On the 25th August, Israeli Occupation Forces entered the village of Sarra to close a roadblock that had been previously opened. The Monday before, (20th August) international activists joined Palestinian villagers in removing a road block that turned a 5 minute journey to Nablus into half an hour. There was to be another demonstration the Friday after, but it was canceled because the local mayor said the DCO had told him they would open the roadblock permanently on Saturday.
The activists that were ready to join the demonstration were dubious over the generosity of the military and saw it as a potential tactic to avert the demonstration, and it turned out it was. The soldiers came on Saturday, forcing a Palestinian villager to use his tractor to close the roadblock. After the soldiers left, the man re-opened the roadblock. Then the soldiers came again, however this time at night. From one in the morning to 2:30am they entered homes and interrogated the inhabitants, occupied houses and kicked out the families inside, confiscated knives and CDs from houses, pushed people around and shot live ammunition into the doorways of shops and homes, as well as into the water tanks above the homes.
International Human Rights Workers went the day after to take pictures of the damage and speak to the people living there. The people spoken to were convinced that trusting the Israelis was no longer an option. They had shown their goodwill by canceling a demonstration at the suggestion the roadblocks would be opened and had been penalized for their good faith. They Israelis had shown that they were interested in only one thing, the continued harassment of Palestinians in the open air prisons their towns are becoming.
Many people now are ready to demonstrate non-violently this Friday, August 31, at 1:00pm, after the prayer. They are calling on all people who are interested in joining their struggle against injustice to join them on this day. People are talking about bringing signs and Palestinian flags, and as we are organizing people from all around the area we are limited only by our creativity.
For more information please contact Rose 054 224 9179
Olive Harvest 2007: You Are Needed More Than Ever! Photo by Asa Winstanley
Join Us in Palestine for the 2007 Olive Harvest Campaign! Palestinian farmers and agricultural organizations, in coordination with the International Solidarity Movement, the International Women’s Peace Service, and the Christian Peacemaker Team announce the 2007 Olive Harvest Campaign. The campaign will begin on October 16th, after the end of Ramadan, and will continue for six to eight weeks, depending on the size of the harvest. Photo by Asa Winstanley
The Israeli government continues to seize Palestinian land throughout the West Bank to expand settlements and build its illegal annexation barrier. As this goes on, Palestinian communities continue to resist Israel’s attempts to cement its control of the West Bank and imprison Palestinians behind walls and fences.
The Olive Harvest is an annual affirmation of Palestinians’ historical, spiritual and economic connection to their land, and a
rejection of Israeli efforts to seize it. Palestinians are the indigenous people of this land who have farmed olives here for
thousands of years. The annual harvest is a symbol of life for Palestinian communities.
Agricultural productivity over the last seven years has decreased dramatically because of closures and sieges, which prohibit access to farms and markets. Israel’s barrier and increased settler attacks on farmers and their families in the fields have further diminished Palestinians’ ability to earn a living. Over half a million olive and fruit trees have been destroyed since September 2000. Palestinian agriculture is being destroyed by the policies of the Israeli government and the rights of Palestinians to their land and to a livelihood are being denied.
International and Israeli volunteers join Palestinians each year to harvest olives, in spite of efforts by Israeli settlers, soldiers and bulldozers to destroy this vital piece of Palestinian life.
How It Works
The Olive Harvest Campaign provides a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Palestinian families in their olive groves and homes. The presence of internationals during harvest time has proven in the past to help limit and decrease the severity of attacks. Last year (2006) was the first year since the beginning of the intifada that a farmer was not murdered while trying to harvest his olives. One farmer was severely beaten, and in that instance, no internationals or Israelis were present. Your presence makes all the difference in reducing the levels of violence Palestinians experience while standing up for their
rights.
After a two-day training session, volunteers for the Olive Harvest Campaign will stay in Palestinian homes or international apartments in West Bank communities and accompany Palestinian families to their olive groves to serve as witnesses to document and expose attacks by settlers — supported by the Israeli Army — on farmers and their families.
In addition to olive harvest, volunteers will have the opportunity to join Palestinians in nonviolent protests throughout the West Bank against the construction of the annexation barrier, settlements and settlement roads.
This 2007 Olive Harvest Campaign is part of the ongoing work of the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led movement comprising of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists working to raise awareness about the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to the occupation. ISM uses nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge the Israeli persecution of Palestinians. With your help and participation, we will expose the injustice of the Israeli occupation and send a message to the world that the occupation must end and the wall must fall!
For more information on preparation, travel and arrival in Palestine, please see the ISM Palestine website, www.palsolidarity.org/main/join/. ISM support groups located around the world can help answer your questions about the movement and Olive Harvest Campaign. Many will provide training sessions. For information on how to contact local ISM
support groups worldwide, please also see the ISM website.
Despite the difficult situation in Palestine, your dedication and support have made the 2007 Summer Campaign a success (for some of the highlights of the campaign keep reading!) and have given hope and strength to Palestinian communities living under occupation. We are desperately in need of financial support to enable ISM to prepare for and function during the upcoming upcoming Olive Harvest Campaign.
In 2006, for the first time since the beginning of the current Palestinian uprising no Palestinian farmer was murdered by settlers while harvesting his olives. In addition to this, many farmers harvested land that they have not been able to access for many years due to settler and military harassment. This was made possible thanks to years of campaigning and the accompanying presence of international and Israeli activists with the farmers in the high risk areas. We need your help to repeat this achievement in 2007!
A few of the highlights of this year’s Freedom Summer 2007 Campaign have been:
In the Hebron region, ISM has maintained a presence in Tel Remeida for over a year now. As a result the level of violent attacks by settlers against the Palestinian population has decreased significantly. For the first time in many years Palestinian children in Tel Rumeida are playing in the streets and the Palestinian residents dare to walk their streets after dark. Following a court order forcing the military to allow Palestinians to inhabit a Palestinian owned house that has been coveted by settlers due to it’s is strategic location, a permanent presence of international, Israeli and Palestinian activists has been established there. This has allowed Issa Amro and his new wife to renovate and move into their home. ISM also accompanies shepherds in the south Hebron hills in communities that face the threat of expulsion from their lands.
In the Nablus region, Palestinians and ISM activists have planted trees on land coveted by settlers. They have removed road blocks, exposed and evicted sniper positions in the refugee camps, made human roadblocks blocking invading Israeli jeeps and helped prevent home demolitions.
In Bil’in, the popular committee with the support of ISM, have been holding nonviolent demonstrations for over two years. These demonstrations, in conjunction with a legal challenge, were pivotal in bringing about the bankruptcy of the Israeli Goliath settlement building real estate company Heftsiba.
We also regularly support and join other villages across the West Bank, such as Um Salamuna, Artas and Walaja, all of which have initiated non violent campaigns to try to fight the theft of their lands by the apartheid wall. We have also funded and participated in the rebuilding of communities demolished by the Israeli authorities.
For details of the above activities see report on www.palsolidarity.org
We need your support to continue our activities:
Checks of any amount may be made out to “ISM-USA” and sent to:
ISM-USA
PO Box 5073
Berkeley, CA 94705
If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation, please make your checks of $50 or more payable to ISM-USA’s fiscal sponsor: A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, (with “ISM-USA” on the memo line of the check), and send to the same address above.
You may also use your credit or debit card and use our PayPal account through https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/donations/
Donations sent through PayPal are not tax-deductible.
Or help to fundraise with one of our numerous support groups around the world.
With any option you choose, you can be assured that these funds are used to further the work of the International Solidarity Movement. We thank you for your continued support.
in solidarity,
Hisham Jam Jum and Abdel Karim Dalbah
ISM Palestine Financial Committee
Organization says State invests large sums in constructing highways for settlers in West Bank, while shortage in funds leaves infrastructure within Green Line lacking Efrat Weiss
Published:
08.26.07, 12:04 / Israel News
While the State of Israel invests millions in constructing roads in
the West Bank, it neglects infrastructure development within the
Green Line, thus contributing to the increase in road accidents in
the country, the Peace Now organization claimed Sunday.
According to a report compiled by the group, 33 kilometers of roads
are currently under construction in the area east of the separation
fence, with an investment of some NIS 315 million.
“The State spends at least NIS 50,000 for each settler’s vehicle, on
infrastructure and new roads. While people in Israel get killed on a
daily basis due to a shortage in funds for infrastructure, the
settlers get luxury roads,” said Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv
Oppenheimer.
The roads in question include a road that is designed to serve four
settlements with 483 vehicles and 2,570 residents; the cost of
construction stands at NIS 142.5 million. Another road would serve
the 762 residents of one settlement and cost NIS 35 million.
The group noted that following a series of horrific crashes on the
Arava highway recently, it was reported that the construction of a
barrier between the lanes was being delayed due to the high cost of
the project. Meanwhile, a similar separation barrier has been built
along a highway in the southern Mount Hebron area, but was later
dismantled after the High Court deemed it illegal. The cost of the
barrier’s construction and later dismantling stood at NIS 80 million.
The report further noted that according to the Central Bureau of
Statistics, the State has over the years invested much more in paving
roads in the West Bank than in Israel. In recent years, some 17% of
road construction took place in the West Bank, although the settler
population makes up only 3.5 of the Israeli population.
Shortly after 4 pm, local Palestinian residents alerted four international human rights workers to the illegal presence of Israeli settlers working on Palestinian land off the main highway between Susya and Karmel settlements.
Ownership of this land has been an on-going dispute between the legitimate Palestinian land-owners, who have filed complaints against the settlers for illegally planting grape vines and constructing fences trying to lay claim to the land, and the military and police-backed settlers themselves. The issue has been brought before Israeli court with the last date for a decision set for September 25th. The court will then decide who exactly the land will belong to, though the land can only legitimately be declared Palestinian, as they are the original landowners. The settlers have, at every point, made illegal claims to the land with backing, at alternate points, by the Israeli army, police, and slow-moving Israeli justice systems.
Israeli groups, including Ta’ayuush and ACRI, as well as international groups Operation Dove, Christian Peacemaker teams, and the International Solidarity Movement have had multiple interactions and disputes within the past few weeks with Israeli settlers, soldiers, and police over the ownership and legitimacy of this land.
The HRWs were told, en route to the land, that a court order had been passed on September 9th, which specifies that only one particular settler man, Musi Deutsch, is allowed to the work the land for one hour every day in order to maintain the health of the grapes and to water them. Any other persons working or entering the land are illegal, according to Israeli courts.
Upon arrival, HRWs witnessed two teenage settler males and one Thai worker, employed by the settlers, illegally working on the land. The Thai worker was tending the crops and upturning weeds, while the teenage settlers were erecting posts to finish the fence surrounding the cultivated area. The HRWs immediately began filming the settlers as they worked, and entered the land in order to ensure they got pictures of the workers’ faces. The HRWs also made sure to tell the settlers that their working on the land was illegal, and asked them if they were aware of the Israeli court decision recently passed forbidding them from entering the land. The settlers however ignored the internationals questions. One settler teenager was constantly on his phone, very likely calling other settlers, while HRWs alerted the local DCO to the settlers present.
At 4:59pm four Israeli soldiers arrived and told the HRWs to leave the land, but allowed the settlers to remain. The HRWs repeatedly told the soldiers of the recently passed Israeli court decision in order to be sure that the soldiers were aware that every second the settlers were working the land it was illegal for them to be doing so, and that they, the soldiers, were ignoring an Israeli court decision. The soldiers, however, said that they were not the judges of the decision but had to wait for the police.
During this time, roughly around 5:12pm, a car of three settler women, with two settler girls and one young boy arrived at the scene. Two international members of Operation Dove and one from Christian Peacemaker Teams also arrived. Shortly after the settler in question, Musi, also arrived and immediately began to work on the land, securing more fence posts, with the two settler boys. The soldiers did nothing to stop them from working, though by this time they were well aware that the settlers were committing an illegal act. Throughout the entire time, the Thai worker continued working on the land in plain view of the settlers.
In fact, during all this time the soldiers, instead of removing the settlers from the land, were instead harassing the HRWs, asking them to show them their IDs. Meanwhile three other soldiers, who had also just arrived, actually entered the land in question and began taking pictures of the internationals.
Shortly after, at approximately 5:20pm, another group of soldiers arrived with a commander who began showing the settlers the court document forbidding the settlers, except for Musi, from working the area and declaring it a closed military zone. The commander took the time afterwards to explain to the HRWs and other internationals the legality of the document, and also allowed them to take pictures of it.
The commander said repeatedly that Musi was the only person legally allowed to enter the land, and work on it, but when he was reminded of the Thai worker and two boys working on the land, in plain sight he said that he would remove them later, thus contradicting the legitimacy of the court decision. In fact, every second after the commander had presented the document rendered the Israeli army complicit in not upholding a legitimate Israeli court decision.
Although the commander was reminded that it was actually Palestinian land and it was internationally illegal for the settlers to stake any claim to the land and build a fence on and around it, the commander is quoted as saying “as a lawyer, [I say that] he can build a fence in order to maintain the grapes.” He would not admit that planting the grapes, and working the land, was the initial problem as the settlers should not be legally allowed to be there.
The soldier commander then asked the HRWs to move across the road so that he could “do his job” and remove the settlers from the land. The HRWs complied so as not to prolong the settlers’ working of the land, but continued to film.
After about twenty minutes the soldiers had still not removed all the settlers from the land. Instead, they had been talking with Musi the entire time, while the Thai worker was still on the land working. The soldier commander then crossed the road and began to speak with the HRWs telling them that they reason he was not removing the settlers was because of the internationals presence in the area and that the settler, Musi, refused to leave the land until the internationals had left.
The absurdity of this logic struck the internationals, who reminded the commander that the army should be giving orders to the settlers and not the other way around. They also reminded the soldiers that the land was a closed military zone and that they were obligated to remove the settlers.
The soldier commander said that he knew he was the army, and that it was a closed military zone, but that he preferred to remove the settlers peacefully rather than forcefully which is why he would rather comply to settler demands rather than do his job and remove the settlers. The HRWs reminded the soldiers that every second he did not remove the settlers he was breaking the law, and also refused to leave the area.
The soldier commander began to say that only the police could remove the settlers (that was also completely ridiculous) when, luckily, two Israeli policemen arrived, and began looking at the court documents, presented by the army commander, and speaking with the settlers.
The HRWs remained on the other side of the road while the police told the settlers they could not enter the land, or work on it, and also, finally, removed the Thai worker from the land. The time was by then 6:00 pm, two hours after the soldiers had first arrived, and one hour to forty five minutes after the IOF commander had arrived declaring it a closed military zone.
The Israeli policemen then began requesting the internationals passports. One HRW became aware that the Thai worker was still standing on the land, and told the policeman that he was there. The view of the Thai worker was obstructed by a settler van, and policeman would not go around the van to look. It took the HRW actually crossing the road himself and pointing at the Thai worker to make the policeman come and tell the Thai worker to leave the land.
None of the soldier or police complicity with illegal land practices of the settlers, including the theft, cultivation, and continued working of the land in question- Palestinian land- is new or surprising. What is surprising is that the soldiers and police continue to use the useless rationale to support their inadequate enforcement of Israeli court decisions. It truly takes internationals armed with a strong sense of conscience to make the Israeli police and soldiers comply in the slightest with the law when issues relate to Palestinians.
The Israeli court decision, set for September 24th, regarding the legitimacy of the land, and whether it will remain Palestinian land or go to the settlers, is an important decision as it could influence future court decisions in the region.
Photo by Asa Winstanley