Author: ISM Media Group

Landowner visits land for the first time in years

Susya 1st September 2007

12 Palestinians and 3 Human Rights Workers (HRWs) went to visit land which is overlooked by an illegal Israeli settler colony and which has taken the old Palestinian name of Susya.

Access to this land by its owners has been restricted since 1984 when the Palestinian residents of Susya were forcibly evicted by the Israelis to form a colony. The visit was the first time the owner had been able to access the land for 7 years. The problem here is that the Settlers interfere violently with the Palestinians when they visit their land even though they carry their legal papers which show their title to it in both Hebrew and Arabic. Apart from a few olive trees the land has reverted to scrub due to neglect. There is a well on the land which the settlers are using to water their sheep. Both the theft of the water and the grazing is depriving the Palestinian owners of income and livlihood. An elderly Palestinian woman dressed in the typical clothes of the region gathers za’atar from her ancestral lands which will be a precious memento of the day for her. Normally she can’t freely gather the herbs from her own land.

45 minutes after the arrival of the Palestinian and International group, 6 youths arrive from the colony across the road. One carries a large gun slung over his shoulder. They taunt the group verbally, occasionally one hitchs the gun strap at his shoulder. Soon an Israeli settler shepherd appears with all his sheep which he runs down the hill close by us after watering them from the Palestinians’ well. He joins in the stand off and ostentatiously pulls up his tee shirt to reveal a hand gun pushed into the waist band of his trousers. This is a clear warning and indication of his preparedness to use it while out grazing his sheep on what he knows is Palestinian land.

Then 6 to 8 Israeli soldiers come in 2 army jeeps. Then a border police jeep arrives with 3 police and a final police jeep arrives with 3 more personnel. After prolonged talking on radios the soldiers ask the landowner and another for their IDs. The landowner explains his ownership of the land and shows his papers to the police. There are tense discussions. The landowner says to the police and soldiers, “We want peace, we want to come and cultivate our land, graze our animals and tend to the olive trees and harvest without molestation from the settlers.” The police advise him that he must get a permit before ever being able to visit his own land, or else?

The police and soldiers talk to the settlers now numbering 9 and they move off back to the settlement. The Palestinians leave second and followed by the convoy of army and police jeeps that has come to deal with the group of Palestinians and HRWs. The landowner explained during the walk back that he really needs to get to the land to harvest olives next month and Internationals are needed to make this less risky for him and his family who come to pick.

Elderly woman harrassed by settlers on quad bike night and day

1st and 2nd September 2007

At 9.30pm on 1st September an elderly Palestinian woman shouted in distress to the other tents of the village scattered across a hillside South of Hebron where the original inhabitants of Susya now live. She had been walking with a torch in the dark when some settlers drove up on a quad bike and grabbed her torch from her. She lives alone with her adult son in a tent alongside her flock of sheep and goats which they graze in the fields surrounding them.

On hearing the commotion her neighbours and 2 Human Rights Workers (HRWs) ran over the hillside in the dark to help. By the time they got there the quad bike has gone. The elderly woman was frightened and extremely angry. The neighbours and HRWs sat on a smooth rock by a track near her tent and listened to her telling of her outrage and fright. The HRWs stayed the night in her tent in case the settlers came back. In the night on that hillside with no electricity and so near to the illegal Israeli settlement, also known as Susya, it is frightening to know that at any time the sound of the quad bike engine will mean an attack by its helmeted riders. The settlers came again on the quad bike at 11.30pm and this time the HRWs immediately ran out to the track but they sped away before they could be photographed. The 2 riders were clearly visible wearing white full face motor bike helmets. The rest of the night all 4 sleepers at the tent were restless and hyper-vigilant for the sound of the engine of these hostile intruders. They did not come again this night but were back the following afternoon at 2.00pm just when there was a break from work in the middle of the day. The old lady was on her own again by this time. At this point the HRWs stayed for the rest of the day and the following night and there were no further incidents.

These attacks are cowardly and designed to drive the elderly woman from her insubstantial and precarious living on the hill with her flock. This has been the way of life to her and her ancestors for hundreds of years. The other tents scattered across the hill have men and boys in the family and this woman is old and alone. All the tent dwellers have had to move on at least 4 times since 1984 because of the destruction of their camps by nearby settlers who want the land ‘cleansed’. The Israeli police and army do nothing to protect them. The shepherds are treated as squatters by the Israeli Courts even though they can prove that this has been their grazing land for generations.

Succesful Road Block Removal ends in Arrests

31.08.2007, Sarra – Nablus Region

On Friday, 31.08.2007, International and Israeli Human Rights Activists joined the people of Sarra village in another demonstration against a roadblock that for years has obstructed direct access into Nablus city.

For the last five years the people of Sarra have had a trip of five minutes from their town to Nablus turn into circuitous journey taking nearly an hour. The Israeli Occupation Forces have closed their road with the help of one meter squared cement blocks. There have been repeated attempts by the town to get this roadblock removed, as it needlessly damages the lives of the people inside, when they need to go to work, or to school, or to visit family. Though they have tried to work through government channels, speaking to the DCO and lawyers, it has come to no avail. Last week they were told that the army would open the roadblock, what the army did was invade and shoot up their village. Members of the village have become frustrated and impatient waiting for the government to act. Nothing has been done to help their situation and they have been lied to or ignored when they voice their complaint. In the end it has come to this; the people have taken their situation into their own hands, they are waiting for no one. They gathered on friday to demonstrate non-violently against the continued presence of a cage around their town, part of the cage around Nablus.

Around 300 people came together at the village mosque after friday prayer and made their way down the road towards the road closure. People’s spirits were high while marching down, waving Palestinian flags, chanting, cheering each other on. When they arrived, several soldiers could be seen with sniper rifles hiding behind trees on the hill right behind the roadblock. People were standing around the stone blocks, chanting slogans for some time. As the sprit of the people increased they began to drag barbwire, left on the side of the road by soldiers, across the road which leads to an army watchtower. People found old tires on the side of the road also, dragging them into the middle of the road and setting fire to them. Soon after a couple of army and police vehicles approached. Part of the group then walked towards the jeeps on the military road, attempting to prevent them from reaching the roadblock. They sat down in a row right in front of the vehicles and managed to stop them where they had parked. Some people from the group went to try and talk to the soldiers, negotiating about the presence of the roadblock. Several times the army drove closer towards the people blocking them in and attempting to threaten them. The Israeli military managed to capture and detain two of the Israeli activists, for being in a closed military zone, taking them away in a jeep.

The people who had stayed around the roadblock then started to move the stones off the road with the help of ropes. Soldiers increased their harrassment of the village, throwing several sound bombs and tear gas canisters into the crowd. Nonetheless, after dispersing for a moment, the people regathered, and continued to move all of the concrete road blocks out of the way.

People were cheering and continued chanting slogans, no more violence was at this point used by the army. The activists who had blocked the army vehicles then started retreating towards the other group around the roadblock. Some more discussions between the villagers and the DCO followed, another promise to look into the matter of the roadblock followed, which proved to be an empty promise once again.

The villagers and activists retreated back into the village, the internationals gathered in a house right next to where the roadblock was placed. All the people seemed to be very satisfied about the course of action that day.

Approximately two hours later however, the Israeli army came back with a bulldozer to re-close the just opened road. As the internationals saw them arriving, they rushed to the place and sat down on the cement blocks on the side of the road to prevent the army from moving it back in place. They were able to stop them for some time, and soldiers approached them and tried to make them leave the area. The internationals however refused, insisting on defending their just accomplished success. Unfortunately they were only five, as Palestinian and Israeli activists had already left the area. Like this they could not resist being taken away and arrested by the soldiers.

The army with its bulldozer closed the road again, putting the stones in place and after tore up the village’s land nearby, covering the cement blocks with a mound of dirt. The street is closed once again, but the people of Sarra don’t talk of giving up.

The two Israeli activists captured by the Israeli army were held until 10 pm, until they signed conditions stating they would not enter Sumeria for 15 days.

The international human rights workers arrested that day stayed in jail two more days. The men were given dingy cells and denied food beyond a few pieces of fruit the first night, the women were chained to a bench in a room with a television blaring all night. The women were not given blankets, and were ignored or mocked by the policemen on duty. They were forced to use the toilet chained to each other, and watch movies which bordered on pornography, while the policemen laughed at them. One was released the next day after nearly 24 hours in detention, the further three were dragged into court to be charged. The first activist released was made to sign a condition forbidding her from entering Sumeria for 15 days. The police wanted to ban the others from the West Bank for 30 days. The judge however simply asked them where they had friends in the West Bank; they replied Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Nablus. The judge then banned them from entering those cities for 30 days, fining them a total of 7,500 NIS each if they break their conditions. The other three activists could not readily find identification and so were thrown back in jail another night. The next day they returned to court, at which point their passports arrived in Tel Aviv and conditions of their release were confirmed.

All activists detained that day have all now been released, they would like to say a big thank you to everyone that supported them during their ordeal and assisted in obtaning their release.

For additional information relating to Sarra including video footage of the documented events please click onto Nablus Region Reports for a full outline of history and footage.

Non-Violent Friday in Al Walaja

Al Walaja 31/8/07

On Friday August 31st at 12:30pm Palestinians, Israelis and international activists met at the village of Al Walaja north of Bethlehem to demonstrate against the construction of the annexation wall, which when complete will surround Al Walaja on three sides. The wall will also make a large amount of land owned by Palestinians inaccessible, and will therefore be used by the illegal settlements that surround Al Walaja for expansion.

The demonstration started with prayer on a road used by trucks and other machinery used to build the wall. Following this, one of the community leaders spoke briefly informing people to move up onto another track that leads directly to where the wall is being constructed. As around 40 demonstrators walked up the track they were met by a line of 20 IOF soldiers. The demonstrators then continued non-violently and sat in front of the soldiers. The soldiers stood directly behind the sitting demonstrators and a stand-off remained for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes the army began by threatening to arrest the press forcing them to leave the area. Following this, the soldiers gave a 5 minute ultimatum to the demonstrators ordering them to leave the track, and they showed a military order in Hebrew and with no map, declaring the area a closed military zone. After a heated debate between 6 community leaders; one of whom wanted to stay on the track and the other 5 who wanted to leave; an agreement to leave was made.

All the demonstrators followed the decision and left the area peacefully.

Let Them East Grapes!

Umm Salumona

For the first time in two months a Palestinian farmer was given permission today to visit his land at Umm-Salumona in the district of North Bethlehem. A large area of land has been annexed by the Israeli military, just below the illegal Jewish settlement of Efrata, to construct the Apartheid Wall, an act which is in violation of a recent Israeli High Court ruling which confirmed the land is Palestinian owned. Today’s demonstration was attended by almost 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights activists.

The nonviolent activists initially assembled at Wadi-Nis village which is adjacent to the construction site of the wall. A member of the Holy Land Trust addressed the crowd and emphasized the discipline of nonviolence the Palestinian led resistance at Umm Salumona had used to voice their opposition to the theft of their land.

Hassan, the local grape vine farmer, whose land is literally a stone’s throw away from the Efrata settlement, invited those in attendance to dine on his grapes. The protestors marched downhill, crossing the long military and construction vehicle only road at Umm-Salumona and then climbed up towards the settlement. A barrier of soldiers met the demonstrators, who in response simply ate grapes. The soldiers, after 20 minutes gave the demonstrators an ultimatum telling them to leave the land in five minutes or be forced off it. The land owner thought it to be more beneficial to strike a deal with the soldiers, allowing him to check the rest of his land in return he assured that the other people present would leave. The Umm Salamona demonstration ended with demonstrators leaving the land peacefully, with no injuries sustained.