Nablus demonstrates against settler attacks

At 12pm on Friday 5th December, approximately 100 residents of Nablus came out to protest against the settler rampage that saw Palestinians attacked in their cars and homes throughout the West Bank, following the eviction of one settler-occupied house in Hebron.

Organised by the Nablus municipality, a coalition of political parties and a variety of Nablus-based associations, the demonstration took over the city centre, calling for Palestinians to take a stand against the onslaught of settler attacks. Speakers from various parties called for unity amongst Palestinians, from the West Bank to Gaza; from the camps to the villages, in the face of the inaction of the Israeli authorities to quell the rampage. As one speaker from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said “Now settlers and soldiers declare their true face about their feelings for Palestinian people”.

Speakers called for Palestinian leadership to cease all negotiations with Israel, and for all Palestinian political parties to stand together in this, ending the divisions in Palestinian politics. A number of speakers also spoke about the possibility of third Intifada against settlers, and against the Israeli occupation. This echoes statements made earlier by the mayor of Nablus, who stated for news agencies that “If the Israeli military do not succeed to stop the settlers’ violence, then we will call on the Palestinian residents to go out on the streets and fight back”.

The demonstration was a defiant refusal to be intimidated by this recent spate of attacks, no matter how brutal. As Dr. Najat Abu Baker, a Palestinian MP, stated “This is our land. We will stay and the settlers will be the ones to leave”.

House torched in the Old City of Hebron

A Palestinian family of the Old City of Hebron had the top floor of their home torched by a mob of settlers early Saturday morning.

In addition to the fire the violent settlers also attacked the lower floors of the home, completely ransacking and ruining the Al-‘Uweiwi family’s kitchen. During the attack Nidal Al-‘Uweiwi, his wife and his nine children were all forced to barricade themselves inside a small room of the house so as to not be attacked by the settlers.

Though a fire truck was able to reach the scene some time after the flames began, this was only after the family had been rescued from the home by Palestinian Authority police officers. Two of the officers and all of the family were taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

This attack comes with the long string of settler violence that has occurred in and around Hebron since the eviction of settlers from the illegally occupied Rajabi house on Thursday. It is likely that the settlers involved in the attack came from the nearby Abraham Avino settlement, whose occupants can easily access the roof of the Al-‘Uweiwi home despite an adjacent military watch base. The family reported to have seen settlers loitering around on the roof for some time before the attack and recognized one of the settlers as Miriam Levinger, an Israeli settler known for her particularly violent and hateful actions.

The Israeli authorities were informed of the attack, though since arriving at the house on Saturday morning have done little to find the attackers. The eleven members of the family are now left to repair the massive damages on their own.

Twelve people injured as Israeli forces attack Ni’lin prayer demonstration

Friday 5th December

Palestinian residents of Ni’lin gathered, together with Israeli and international activists, at 11.30am for the weekly demonstration held by the medical clinic close to the land due to be confiscated by Israel. Twelve people were injured during the demonstration.

Before the prayer ceremony was carried out, the Israeli army moved jeeps and many soldiers close to the site of the clinic. Once the prayer ceremony was over, heavy tear-gas kept the demonstrators from entering the fields. Protesters were kept from going further than approximately 30 meters from the village.

The army was very aggressive and shot a lot of teargas and rubber-coated steel-bullets, aiming directly at the non-violent protesters. They also fired at the houses closest to the fields, smashing peoples windows and scaring young children inside. The violence was such that one of the families had to evacuate their house.

Ten people needed medical treatment due to injuries by rubber-coated steel bullets, one of them shot in the head. Two ware treated after being hit by teargas-cannisters fired at them from close range. One of those injured by tear-gas was an international solidarity activist. The demonstration ended at 5pm.

In the West Bank village of Ni’lin, the resistance against the construction of a wall that will confiscate Palestinian land continues. The building of the Apartheid Wall will further assist in the deterioration of the lives of residents. The Wall will not only steal privately-owned land, but will ensure that Ni’lin residents will be more restricted in their movement, having to pass through a checkpoint to reach other villages.

IWPS: Settlers burn olive groves in Immatin

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At about 2 p.m. on Friday, December 5, 2008, farmers in Immatin, a village in Qalqiliya, noticed a fire had broken out in olive groves several kilometres south of the village. The farmers estimate that the fire spread over an area of 100-150 dunums (1 dunum = 1,000 square meters) before Palestinian firefighters were able to arrive and put it out.

An estimated 150 to 200 trees, manly olive but also a few almond and fig trees, were affected by the fire. While the almond and fig trees were destroyed, most of the olive trees are likely to survive. Farmers checking the damage to their groves surmised that the fire was likely to have been started in two places.

As there was widespread settler violence against Palestinians in the area as well as open calls for a week of “retaliations” after the eviction of extremist settlers from an occupied house in Hebron yesterday, farmers from Immatin believe the fire was set by settlers. They also report that settlers from the Immanu’el settlement and Havad Gilad outpost frequently come to the area on horses, and at about 4 p.m. today five settlers were spotted in the valley beside the groves, moving away from the area towards Immanu’el.

Demonstration against Homesh settlement: “These settlers have completely changed our landscape”

A group of 50 Palestinians from the village of Burqa in the North of Nablus, joined by solidarity activists and members of the press, held their weekly demonstration demanding the return of Palestinian land from the evacuated illegal Homesh settlement on Friday.

The demonstrators marched to farmland surrounding the settlement at 11:00 am Friday morning to replant olive trees on their forcibly neglected land. Over 5000 dunams of land in and surrounding the settlement are inaccessible to the Palestinian populations of the surrounding villages and the demonstrators on Friday were both physically and symbolically reclaiming this important and fertile farmland.

The Homesh settlement was abandoned in 2005 following the terms of the “disengagement” plan, though settlers have attempted to repopulate the land multiple times since and none of the land has been returned to its rightful Palestinian owners. Israeli authorities claim that the area, after the evacuation, is to be considered Area C according to the Oslo agreements, though the logic behind such a claim is clearly lacking. The goal of today’s demonstration was not to reach the settlement itself, though villagers reported having seen Israeli settlers on the abandoned land from the location of the manifestation, confirming worries that settlers were once again attempting to repopulate the land.

Today’s demonstration was instead focusing on the extreme loss of land around the settlement, dunams where Palestinians used to grow olives, apples, apricots and walnuts. After the evacuation many of the Burqa, Sebastiya, Beit Imreen, Talluza, Deir Sharaf and Silat adh Dhahr residents returned to their long neglected lands to replant, though much of their work has already been reversed when settlers have come to uproot and burn the newly planted trees. In addition many of the farmers’ storage areas and wells have been sabotaged or damaged by settlers. In April of this year settlers poured toxic chemicals into the water of the wells.

When assessing the barren farmland one Burqa resident, Abu Sami, lamented; “these settlers have completely changed our landscape”. The settler attacks have also targeted many of the Palestinian shepherds that have attempted to graze their sheep on the land surrounding Homesh, many have reported incidents when they were attacked by settlers and had their sheep shot.

In the years since the evacuation the residents of Burqa and other surrounding villages have received thousands of dollars from organizations like Oxfam Quebec to use, along with their own funds, to build up the land once again, though their attempts have been made futile with persistent abuse and incursion from illegal settlers. Many residents were already forced to leave the area when their livelihood was taken away with the destruction of their farmland and many more will probably be forced to follow if these settler reigns of terror continue. Along with settler violence the residents of Burqa suffer constant Israeli army evictions, invasions and harassment. For all of these reasons the Palestinians of the community have vowed to hold weekly demonstrations to prevent the nightmare of Homesh from plaguing their lives once again, proudly carrying signs proclaiming; “We will fight until we get our rights”.