village land was classified as Area B, the remaining 28% as Area C. Israel has confiscated 495 dunams of land from Asira al-Qibliya in order to construct the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar. Settler violence Settler violence is a cause for concern. Settlers from the nearby Yitzhar also continue to enter the villages farmlands. From 2008 to 2011, there were numerous reported cases of both violence and arson in the village. As of 2012, Asira Al-Qibiliya and its inhabitants have been repeatedly attacked, targeted and threatened by settlers for which there have been few or no convictions. In 2012 there were several reported incidents of settler violence. On May 19, 2012, during rock throwing clashes after settlers, apparently from the nearby Yitzhar settlement, came to the village, a settler shot and wounded Fathi Assayara, a 24-year-old Palestinian. Five Palestinians were injured by the rock throwing. According to B'Tselem, IDF soldiers "didn't take any measures to stop the settlers from throwing stones, lighting fires, and firing live rounds at the Palestinians". B'Tselem published several videos of the incident. Abraham Benjamin, spokesman for the Yitzhar settlement, said settlers were responding to series of fires set by "the Arabs from the town" and that "it can be plainly seen that the use of weapons by the IDF or the security team was warranted by a real danger to life". In mid-2013, the US government requested protection by the IDF for a USAID project that is building a water cistern Asira al-Qibliya. The project and its employees had been repeatedly attacked by settlers from Yitzhar. The settlers of Yitzhar would routinely claim that the villagers of Asira al-Qibliya provoked them. The Palestinian villagers were then, in 2012, given cameras to document the attacks, and the video evidence they provided (and published on YouTube and elsewhere) forced the IDF to act. The result was that the Yitzhar settlers attacked the IDF. By 2014, calls were mounting to classify these Israeli settlers as terrorist. The villagers of Asira al-Qibliya found it a case of "too little, too late." One villager put it: "It is only words. We don't want words, we want deeds." Israeli writer Amos Oz noted that “Our neo-Nazi groups enjoy the support of numerous nationalist or even racist legislators." References Bibliography External links Welcome To 'Asira al-Qibliya Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11: IAA, Wikimedia commons ‘Asira al Qibliya Village Profile, Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem,