Israel’s military said a Palestinian family could bury their father. Then the settlers arrived

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A Palestinian family has described how Israeli settlers in the northern West Bank forced them to exhume the newly buried grave of an older relative, claiming it was too close to a settlement recently authorized by Israel’s government.

Mohammed Asasa said his family had coordinated the burial of his 80-year-old father, Hussein, with the Israeli military. He said the burial took place in a cemetery belonging to his village, also called Asasa, where the family said generations have been buried in clearly marked graves.

The incident last Friday illustrates the influence extremist settlers have gained during the past four years of Israel’s current government and the military’s inability or unwillingness to halt settler violence and land seizures.

Asasa said after the funeral, armed men from the nearby settlement of Sa-Nur arrived and ordered the family to exhume the body, claiming the land belonged to the settlement, less than half a kilometer away.

“While we were receiving condolences at home, some young men from the ...