11th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine
By Team Khalil
Resistance to occupation stays strong in Nabi Saleh – Friday 10th May saw confrontation between peaceful protesters and soldiers and Israeli military incursion into the village, sparking fires from excessive firing of tear gas.
Photo by ISM
Women lead the demonstration 10th May Friday demonstration at Nabi Saleh, shouting slogans against the occupation and land theft by the illegal settlement of Halamish. In the last few days, settlers threw stones at Palestinian cars on the road below the settlement.
Photo by ISM
One of the demonstration leaders, Neriman Tamimi, was hit twice with sound grenades thrown at close range whilst asking soldiers to leave her land. She required medical attention. Large amounts of tear gas and sound grenades were used during the demonstration and skunk water was fired directly onto houses and in residential areas.
Photo by ISM
Palestinian protester states “they’re shooting inside the village at civilians who don’t have any weapons” – a heavily armed and armoured soldier responds, “They throw stones, stones can kill”. No soldiers have been killed or seriously injured at Nabi Saleh, whereas hundreds of peaceful protesters have been injured and there have been two deaths in recent years – Mustafa and Rushdi Tamimi. Shortly after this is explained to soldiers, they throw tearas and sound grenades at the group of women who did nothing but speak to them.
Photo by Tamimi Press
Photographer and journalist Bilal Tamimi being attacked by the Israeli military – he was also shot with a tear gas canister, requiring medical attention. Four people were injured during the demonstration, including one Red Crescent medic.
Photo by ISM
Several fires were set in dry grass by tear gas canisters fired by Israeli military – two fire engines were required to put them out. Soldiers eventually left the village having invaded for several hours.
10th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Deir Jreer and Silwad , Occupied Palestine
By Team Ramallah
At around 9 am today, 150 Palestinians, accompanied by International activists, went to Deir Jreer lands to construct a new road so that local farmers could reach their lands more easily. Two bulldozers flattened the path from the nearest road to the lands located near an illegal Israeli outpost. Israeli military personnel maintained a presence on a facing hilltop but did not intervene. In addition to constructing a new road ‘ the villagers wanted to protest the confiscation of their privately owned land by Israeli settlements and military.
A new road is constructed by the residents of Der Jreer
In the nearby village of Silwad, approximately one hundred Palestinians, joined by a handful of Israeli and international activists, also demonstrated against land confiscation and settler violence. After midday prayers, demonstrators walked along the main road towards the entrance of their village where Israeli forces were located. Clashes soon erupted; Palestinian protesters threw stones and Israeli forces shot excessive amounts of tear gas canisters, some stun grenades and rubber coated steel bullets at people. The confrontations lasted until around 15.30.
In the past few weeks, the villages of Silwad and Deir Jreer have faced an increase in violence from the settlers of Ofra settlement , the nearby outpost and the Israeli military. Settlers established a new outpost on the top of a hill but Palestinians dismantled it after a Silwad villager was severely attacked by settlers. The village of Deir Jarir was also raided by settlers who set fire to ten of the resident’s cars.
9th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Talfit and Qalaban, Occupied Palestine
Israeli occupation has created different problems for Talfit and Qabalan. Talfit is proud of its history and wants to protect it from Israeli army night incursion that seeks to appropriate it, as Qalaban struggles to provide water to its population.
Old olive presser in Talfit
Talfit is a village situated south of Nablus, in a valley rich with olive fields. A village proud of its history, especially for its role in the resistance during the 1st and 2nd Intifadas. This resistance resulted in the village being collectively punished with arrests and house demolitions, including the house of a present member of the village council who witnessed those importance struggles of resistance.
In the last months, weekly night incursions by Israeli occupation forces took place in Talfit, provoking concerns from the inhabitants. During these incursions the soldiers have been very interested in the old buildings of Talfit. Antiques such as jars and ploughs have been taken from the village by the army. Larger structures such as old buildings containing milestones and olive presses are photographed by the soldiers during these incursions where they have also been known to write Hebrew and draw the Star of David on the walls and doors of the buildings.
These incursions are of concern for the villagers who worry that their purpose is to try and appropriate their history, which could lead to future problems. Israel has in the past used the appropriation of Palestinian history and culture as a pretext to change the continuity of the history of the Palestine people and the land. A similar strategy was used in Susyia where villagers were expelled and their homes demolished due to the discovery by Zionist archaeologists of an old synagogue, not recognising the villager’s history predating the synagogue and after.
Qabalan, a village near to Talfit, is not unique in the West Bank for the problems of water shortages it faces as a result of the Israeli occupation though Qabalan seems to suffer more than most. According to the World Health Organisation, one person needs an average of 100 litres a day, but according to Qabalan’s village council, their residents receive less than half this amount with an average of 44 litres per person a day. The average consumption of water per person per day by Israel and their settlements is 242 litres. (See infographic by Visualising Palestine and Ewash here.)
The water shortage in Qabalan is a result of this high demand by Israel and its nearby settlements of Rechalim, Shilo and Eli, situated on the mountain overlooking Qabalan. Since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israel controls the water delivering Palestinian water to Palestinians at a higher price than to Israeli settlers and citizens. This is also true of electricity and gas. A large part of Qalaban land is on area C, which Israel is supposed to administer for the good of all people living there, however it has issued demolition orders for 9 houses putting families at risk of being homeless.
Three months ago, settlers from Rechalim attacked the population of Qabalan, burning land, cutting down around 200 olive trees and destroying cars. Furthermore, during the period of the olive harvest, which is of large importance to the people of Qabalan, settlers attacked the people harvesting their olives on land near the settlements. Arrests of Qabalan residents also occur – In May 2013 an 18 year old from Qabalan was arrested and put under administrative detention for several days – held without charges or trial.
The problems created by the occupation that affects the villages and all of Palestine are a direct obstacle to peace. A council member from Talfit summed up the situation saying that “Israel is like a person trying to carry two melons, land and peace. They can either have the land, or the peace, not both.”
8th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus, Occupied Palestine
By Team Nablus
Nablus was disturbed by two army jeeps driving in a circuit round the city centre and shooting tear gas at young men, with no clear intent other than to harass them for around three hours.
Shooting and sound bombs were heard beginning at 01:45. Two Israeli military jeeps circled around one block in central Nablus for three hours shooting tear gas and sound bombs at a group of 20 young people. The excessive shooting of tear gas at close range caused public property damage to surrounding buildings and street lights.
There were three arrests Azz Aldan Salha (22) and Raed Saig from Nablus and Ahmad Sorf (24), from New Askar refugee camp. Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, Nablus is designated as Area A, which nominally is within full Palestinian Authority jurisdiction.
Nablus sees regular Israeli military incursions, typically to give armed support to night-time settler visits to Joseph’s Tomb or raids on Palestinian homes, often in the city’s refugee camps, but elsewhere too, such as the arrest of 17 students from al-Najjar University last week.
7th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Beit Furik, Occupied Palestine
by ISM Nablus
Fouzi, his bandages freshly changed for the day, holds a memento of the day he nearly was killed (photo: ISM)
Two olive farmers from the village of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, are recovering from head wounds in a near-lethal attack by colonial-settlers. Although both survived, they are in need of daily check-ups at a clinic in Nablus and are afraid to return to work on their land.
In the early afternoon of Monday 29th April, Fouzi Mousa Nasasra (65) and Abad al-Rahman Khatatba (50) went to put out fires started by settlers, from the nearby illegal settlement of Itamar, on their land just a brief walk away from their neighbouring homes. The fire service from Nablus also came to help put out the fire. Afterwards the pair took a rest on their land, which sits on a mountainside. Suddenly three settlers came at them in a surprise attack, with fifteen more in support. They hit them both in the head, with sharp farming tools and stones, repeatedly, causing them to collapse. Fortunately, other villagers saw what was happening and ran to help them, so settlers backed a retreat up the mountainside.
Both men needed hospital treatment for serious injuries to the head. Fouzi received 12 injuries to his head on 3 sides and Abad, 5 injuries to his head as he was able to put his hands up to protect himself. The fire, although it was put out, caused damage to approximately 300 olive trees.
When asked about the attack Fouzi spoke of how the settlers were laughing and ‘proud’ of what they were doing. He added that if there were no villagers about to see what happened he would be dead. He spoke of his concern of going back to his land, where he hasn’t returned even though it begins part-way along his road, after what happened and of past attacks in the last 12 years which have claimed two lives, 88 year-old Abu Odie and his own brother, 33 year-old Farrid Nasasra. Now Fouzi has to visit a clinic in the city of Nablus every day to change his dressings, as his wounds bleed all the time. Thankfully, he is expected to make a full recovery, scars aside, and should have the bandages and stitches completely removed in a month.
The attacks and killings are accompanied by the Israeli Occupation Forces forbidding Beit Furik’s farmers from harvesting olives on the mountain. This attack has been one of several in a recent upsurge in violence by settlers, particularly from Yitzar (in Burin, Huwwara, Urif and Asira), Esh Kodesh (in Jalud) and Elon Moreh (in Azmut), over the last week in the Nablus governorate district.
Abad and Fouzi’s land on the mountainside by their houses (photo: ISM)Fouzi’s bloodstained shirt, with further loss of blood he believes he would have died (photo: ISM)
