Category: Reports

Second settler arson attack on Madama in a week

3 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

On Thursday June 2 at about 1pm, the villagers of Madama were again victims of a settler arson attack on their land.

According to Samed Hamad, a 15 year old Palestinian who saw the incident, settlers from the nearby illegal settlement Yizhar, set fire to a crop Field on the mountain not far from the place they had attacked on Monday 30 May. Residents of the village went up to the blaze to put it out and it was then that a group of settlers accompanied by settler guards and Israeli soldiers attacked the Palestinians with stones. According to Samed, one of the soldiers later handed over his tear gas gun to a settler to fire at the villagers. The army entered the village from the “bridge” (a main road into the village) and from the settlement, thereby cornering the residents of Madama and trapping them.

Whilst the ISM was in Madama to report about the attack this afternoon, three Israeli jeeps entered the village again, throwing sound bombs and arresting 17 year old Hussein Othman Muhammad, seemingly at random. They tied his hands behind his back with a plastic strap and frog marched him blindfolded to the army jeeps where he was then forced to kneel down and eventually bundled into the back of one. When ISM talked to residents of the village later, they said that Hussein had been up on the mountain helping to put the fire out.

Today marks an increase in the settler campaign against Madama´s residents following an arson attack to wheat crops two days ago and a severe physical attack last week against 66 year old Hamad Jaber Qut which hospitalized him for 5 days.

Madama is a village with 2,000 inhabitants located in the south of Nablus, in the West Bank. According to its mayor, Ihab Tahsin Qut, since the construction of the illegal settlement of Yitzhar in 1985, many villagers have been attacked by the settlers and 1,000 dunams of land have already been confiscated from the village. Settler attacks on the farmers have severely effected the village’s agricultural trade in the past years.

Roof destroyed on farm property near Etzion settlement

2 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

On the morning of Wednesday May 18th, Mohammed, arrived at his farm to find the roof of his farm buildings had been removed and the materials taken away from the property during the night. The farm is situated directly between Etzion settlement and a military police base, South of Bethlehem. The farm has been in Mohammed’s family for generations. He and his brothers grow grapes on the land, and stay in the farm house at weekends and during the summer when the children don’t need to go to school. A significant part of the farm land has previously been confiscated and part of it is now prohibited from being planted as it is close to the base.

There have been previous attacks on the farm with fertilizer and dead dogs dropped into the water source. Following this incident the well needed to be cleaned out and the water replaced. The family have been to the courts and have been given 10 days to replace the roof, otherwise it is viewed by the authorities as a new build, for which the rules are highly restrictive. Work is underway.

Israeli gunboat fires on fishermen in Gazan waters

1 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

Ramadan Zidan, 51, and his son Mohamed, 20 set sail from the harbor in Gaza at seven in the morning, they didn’t plan to go far, only to fish outside of the harbor. For an hour and half everything went well, it was a beautiful morning and they still hoped to have a successful day of fishing. When the Israeli gunboat first started to approach them at eight thirty a.m. they thought nothing of it, they were close to the port, nowhere near the Israeli imposed three mile limit on Palestinian fisherman. Unexpectedly the gunboat started to shoot around their boat. The boat wasn’t hit, and the gunboat left the area, so the men went back to fishing. Then they saw the gunboat turn around and come at them again. It opened fire on the boat again; the front of their boat was hit several times with bullets. The gunboat then told the men that they were under arrest. Fearing that after confiscating the boat the Israeli’s would either damage the boat while it was in Ashdod, as routinely happens to the seized boats of Palestinian fisherman, or even worse refuse to return the boat, the fisherman started the engine and began to return to port. The gunboat shot the engine of the boat, but miraculously the engine didn’t stop working and the fisherman made it safely back to port despite the shell in the engine and the many bullet holes in their ship. They hope to return to fishing soon, they have no other way to support their families.

Settler arson attack on the village of Madama

01 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

On Monday 30 May at 4pm, the villagers of Madama reported that a fire had been started by seven to eight settlers in one of the village’s wheat fields. The field was close to the place where less than a week ago, Hamad Jaber Qut – a 66 year old shepherd, was attacked by 15 settler youths with knives and sticks whilst tending his sheep and getting ready for prayer.

Mohammed, a resident of Madama, witnessed the arson attack which came at the hands of settlers who reside in the illegal settlement, Yizhar which is 1.5km away on top of one of the hills overlooking the Palestinian village. Mohammed saw them throw petrol and light the wheat. On seeing the smoke, the residents of Madama called the fire brigade to put the fire out, by which time the settlers had retreated back into the settlement. The fire was put out in due course.

When the ISM went to see where the attack had taken place, a jeep of Israeli soldiers could be seen watching the area.

This arson attack follows a violent physical attack on Hamad Jaber Qut who has sustained serious injuries to his face including two black eyes, gashes to his head, and bruising to his abdomen and legs after being attacked by 15 settler youths. When asked by the ISM whether he would go back to the land, he replied; “This land is our land, the settlement is in an area they should not be. The settlers did not take into consideration that I was preparing to pray before I was attacked. They are animals. This will not make us feel afraid, we have the right and god will be with us. All the world should know that their [the settlers] existence is illegal.” When asked whether he will go back to the land to tend his sheep, he replied; “Yes, I will go back. They will not stop us going.”

Madama is a village with 2,000 inhabitants located in the south of Nablus, in the West Bank. According to its mayor, Lehab Tahsin Qut, since the construction of the illegal settlement of Yitzhar in 1985, 1,000 dunams of land has already been confiscated from the village.

Israeli forces destroy house and barn in the Bedouin village of Arab Abu Farda, south Qalqilya

1 June 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

The Qader family
At 8am on Monday May 30, eight Israeli jeeps and two bulldozers destroyed two Bedouin “barracks” (shacks) in the village of Arab Abu Farda, south of Qalqilya. One of the barracks belonged to Abdul Qader and was home to 12 people and the other housed cows which belonged to his neighbor. According to Abdul Qader, the Israeli army came without warning, gave the family no opportunity to take out their belongings, (not even anything for the children) and used unnecessary force and aggression with them.

Abdul Qader lives with his wife and his eight children, the eldest being 13 years old, the youngest being one year old, plus two female cousins. They are agricultural people, who work with sheep. The barrack had no running water and no electricity; the family used a motor for electricity and had to buy very expensive water tanks to enable them to have water for them and their animals. They have lived like this for many years. Qader´s wife told ISM that one of her children had asked her: “Why do we live like this, we have no electricity, no water, no school”. And she has always tried to find an answer for her children. Now she has no answer for them when they ask why they have no house. They were struggling to find a place to stay for the night and repeatedly said “Where are my children going to sleep tonight?”

The Qader family's home after demolition

Arab Abu Farda is a small Bedouin village with approximately 75 inhabitants in the south of Qalqilya, but it is located on the other side of the separation barrier, which makes it isolated from the West Bank.