Category: Nablus - Page 20 - International Solidarity Movement

Palestinian family attacked by settlers while harvesting olives

10th October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Burin, Occupied Palestine

Tuesday afternoon, the 7th of October, olive farmer Mahmoud Rga Mahoud Aid, his wife, and thei three children were attacked by a a group of settlers from the illegal settlement of Giv’at Ya’akov. The attack took place on the family´s land near the village of Burin, south west of Nablus.

The the family had only three days permission from the District Coordination Office (DCO) to access their land and pick their olives, starting from the 6th of October. To harvest all the olives on the land would normally take about a month.

On the first day of picking, Zionist settlers came down from the illegal settlement and tried to prevent Mahmoud from entering his land. The Israeli military interfered and told the settlers to leave, and Mahmoud was able to finish his working day without further interference from the settlers.

On the second day of picking the family was able to access the land but in the midst of picking the nearby soldiers started yelling at them, ”They are coming, they are coming for you!”

Mahmoud looked up and saw five male settlers wearing masks coming down from the hill towards him and his family. The settlers started throwing rocks at them and Mahmoud tried to protect his family by covering them with the tarpaulin used to collect the olives in. This helped for a while, but the settlers came closer and physically attacked Mahmoud. They continuously hit him in the chest, stomach and the head, and his foot was badly bruised by a stone thrown by the settlers.

The Israeli soldiers watched the settlers attack the family, but didn’t react until a considerable amount of time had passed. Eventually they came down from the hill and told the settlers to leave the area.

Mahmoud walked down the hill, wounded, and was stopped by another group of soldiers who detained him for allegedly attacking the settlers and “causing trouble”. The commander called one of the soldiers that witnessed the attack and even though this soldier told the truth, stating that Mahmoud was attacked, the commander asked for Mahmoud’s passport number and personal information to make a file on him. Furthermore Mahmoud lost his permission for the third and last day of olive picking.

Over a period of ten years, illegal settlers have destroyed approximately 240 olive trees owned by the family. They have about 60 trees left and the settlers keep taking over more and more of their land. As mentioned before, they are permitted a very short time to harvest olives from their trees so a lot of the olives goes to waste which ultimately effects the families income. Mahmoud is afraid that the settlers are planning to destroy all the trees so the family will not have any reason to enter the land the settlers are slowly taking over. Mahmoud anticipates the settler harassment to escalate in the olive harvest high season, which is in two weeks.

21 Palestinians arrested in Qarawat Banea Hassan since July

4th October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Qarawat Banea Hassan, Occupied Palestine

On the 30th of September, six young men from the village of Qarawat Banea Hassan, south of Nablus, were arrested by the Israeli military.

At 1am, five jeeps with around 20 solders surrounded the village looking for Jema Kanan (23-years old), Jema Rayan (22-years old), Yousef Rayan (19-years old), Khalil Assan (20-years old), Wahbi Rayan (17-years old), and Hazem Assi (18-years old).

The solders entered several houses looking for the men, breaking doors and terrifying the families.

A broken handle left over from the night raid (photo by ISM).

The solders arrested two brothers from the same family, the older brother has just got married and his wife is four moths pregnant with their first child.

She was alone in their house sleeping when the solders broke up two of their doors. The woman had to go to the hospital due to being afraid of miscarrying their child.

The solders threatened many of the families, including a 16-year-old brother who they threatened to beat if he did not give information about his brother.

Since July, 21 men have been arrested from the village. In July the villagers held a demonstration to protest the massacre in Gaza, and shortly after the arrests began.

Only five of the men have been given a date for their trial, the other 16 are still waiting in prison.

Israeli soldiers delay medical treatment to arrested Palestinian

1st October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Khirbet Al-Tawil, Occupied Palestine

On Monday morning, the 29^th of September, settlers and the Israeli army invaded the village of Khirbet Al-Tawil east of Aqraba. They destroyed the village’s main electrical cable and water pipe. The inhabitants of the village have been without electricity and running water since then.

At noon, Wednesday October 1^st, a Palestinian man accused of repairing the electrical cable destroyed by settlers and Israeli soldiers was arrested by Israeli forces in Khirbet Al-Tawil. Asked for the reason for the arrest, an Israeli soldier replied that the electrical cable, placed on Palestinian land, was illegal due to the village not paying for the use of the electricity.

The Israeli soldiers took the Palestinian’s ID from him and forced him to drive his motorbike in front of the military jeep to the Alhamra checkpoint for interrogation. During the drive, a car with one Palestinian, one international and three ISM activists stopped to give the man some water. The Israeli soldiers stepped out of the jeep and yelled orders to the group, trying to prevent them from giving the man water. The man was shaking and while drinking the water he collapsed on the road, suffering from an epileptic seizure.

The Israeli soldiers came closer and interrupted the group that was trying to give the Palestinian first aid. Even though his condition was serious the soldiers did not call for help until the group started working on getting an ambulance. Then the Israeli solders called for backup and medical help. At that time the man was still cramping and fighting to catch his breath. One soldier stayed with the man to prevent him from escaping and the other soldiers stood by and laughed.

After about forty minutes a military ambulance followed by a group of more soldiers arrived. The man was stable at that time, but still suffering from the aftereffects of the seizure. A woman dressed as a soldier, identifying herself as a doctor took a quick look at the patient where he was sitting on the road after denying taking him inside the ambulance, even though the sun was very strong at that moment and not helping his condition.

An Israeli military commander arrived at the same time as the ambulance. He commanded the group of Palestinian, civilian and ISM activist who were taking care of the man to back off. One ISM activist refused to leave the patient and was immediately surrounded by armed soldiers. The Israeli commander became aggressive and forced the patient to stand up and walk to the military jeep and get in between two soldiers. Right before they drove away, on ISMe activist noticed the soldiers handcuffing the Palestinian. The man was released later that day.

Israeli settlers sabotage the olive harvest in Awarta

23rd September 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Awarta, Occupied Palestine

Awarta Olive Trees — Photo by Maan News Agency

On the 28th of August, around 7:00 a.m., Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Itamar cut down and burnt more than 30 olive trees belonging to Awarta village before the harvest.

For the farmers living southeast of Nablus City, the olive trees are a basic, continual part of life.

The large, illegal settlement of Itamar is built on the lands of Awarta, Yanoon, and Aqraba villages. The settlers there have a company of shepherds. They have stolen the northeast lands from Awarta, so now people cannot work in that area without permission, and then only for a few days during the harvest.

Every year before harvest, settlers burn and cut the trees until the farmers cannot collect their fruit. In this way, they want to make people give in and forget their land. And they do not stop there. During the harvest, they attack the farmers, and release pigs onto Palestinian land to destroy it. Then settlers attack in groups, throwing stones and burning the grass, and most of them pick out the remaining fruit before the DCO gives permission.

These are the policies Israel uses against the land and the farmers.

Palestinian school set on fire

21st September 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team |As-Sawia, Occupied Palestine

On the evening of the 10th September, unknown assailants broke into the As-Sawia Secondary School, forced open the door and set the school on fire. Bedouins living close to the school saw the fire and alerted the fire brigade. By the time it was put out, the principal’s office and teachers’ rooms were completely burned.

“We lost six computers, four printers, all the teachers’ books and materials, but most of all, the administrative documents and files of the students and about the school situation over the past years. The whole damage is around 140,000 shekels,” the principle Adnan Hussein told ISM. The school was closed for three days after the arson attack.

As in many schools in the occupied West Bank, the students and staff of As-Sawia Secondary School suffer from constant settler and military harassment. Three days before the arson, armed settlers who called themselves “security” from one of the nearby hilltop illegal settlements stood at the school gates. When the principal spoke to them, they claimed that children threw stones at the settler cars on their way to school.

The school is located by Road 90, which was paved in 1944 and runs across the West Bank. The road is used by Palestinians and by illegal settlers. The children have to walk alongside it to get to school in the mornings and to go home after school.

“Our school is suffering both for the settlers and the army,” explained Hussein. “We constantly have the army at our gates, checking ID’s and bothering children”

On the 3 September, armed settlers stopped in a car marked as the illegal settlement Eli’s “security” at the gate of the school. One of the settlers came out of the car, jumped over the fence and started following some of the children, who have finished their classes and were leaving for home. The principle approached the settler and told him that he is not allowed in the school with weapons, and the settler responded that he was looking for a child who threw stones and shouted at the settler car earlier.

After agreeing to move outside the school gate at the head teacher’s insistence, the settler with the machine gun was joined by another settler and they insisted that the boy in the red T-shirt was brought to them. They also wanted the head teacher’s mobile phone number so that they could call him in the future.

“I had a bad feeling that something horrible will happen and that they will start shooting,” related Hussien. “I left some teachers with the settlers and with other teachers went to escort children through another gate and send them home, when three soldiers appeared. I went to speak to them. I told them that they cannot be in school with their weapons and in their uniforms but they insisted that they wanted to speak to a boy in the red T-shirt for 10 minutes.”

The principal and staff stood between the soldiers and settlers and the pupils to protect them while they were leaving the school. By this time worried parents were at the gate and they took the children away.

Throughout 2013, the army entered the As-Sawiya 51 times and children and the staff had to put up with teargas, sound bombs and arrests of pupils.

Hussein explained, “It is a constant worry that the settlers and the army will come. It is hard enough to control 350 teenagers even in the countries where there is no occupation. It is not easy and we do what we can to try to do our best keep the education for our children going. We have no problem with Jewish people and I can say that many of them are nice and honest, but settlers are generally dangerous people. I know that people should be able to choose where they live, but that does not include taking someone else’s land without permission.”