hoop. Boom! It landed on my windshield. Holding the steering wheel firmly, I continue to drive.”
“There used to be a metal fence there, but the Arabs destroyed the fence. A replacement barrier has not been built. The man stood where the fence used to be.”
“I could not see his eyes to say whether or not he looked at me murderously, but the size of the rock he held said ‘murder.’ If I had had a weapon, they were close enough to me, I could have done something to them.”
At the police station the next day, giving her report on the incident, she remarked that if the soldier in the lookout box had seen what happened, they could have shot at the terrorists who had attacked her so directly. The police officer said, however, that the lookout is empty. “For decades I operated under the assumption that there are soldiers there. Just last year, we responded immediately to a request to donate funds to supply the soldiers with air conditioning and other materials. There are also no police in the area.”
“This means that there is no fence, no police, no soldiers. How can it be that every day we are subject to terrorists throwing rocks?” According to Rachel, the same day she was attacked, another three cars were also stoned.
A fellow Karnei Shomron resident sent her a message, saying, “According to the current government agenda, we will continue to be sitting ducks. In the best case scenario, nobody cares; in the worst case scenario, we are told that we deserve it [for living in Judea-Samaria]. “
“What is happening here?” Rachel asks.