Some impressions of last friday demonstration (Dec 29) at Beit’El where an illegal settlement has been set up:
The settlement of Beit’El has been built illegally in the year 1977. Growing in its population it counts more than 5600 settlers. By taking their land Palestinians do not have full access to water supplies, farming land housing and mobility.
For more information on illegal settlements on the bases of International Law we recommend this report by Al-Haq, a Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation.
December 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
On Thursday the 30th of November, Mahmoud Ahmad Zaal Odeh, age 48, a Palestinian farmer from the village Qusra in the northern West bank was murdered by Israeli settlers from a nearby settlement. “Mahmoud was walking on his land when he noticed the settlers cutting down one of his trees. They were armed with guns,” a local Palestinian that spoke with Mahmoud only minutes before the attack says. “He ran towards them to stop them when they opened fire on him.“ Mahmoud died shortly after due to his immense wounds.
Soldiers from the Israeli forces run into the village in an attemt to arrest.
Later that same evening, soldiers from the Israeli military accompanied by settlers from nearby settlements entered the village. Clashes then escalated between the Israeli military forces and young Palestinian boys. The Israeli military fired tear gas at the entire village as a part of a larger collective punishment towards the village, injuring around 40 civilians.
Palestinian women looks for her son mids the group of soldiers from the Israeli military in Qusra
Among those injured was a 3 year old child, as well as the disabled and elderly, all of whom were unable to move quickly from the rounds of tear gas fired at some of the houses. Four Palestinians were also injured by live ammunition and 15 were shot with rubber coated steal bullets.
Teargas shot by the Israeli military affected the whole village.
The day after, soldiers from the Israeli military fired over 100 rounds of tear gas, set a field on fire and shot rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition inside Qusra during the Friday demonstration, which was held because of the murder of Mahmoud Odeh.
At noon on Friday, the 1st of December, around 300 Palestinians and a few internationals gathered in the olive groves where Odeh had been murdered only a day before. After a prayer the group walked towards Odeh’s fields.
Around 300 Palestinians prayed in the olive grove where Mahmoud had been murdered only a day before.
The soldiers shot a few rounds of tear gas and some rubber coated steel bullets while some young Palestinians threw stones. Around eight civilians were injured, including press, by the numerous rounds of tear gas fired at the group, waving Palestinian flags towards the hillside. “You could still see his blood on the ground. It’s so shameful that the Israeli military does nothing to investigate his death – it just shoots at the whole village,“ one ISM activist said.
Mahmoud’s blood was still on the ground after the attack only a day before.
Around 1:00 AM, clashes began at the entrance of the village, where the Israeli military with Border Police had situated themselves, armed with military trucks and weapons. The soldiers proceeded to fire rounds of tear gas at the crowd, and after a while ambushed the village with four military jeeps.
Soldiers from Israeli military fire teargas in the center of the village.
For the next four hours, the Israeli military forces fired rounds of teargas and rubber coated steel bullets at houses in the village, which resulted in over 20 people being injured by gas coming into their homes. On the 2nd of December, clashes continued in the village with the Israeli military forces firing around 15 rounds of teargas and shooting rubber coated steel bullets. When the army collectively punishes a village in such a way, it affects all of its residents.
Medics assist people injured by the massive amounts of teargas fired at everyone.
The picture might look beautiful, but the water badly smells of sewage water.
November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
The farmers in South Bruqin have had to face the difficulties living next to, and having land stolen by, the illegal settlement of Bruchin since 2000. The last eastern expansion of the settlement led not only to a new settler road cutting through the Palestinians olive grove, but also a river of sewage water running through the hills. The Abu Skandar Samara family has been farming the soil in Bruqin for generations. ISM activists met a few of the family members sharing the field, and were shown a story of sabotage, land theft, and violence.
A small stream of sewage water – one that, needless to say, carries an awful smell with it – begins at the fence for the settlement and runs down the hill, flooding multiple terraces beneath it. From the flattened grass on either side of the stream, it’s clear that the flow of the toxic water is sometimes higher, creating a wider stream. Obviously, it pollutes the soil for all of the surrounding trees, not just those in the stream’s immediate vicinity.
Abu Skandar and his son are digging canals to divert the water.
Since the illegal construction of the settlement houses, the road to Bruchin settlement has also been expanded. Abu Skandar told ISM activists how he went to sit in the path of the tractor when workers started uprooting his trees in order to make space for the new road. Soldiers escorted him away. “I will keep resisting, even if it means I die in the fields,” he said, pointing to one of the trees surrounded by sewage water. “I planted that with my parents in 1966. Even when Israel occupied the West Bank after the Six-Day War, we kept using our soil.”
Abu Skandar and his son are digging canals to divert the water.
Some of the flooded trees are just a few months old. When Mekorot water company built a pipe for the settlement, destroying Abu Skandar’s trees, a French organization called POI donated money specifically for new olive trees to plant. “These trees will die now,” Skandar sighed.
Abu Skandar, his sons, and his nephews have all raised the case of the sewage water to the District Coordination Office (DCO). Skandar also tried to raise a case about the road. However, the manager for Mekorot’s project told Skandar, “This will continue no matter what you think or do.” Skandar said that, of course, he doesn’t have the necessary resources to win such a case against a large corporation.
One of the young trees about to die.
When Israel began construction of the road in the beginning of January, the family and the DCO managed to delay construction for a month. As a result, Mekorot promised to clear the garbage and the big rocks left on the family’s land after the construction, but no action was ever taken. The road was built and the family had to move the rubble and the rocks themselves.
Trees are damaged where the new illegal settlement road is being built.
The Salfit industrial zone was illegally built in 2000, when a military camp was created where the illegal settlement Bruchin is located today. The industrial waste and pollution has since spread across much of the surrounding area. The pollution has attracted boars to the land, which has prevented the farmers from growing beans, grapes, or figs, leaving the olive trees as their only source of income. The village of Bruqin also has a disproportionately high rate of hospitalization in Palestine. Just a month ago, a 15 year old girl died of cancer.
The new, eastern section of the illegal Bruchin settlement.
The Samara families ISM activists met in South Bruqin hope they will get their land back. They will keep resisting and continue to say that nothing will keep them from tending their land. Every week, Abu Skandar transports clean water 4 km to his trees.
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.
29th June 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Tuesday the founders of the Tel Rumeida Garden next to the Gilbert checkpoint in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron) organised an Eid celebration for the children from the community.
Children in the Tel Rumeida garden
The event started at 9:30 am with a running game and about 60 children took part in the following games: competitions, who can fill up waterbuckets the fastest, rope pulling and a blue smurf showed up to entertain the kids and danced with them. While listening to music the children also used the footballfield in the garden to play a ballgame. Finally, presents were handed out by the organisers for every single child.
Blue smurf entertains the Tel Rumeida children
Because of the heat and the disappearing shade the event ended at noon, but there was water available for the children and the mothers all the time and also pizza and orange juice were served to ensure energy supply to all participants in the heat.
Children engaged in games
This event is a small respite for the children from Tel Rumeida, the majority of who live in an area that the Israeli forces have declared a ‘closed military zone’ since November 2015.
Who can fill up the bucket fastest? Team-building gamesChildren enjoying the shade during Eid celebration
