Author: ISM Media - Page 389 - International Solidarity Movement

“My land is like my identity…I will always replant my trees” – farmer resists as 500 olive trees uprooted in Beit Dajan

24th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Beit Dajan, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

Jamal Kanaan stays steadfast in Beit Dajan

On the 22nd April 2013, 500 trees belonging to Beit Dajan villager Jamal Kanaan were uprooted by the Israeli military; making a total of six times since 2002 that his olive trees have been destroyed by the Israeli authorities.

Around 50 soldiers arrived in the early morning and uprooted the young trees by hand, removing them in jeeps before Jamal could arrive and intervene in the theft of his trees. The olives had been planted just one year ago, following the Israeli army bulldozing his previous trees. Each of the five previous times that Jamal’s trees have been destroyed he has replanted them; even though they often don’t even grow old enough to produce olives.

This year, the military once again gave Jamal no notification that his trees were to be uprooted; the only time that he has had any sort of notice was in 2005 when a letter was left under a stone on his land.

Jamal’s trees are in Area C, meaning that the Israeli occupiers claim full administrative and civil control over the land, even though it is privately owned by Palestinians. On the ground, this designation means that Palestinians have to ask for permission to build, to plant and to use their own land – this permission is rarely granted. The outskirts of most Palestinian villages, including Beit Dajan are This is used as a tactic to restrict the livelihoods of Palestinians and stop expansion of Palestinian villages, whilst grabbing more land for illegal Israeli settlements.

Despite the repeated destruction of his trees, Jamal remains steadfast, saying today “I will not leave my land. My land is like my ID card, my identity. I will always replant my trees on my land. Whatever the occupation does, I will not leave.”

In February 2013, seven demolition orders were delivered to the village of Beit Dajan, ordering the destruction of homes, electricity pylons and homes for sheep – this decision is currently being fought in the Israeli courts and the demolitions have currently been delayed.

Jamal Kanaan's land in 2012 after the Israeli military had removed his trees - circles indicate where they had been planted. Photo credit Beit Dajan Municipality — Jamal Kanaan’s land in 2012 after the Israeli military had removed his trees – circles indicate where they had been planted. Photo credit Beit Dajan Municipality

Fifteen detainees from Qaryut to attend trial on first of May

23rd April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Qaryut, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

Over the past 5 months 15 people from Qaryut, mainly youngsters, have been arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities. The charges include `attending illegal demonstrations` and being in `closed military zones`. All detainees will face trial on the first of May.

Among them are two brothers, Mohammad Laboom, 19, and Nedal Laboom, 32. Israeli forces raided and ransacked their homes in the middle of the night on the 17 December 2012 and 3 February 2013 . Mohammad is in his first year of college and was in Nablus when Israeli soldiers arrived at his house asking for him. They forced his family to call him and say ‘Captain Gilad says come’. His mother told us that ‘they said they would take all of us if he didn’t come to them.’ He was told to turn himself in to Huwwara compound that night, despite having an exam the next day which he requested to take before handing himself over.

His brother Nedal is a teacher and is married with young children. When they came to take him at 2am they accused him of participating in demonstrations and asked if he was with Hamas. He denied this and said that he had done nothing wrong. He told them that he just goes to his school and comes back home again. His mother said that with his small children, he works day and night, between home and work. She reported that they put her sons out in the cold before putting most of the family in one room before unnecessarily raiding the house. She said Nedal’s children clung on to the adults clothes in terror, not understanding what was going on.

Nedal and Mohammad’s mothers have visited them twice, a special privilege for those over sixty years old. They are being held in Magiddo prison and will be tried along with 13 others detainees from their village on the same charge: being activists in Qaryut and attending peaceful demonstrations. Mohammad and Nedal’s mothers said, ‘I can’t sleep at night thinking about them’.

Peaceful demonstrations occur regularly in Qaryut to protest the closing of a main road leading to both the two large cities of Nablus and Ramallah. The villagers say the repression from the military and nearby colonial-settlers have increased since demonstrations began. They have stopped, fearing more arrests in their small village and an escalation in settler violence. Settlers regularly cut down or burn the villagers’ trees. A representative from Qaryut told us that at this rate ‘there wont be anyone left in Qaryut`.

A painting in honour of the fifteen detainees in Qaryut (Photo by ISM)

Israeli soldiers and Border Police destroy 200 young olive trees in Palestinian village of Susya

23th April 2013 | Christian Peacemaker Team, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

Israeli soldiers and border police today used a backhoe to uproot 200 young olive trees in the Palestinian village of Susya in the South Hebron Hills. The demolition of the olive grove began at 8:00 am and finished at 10:45 am. The trees destroyed were planted about one year ago on land belonging to three families of the village, across a valley from the Israeli settlement of Susya.

Israeli bulldozer uprooting olive trees (Photo by CPT)

The village of Susya has existed since around 1830, and is present on British maps from 1917. In l983 Israeli settlers built a settlement at Susya, and many of the village’s residents were forced from their homes. These families now live nearby in isolated sites to the north of the settlement. The Israeli Civil Administration has informed residents of Palestinian Susya of their intention to carry out six demolition orders for houses that were issued in the 1990s and in 2001. These demolition orders cover 50 buildings, including homes, animal pens, solar energy panels and water cisterns.

These demolition orders have been issued despite the fact that Palestinian ownership of the land in Palestinian Susya is well established legally. Israeli attorney Plea Albeck stated in a legal opinion in l982 that the land in Palestinian Susya is Palestinian owned. Because the Israeli Civil Administration has not completed a master plan for the region, the residents of Palestinian Susya are unable to obtain building permits.

Since 2001 Israel has, through its military and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, uprooted, burnt and destroyed more than 548,000 olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers and land owners.

Israeli bulldozer about to uproot an olive tree (Photo by CPT)

Palestinian woman carrying an olive tree which was going to be uprooted by Israeli forces (Photo by CPT)

Activists continue to target the infrastructure of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank

23rd April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Bethlehem , Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Palestinians and International activists held a brief demonstration outside the gates of an Israeli military base near Herodium mountain, east of Bethlehem. The activists stood outside the gates with Palestinian flags and shouted to the soldiers inside that the base was built illegally on Palestinian land. The demonstration also intended to highlight the illegal Israeli settlements nearby.

Stun grenades are thrown at demonstrators outside an Israeli military base

Soldiers threw stun grenades at the peaceful demonstrators and used tear gas to disperse the journalists who had gathered to document the demonstration. Demonstrators also hung Palestinian flags from a nearby military outpost.

This demonstration was part of a series of actions targeting the infrastructure of the Israeli occupation including checkpoints, military bases and watchtowers which are all obstacles to peace in the occupied territories.

A Palestinian flag is hung from an Israeli outpost

Tel Rumeida settlers occupy Palestinian land by cutting down trees and farming the land

21st April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

By Team Khalil

Settlers from the Tel Rumeida area in Hebron gradually cut down 15 almond trees on privately owned Palestinian land over the last two weeks. The settlers also installed an irrigation system and planted seeds with the clear intention of taking over the land. The owner of the land has complained to the police and army on several occasions to no avail.

“The police just showed up, watched the settlers and then went away.” “The trees are very close to my heart, my children used to play around them.”

The Palestinian family Abu Heikel is renting the land from a Palestinian Jew called Jofef Ezra who fled Hebron during the 1967 Israeli invasion of the West Bank. The Ezra family continues to rent its property to the Heikel family to prevent the land from falling into settler hands. With the army on call to defend the settlers on their various, usually violent, whims, there are serious doubts that Ezra`s wishes will be fulfilled. Palestinians by contrast have little to no legal support or protection against their aggressive neighbors.

Settlers in Tel Rumeida regularly occupy parts of privately owned Palestinian property under the pretext that the Bible has given them permission to do so. As long as the Israeli army continues to tolerate the settlers’ illegal activity and offer them protection whilst attacking and arresting those resisting them, the expansion of illegal settlements and the level of settler violence is likely to continue escalating.