Settlers attack two young boys in Susiya

On the morning of the 7th October at around 6 o’clock the shepherds from the Susiya area were out grazing their sheep as they do every morning. Two young boys had entered a part of their land that has been declared by Israel to be a closed military zone for the last four months.

Five settlers came towards them with covered faces and threw stones at the sheep and the boys. Both the children and the sheep fled down towards the valley. One of the boys lost his shoes but kept on running. Near where the boys were is a Israeli military tent. The soldiers reached the Palestinians and the settlers, and ordered the Palestinians to leave the area. They were asked about what their response to the settler violence would be, but this was never answered.

A large area around Susiya settlement has in recent years become a closed military zone. The official reason for the military order is that there are doubts about to whom the land belongs even though the Palestinians have papers from the Ottoman period that proves their ownership.

The military orders in theory function as a buffer zone were it is forbidden for both settlers and Palestinians to enter, but the soldiers only use the order to kick the Palestinian out of their land. The area around Susiya is very dry and the settlers have stolen the most fertile areas, forcing the Palestinians to take the risk and challenge the military orders so as to feed their sheep.

Israeli army not upholding High Court decision in Susiya

Wednesday afternoon the shepherds from the Qawawis area were out grazing their sheep. Around 4 o’clock two shots were fired from the Susiya settlement at the Palestinians. Luckily nobody was hurt. The police and army were contacted, but it took them more than half an hour to show up even though the army base is 5 minutes away. When they finally arrived, their main focus was the legality of the international’s presence, not the actual shooting incident and no investigation was made at the settlement.

There have been many settler assaults against the Palestinians in Susiya. It is next to road 317, close to settler greenhouses and in front of the Susiya settlement. The land is divided into three military zones, the upper part of the hill is classified as a Closed Military Zone , supposedly applying to all civilians, with the more flat part of the area that borders to the road is military zone A and B where only Palestinians are allowedd to enter. There is a part in between the A and B zone, which the settler Moshe Dutch stole one year ago and where he grow grapes, and now the settlers are the only ones who are allowed to enter.

The 24th of September the High Court in Jerusalem discussed the situation of this particular land. Rabbis for Human Rights had brought the case to court because of the many violent settler attacks and because the army regularly orders the Palestinians to leave the land against their own declared military zone arrangement. The High Court decided that the next following 40 days the military and the police have to prove that they do allow the Palestinians to enter their land and that they protect them against settler attacks.

Since the Jerusalem Court decision the army has ordered the Palestinians to leave the land and the settlers have harassed the Palestinian and their sheep inside the land were only Palestinians are allowed.

Israeli forces attack Ni’lin olive harvest

On Friday morning 10th October, residents of Ni’lin village went out to harvest olives on their land, supported by about 100 Israelis and international activists, and also accompanied by media crews.


Video by Israel Putermam


Photos courtesy of Activestills

The proposed route of the wall cuts deeply into this land, and will cut villagers off from a whole valley full of olive trees belonging to the village of Ni’lin. Ten people were injured, two of them children, as the Israeli army violently tried to prevent the activists and farmers from reaching their land. Two Palestinian ambulances were also shot at with tear gas.

As people approached the planned route of the wall, soldiers appeared firing sound bombs and tear gas without warning, to prevent anyone from getting to the olive trees beyond this point. Sound bombs and tear gas were thrown very close to people who were standing peacefully and sitting down. Tear gas was then fired from a gun aimed directly at activists who had gone up to the front of the group, and also at farmers who had begun their harvest in an area further away. Three Israelis protesting peacefully were forcibly dragged away and detained. One Palestinian man, Omar Salfi, was injured when the tear gas caused him to fall out of a tree.

The the farmers and activists were pushed back, but after Israeli activists had negotiated for some time with the army, they were allowed access to the olive trees between the planned route of the wall and the Israeli settlement on the top of the next hill.

The village of Ni’lin has been badly affected by the attempt to construct part of the wall there, which would cut off many local farmers from their land if built. Peaceful demonstrations against the construction of the wall by residents and activists take place in Ni’lin regularly.


Dozens of volunteers injured while picking olives in Bil’in

Report from the Bil’in Committee Against the Apartheid Wall

Friday 10th of October 2008

After the Friday prayer, the residents of Bil’in gathered in protest along with Israeli and international activists. The French Farmers Union Northern France joined the protest to pick olives. The protesters carried Palestinian flags and banners calling to allow the Palestinian farmers to pick olives from their land. The protesters called also for a popular struggle to remove the wall, stop the confiscation of land, remove the checkpoints and free all the Palestinian detainees.

On the other side, the Palestinian Popular Struggle Party brought 100 volunteers to help the farmers of the village in picking the olives. They started the voluntary work in the early morning in the fields with the farmers.

The demonstrators chanted against the discriminatory policies of the occupation and called for national unity among the Palestinians, while they carried ladders and tools to pick olives. When the protest reached the gate, protesters tried to access the land to pick olives, but they were stopped by sound grenades and teargas canisters. Dozens suffered inhalation and around 14 volunteers were shot with rubber coated bullets when the IOF attacked the weekly protest. Most of the injuries were from the Popular Struggle Party known among them: Sameeh Fawzy, Baker Suliemnan Baker and Naseem Aljabaritie was sent to Alshiesk Zayed hospital in Ramallah city. The other injuireds are Azzmi Alnabali, Omar Saleh, Basem Ibraheem, Kamal Aljhaj, Mohammad Sadeq, Mohammad Abo Rumi, Samer Awwajneh, Khamees Abo Rahmah, Adeeb Abo Rahmad and Abdullah Abo Rahmeh the coordinator of Bilin popular committee.

The political board of the US consulate, along with a human rights worker from the United States visited the village of Bil’in a few days ago. The National Committee against the Wall gave a presentation to the group about the illegal construction of the Wall, the chemical weapons that the army uses against demonstrators and the unwillingness of the Israeli military to implement the Israeli court decision to remove the Wall. The group was denied entry the confiscated land behind the wall by the Israeli soldiers.

A delegation from Bil’in popular committee, international volunteers and Israeli peace activists visited the village of Nilin and helped the farmers there in picking olives.

Two Palestinian farmers injured as Yitzhar settlers attack olive harvest near Huwwara, Nablus

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians farmers near Huwwara on Saturday 11th October.

More than 25 settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar descended upon Palestinian farmers while the farmers were undertaking their annual olive harvest. The settlers were armed with machine guns, and one fired a single shot in the air before they began to hurl rocks at the Palestinian farmers, injuring two. One of the injured, Mustafa Najah from Burin, was hit in the head and taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. He is thought to have sustained eye injuries.

The attack continued for ten minutes before Israeli soldiers arrived on the scene. The soldiers, however, instead of removing the settlers from the land, started to fire into the air, insisting that the Palestinian farmers cease their harvesting and leave the lands. Farmers report that the soldiers and settlers then walked around the groves together, telling farmers to leave their own lands. The farmers were forced from their lands for over an hour, before eventually being allowed back to continue their harvest.

Settlers continued to maintain a menacing presence on the hilltop overlooking the olive groves throughout the afternoon, kept at bay only by the presence of the Israeli army, who, after their initial rampage, took on the protective duties by which they are legally bound. The farmers were also joined by Israeli and international activists, who will continue to maintain a presence with the farmers until their harvest is complete.

The farmers, however, expressed concern about the well-being of their olive trees overnight, after arriving at their lands to find more than 15 olive trees had been cut down by settlers in the preceding days. Lying in the shadow of Yizhar, the olive groves had been unattended by farmers since ploughing was done in May, as this area is considered extremely dangerous.

Settlers from Yizhar regularly terrorise the surrounding villages: burning lands; attacking houses; shooting at Palestinian villagers; and stealing livestock and farming equipment. They have destroyed more than fifty percent of the surrounding olive groves, and, according to the municipality of Huwwara, throw stones at Palestinian cars on a daily basis. “No stones, no trees, no people are safe from them.”