Category: Nablus

Settlers of Yitzhar set fire to olive fields and attack farmers the next day

15th November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwarra, Occupied Palestine

Israeli settlers of Yitzhar, set fires in two places in Palestinian olive fields around their illegal outposts, and attacked a group of farmers a day later, under the eyes of around 30 border police, present at the site.

On Sunday 5 November, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, ISM activists saw smoke coming from olive fields on both hillsides underneath an outpost of Yitzhar, the illegal settlement south of Nablus, built on the Hill between the Palestinian villages Huwarra and Burin.

It wasn’t the first time this has happened. Since the expropriation of the farmland of Huwarra, Burin and Madama, and the illegal creation and steady expansion of the Israeli settlement Yitzhar, violent settlers do anything they can to harm the Palestinian farmers and families without any risk of being punished for these crimes.

Attacked in 2016. No sign of life a year later.

A farmer from Burin, whose olive field was set on fire, explained to us that the settler group chased him and his two companions and that they managed to escape.

The Palestinian Fire-brigade of Burin waited for permission from the Israeli authority to extinguish the fire, which they apparently did not get.

Israel is authoritative for the security in Area-C, and should instead of blocking the Palestinian Fire brigade, fight any fire in Area-C themselves, which it has not done in the 25 year since this authority was agreed on in the Oslo accords.

Instead of this, we saw border police, settler security and the settlers side-by-side in the illegal Hilltop outpost, looking at the burning fields.

The next day, 6 November 2017 already at 8:30 AM, a group of nine settlers tried to attack farmers and workers who had official permission of the Israeli security authority, to harvest and cultivate the fields of the Owda family, which was partly burned down the previous day.

The large group of border police refused us entrance to the the area, which apparently was declared a closed military zone. The commander showed us the declaration on a paper, which didn’t show many details.

Instead of assisting the farmers, we could only be remotely present and filmed the situation from a distance. We again witnessed a close cooperation between the settlers, the settler-security and the border police. The threat of an instant attack was constantly felt that day.

Around 14:30, a group of around 20 settlers attacked the farmers, and most border-police did little to avoid it and arrested none of the settlers. Instead it commanded the farmers to stop their work and quickly leave their land.

Settlement outpost are illegal, even by Israeli law, although that law may change one day.

In February 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed a new law to legalize all 4000 illegal outposts. But, the High Court had concerns and postponed the implementation in August 2017.
However, if that law ever comes to reality, it would accept these 4000 outposts as new settlements ready to expand, and would give legality to the expropriation of more private Palestinian land, in a clear violation of the Oslo Agreements of 1993.

Israeli armed forces and settlers harassing farmers in As Sawiya

31st October 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine

On Sunday the 29th of October 2017 – near the Palestinian village As Sawiya – Palestinians and Internationals harvesting olives were met by the Israeli army. Three ISM’ers joined two Palestinian women harvesting in their family land. The family has been facing major problems in the area because of an illegal Israeli outpost close to the village, which is a part of the illegal settlement Eli.

The group of Palestinans and Internationals walked for half an hour to reach the olive trees since the road next to the olive trees is for settlers and the Israeli army only. After picking for around an hour a group of five boarder police officers, three soldiers from the Israeli army accompanied by settlers from the nearby outpost stormed up to the group demanding to see their ID’s. “They were very threatening and did not give any reason for taking our passports. We were just five women picking olives,“ an ISM’er says.

The Israeli border police demanded that the Internationals would leave the land immediately, showed the passports to the settlers and scanned them. “The settler stood on the olives and smiled at us, he even asked us if we were afraid of him,“ another ISM’er says. The Palestinians had been prevented from pruning the trees earlier this year which made the olive picking more difficult since it is an important part of the olive groves.

 

After a while the army agreed that the Palestinians were allowed to harvest their olives until three o clock the same day and that internationals were not allowed in the area the following day. The armed forces stayed close to the group harvesting for the rest of the day, and kept watching them and sometimes circled trees.

The day before a group of Palestinians and Internationals had also been prevented from picking olives in the area that is owned by the Palestinians.

Israeli Forces closed media production companies in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus last Wednesday night.

Foto: Dunia

18th October 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine

The army raided the Pal Media and Trans Media headquarters in Ramallah and seized their equipment and video material. Also other companies and branches of the two companies in Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron were raided the same night.  Soldiers closed the entrances of the Pal Media and the Trans Media offices with iron plates and left a poster which warns journalists and other workers not to work for both companies in the next six months.

This means a shut down of the work from thesr two major Palestinian media companies and also saboutages the other media and news sources within Palestine. Pal Media and Trans Media work together with news agency’s like the BBC, RT and Al Jazeera from outside Palestine to share information about the occupation.  It’s not the first time that the Israeli army targeted media companies to silence the Palestinian cause and also to interrupt Palestinians in their daily life of consuming television and radio shows.

Foto: Dunia

During the raids in the occupied city’s, three of them declared  Area A zones under full Palestinian control according to the Oslo agreement, the youth gathered around the army and tried to prevent the Israeli forces from maintaining the illegal closures of the media outlets and from accessing their cities. In the following clashes several Palestinians were shot with rubber coated steel bullets in all cities or injured by stun grenades and two journalists in the city of Hebron were arrested by the Israeli forces. With these new acts of violence against the freedom of speech from Palestinian journalists and media companies and the several night raids all over the West Bank, Israel shows yet another ugly face of it’s occupation politics to silence and interrupt Palestinians on a daily basis.

Israeli army restrict international access to Kafr Qaddum during confrontation

17th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus-team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine

Israeli occupation forces blocked international access to Kafr Qaddum on Saturday, before apparently attacking Palestinian demonstrators for the second time in two days.

Israeli force searching Palestinian cars

The Israeli military set up a road block at the entrance to the village, which has seen weekly demonstrations for several years, searching cars and checking IDs. Internationals who attempted to enter were detained for three hours with their passports confiscated. No reason was given for their detention, other than that the village was ‘dangerous’.

Israeli forces inspecting Palestinian cars

Kafr Qaddum, a small town in the Nablus area, has seen biweekly demonstrations for 6 years, since Israel blocked off their main access to Nablus in order to facilitate settler travel. The roadblock has doubled the length of journeys into Nablus, including for ambulances which are forced to take a 13km detour.

Israeli forces demolish Palestinian farm in Abu al-Ra’eesh, west of Salfit

5th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Abu al-Ra’eesh, occupied Palestine

Israeli forces demolish residential tents and livestock pens in Abu al-Ra’eesh

On the morning of April 5, 2017, the Israeli occupation forces demolished residential tents and six sheep pens in the area of Abu al-Ra’eesh, southwest of Dirbolut, west of Salfit.

The structures belonged to the Shheibar family and were located between the villages of Deir Balout and al-Lubban. They were forcefully removed by Israeli forces, who ordered the owner to remove the remaining structures within a week. According to the owner, Mohammad Shheibar, the demolition order was only issued three days ago.

 

2016 saw an average of 156 Palestinian structures a month demolished by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, displacing over 1,500 people and destroying the livelihoods of another 7,000. Meanwhile, building permits are frequently granted to the 550,000 colonial Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank, and Israeli authorities remain intent on expanding the nearby illegal settlement of Elqana.