Approximately fifteen Arabs from Bethlehem attacked a Jewish shepherd from the Eitam farm in Gush Etzion with stones, slingshots, and clubs on Wednesday evening. The victim was with his flock in the grazing fields near Efrat.
The shepherd reported the incident to the security forces and summoned Yehuda Sharvaf, the owner of the farm, who rushed to the scene, but was forced to defend himself and the shepherd with his bare hands, after having had his weapon confiscated only hours before.
As a result of the attack, Sharvaf was injured in the head and limbs, and was taken to the hospital after the incident along with another resident who was also injured in the attack.
"I am trembling with rage and a sense of abandonment, this mad event could have ended in murder", raged Sharvaf as he was being transported in an ambulance to the hospital. "This morning I received without any explanation or justification a message that the brigade commander had decided to confiscate my weapon, and I must return it immediately despite the fact that I am the only armed person here who can rush to terror events in the farmland. The feeling was that the security establishment simply did not care about our lives, but I did not know how soon I would feel that on my own skin.''
"Last night I received a phone call from the shepherd that over twenty Arabs were charging towards him with clubs and slingshots, and while I was summoning the army which arrived only after a considerable delay I was forced to defend us with bare hands. I emerged bloodied from the incident, but by a miracle we are still alive. For years we have been guarding the homeland and the town of Efrat, and time and again we have seen that the security establishment simply does not care about our lives. This sense of abandonment hurts me this evening far more than the blows I have received", added Sharvit.
At the beginning of the war, Sharvaf served four months of reserve duty in Gaza, and returned afterward to the farm which had since experienced a series of Arab attacks on the access road and grazing lands.
The Nahala movement commented, "A serious breach occurred at the Eitam Ranch. Yehuda Sharvaf, a highly regarded officer in the Yahalom unit, who established the Eitam Ranch two and a half years ago, was injured today in a brutal attack in which Arabs attacked the ranch and beat a shepherd. The incident occurred after the Givati Brigade had confiscated Yehuda's weapon, only hours before the attack."
"Instead of the army standing by the pioneers and protecting them from the terrorists, it is preventing them from protecting themselves. The farmers are the vanguard of settlement, and the army must provide them with all the means and backing to defend themselves and their environment. In Judea and Samaria there are tens of thousands of terrorists and an arsenal of illegal weapons, and everyone knows that at any moment it can be turned against us. After the events of Simchat Torah, the army must draw lessons and stop the policy of confiscating weapons. The responsibility lies with the political and military echelons alike.''