WEST BANK: Ziva Sharp said her Jewish faith motivated her to travel from Jerusalem to the West Bank to stand up for Palestinians — a commitment that led to her being set upon by fellow Israelis also professing to be driven by Judaism. Sharp and around 30 other activists are part of a small movement of Israelis, many of them religious Jews, who periodically go to the occupied West Bank with a mission to protect Palestinians under growing assault by violent settlers. Last week at least five of the activists were injured as settlers violently expelled them, throwing stones, unleashing pepper spray and injuring an AFP journalist, who was hit in the chin with a stick. Sharp said she joined the movement to “practice my commitment to my Judaism, which is humanistic and not violent,” and to “decrease, to the extent that we can, the damage the Jewish people do to the Palestinians.” She said her inspiration came from Jewish religious texts. “We are supposed to be part of tzelem elokim (the image of God), and to follow God’s ways, and God’s ways are pity, compassion and justice.” The activists travelled to Jannatah, near Bethlehem, to build a protective fence around the home of the Faraj family, who have come under pressure from Jewish extremists. A member of the Palestinian family, Mohammed Faraj, was killed in clashes with settlers in March, and several relatives were wounded. Nobody has been arrested over the killing, his brother Hassan said. The activists went to clear road obstacles blocking the Faraj family after settlers put up a prefabricated home on the family’s land. The activists and accompanying journalists returned to find their cars vandalized, with windows smashed and tires punctured. After activists went to confront the settlers, two cars full of settler reinforcements — many of them young and wearing dark hoodies — rushed in to attack the visitors. According to the activists, the settlers’ outpost, dubbed Kochav Yehuda, has been dismantled 64 times by Israeli authorities and rebuilt each time, most recently the day before the activists’ visit. The encroaching settlers belong to the extremist Hilltop Youth movement, which seeks to pressure Palestinian residents to abandon their homes — often through violence — and to establish outposts that are illegal even under Israeli law, in the hope they will later be legalized and upgraded into full settlements. More than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and which is home to around three million Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government is advancing more settlement construction ahead of October 27 elections. Violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers has increased dramatically since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.