Tag: Beit Ummar

Farmers in Saffa persist; access again denied

Palestine Solidarity Project

7 June 2009

Farmer from Safa
Farmer from Safa

This Saturday once again, international and Israeli activists joined farmers from the Saffa area of Beit Ommar on their land near the settlement of Bat Ayn. For the last two months, farmers have been forced to use Israeli and international accompaniment as they pick grape leaves and tend to their land in order to prevent attack from right-wing extremist settlers. The Israeli military has made it even more difficult by constantly ordering the entire area a closed military zone; an act that is supposed to be used temporarily but which this district commander has used to prevent farmers from accessing their land freely for 2 months, in violation of an Israeli supreme court order.

The military, for the second week in a row, selectively enforced the closed military zone against the farmers and solidarity activists while doing nothing to prevent the settlers from moving towards the farmers, screaming insults and rolling boulders down the hillside onto the Palestinian agricultural land.

The Israeli army prevents Palestinian farmers to harvest in the Settlers had also obviously been allowed access to land in the last week; several grape vines and fruit trees belonging to Palestinian farmers had been cut down and an area of the privately owned land had been burned.

The Israeli military forces and border police quickly forced one group of activists and farmers back into the village less than an hour after the group arrived in the area. Two other groups, accompanying Jabber and Hamad Soleiby, worked on the land for approximately 2 hours before border police arrived and ordered them out of the area, presenting a new closed military zone order covering the next seven days. The Israeli army prevents Palestinian farmers to harves in theWhen an Israeli activist approached the border police to remind them of their obligation under the Israeli Supreme Court order that they were required to allow access by the farmers to their agricultural land, he was arrested. Kobi Snitz, with Anarchists Against the Wall, was held for over 4 hours without an arrest report, in violation of the Israeli police’s own policies. He was then taken to the Qryat Arba police station where the police banned him from the Southern West Bank for 3 days. He was released that afternoon.

The farmers in Saffa, assisted by PSP and Ta’ayush, are collecting evidence of the violations of the Israeli military in ordering the area a closed military zone in perpetuity, and also of being complicit in settler attacks on farmers and solidarity activists in order to file legal complaints against the ongoing abuses.

Beit Ommar farmers continue to challenge closed military zones in order to reach their lands

Palestine Solidarity Project

Saturday, 16th May 2009

On the morning of the 16th, Palestinian farmers from Beit Ommar village with lands in Saffa close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Bet Ayn, defied a closed military zone order issued by the army in order to work their lands. At around 7am, about a dozen farmers and their families accompanied by a large group of Israeli and international solidarity activists, went to their fields in a valley just below Bet Ayn settlement. Farming in this valley is often dangerous, as the villagers face harassment from settlers and the Israeli military.

The farmers picked grape leaves and used tractors to work the fields for about three hours before settlers started to gather at the top of the hill screaming, “death to all arabs.” Within minutes, a jeep of Israeli soldiers and border police arrived and showed a paper declaring the lands a closed military zone. An Israeli solidarity activist countered the order by showing the commander a copy of a ruling from the Israeli high court that states that it is illegal for the army to repeatedly declare closed military zones and deny farmers access to their lands. The commander ignored the court paper and told the farmers and solidarity activists to leave the lands before returning to his jeep. However, the farmers continued to work their lands in the area for about another hour before finishing with their work without interference from the army.

Sunday, 17th May 2009

On the morning of the 17th, two elderly Palestinian farmers returned to the valley accompanied by four international solidarity activists. In an unusual occurrence, the farmers were able to pick grape leaves for several hours without any threats from settlers or the army even appearing to prevent them from working.

Monday, 18th May 2009

On the morning of the 18th, farmers from Saffa attempted to work their lands at the top of the hill overlooking the valley, closer to the illegal Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion. Shortly after the farmers arrived, three settlers appeared and began to walk towards the Palestinian villagers shouting threats and telling them to leave the area. Fearing for their safety, the farmers returned to the village. However, they returned to the same area in the evening at around 4pm. This time, the farmers went out in a large group with women and children and they were also accompanied by four international solidarity activists. After about an hour of working the lands, two Israeli soldiers came down the hill from the settlement and declared a closed military zone. Yet the soldiers lacked the military order that makes the closed area official. After farmers and internationals told the soldiers that the closed military zone was not legal, the soldiers retreated to the top of the hill and watched the farmers until they finished their work about an hour later.

Israeli forces prevent Beit Ommar farmers from working their lands

Palestine Solidarity Project

9th of May 2009

On Saturday, May 9th, farmers from Beit Ommar with lands in Saffa, close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Ayn, were prevented from working their fields after Israeli forces declared the area a closed military zone.  At around 9am, about six farmers and their families went to their lands accompanied by a dozen Israeli and international solidarity activists.  After they were only in the fields for about ten minutes, a jeep of Israeli border police arrived.  The police used a bullhorn to declare the lands a closed military zone and all of the farmers and solidarity activists were ordered to leave.

The farmers initially ignored the order and continued to work their lands.  Three more jeeps with soldiers and border police arrived, and the soldiers approached the farmers in the fields.  Israeli forces displayed an order from a military court that designated the lands off limits to their Palestinian owners.  The farmers then decided to leave their fields and return to the village.  As the farmers were leaving, several dozen Israeli settlers, most of them children, gathered at the top of the hill and repeatedly chanted, “death to all Arabs.”  One settler was heard shouting, “I will go get a basket for your head,” in an apparent threat against one of the farmers.

For the past month and a half, the Israeli military has repeatedly declared village farmland close to the settlement to be a closed military zone.  In addition to harassment from Israeli forces, the Palestinian farmers also face settler violence on these lands.  On the April 26th, two elderly Palestinian farmers from Beit Ommar were beaten by thirty masked settlers on the farmers’ agricultural fields close to the settlement.  Abdullah Soleiby, aged 80, sustained two hair-line fractures and received ten stitches to the top of his head after three settlers held him down and repeatedly smashed his head with stones.

Two Palestinians shot during settler riot in Saffa

Palestine Solidarity Project

2 May 2009

For three days in a row settlers from the right-wing extremist settlement Bet Ayn have entered the land of Khirbet Saffa, an area of Beit Ommar Municipality, shooting at Palestinian homes and damaging agricultural land. On Friday, May 1, approximately 20 settlers set fire to fruit trees belonging to residents of Saffa. Israeli soldiers arrived and chased the settlers away, but then prevented residents from accessing the land to put out the fire, which continued for hours. Soldiers used tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets on Palestinians who gathered in the area to defend the land.

On Saturday, May 2, at approximately 10:30am, settlers again entered privately-owned Palestinian land. They left shortly after, but later at approximately 4:30pm returned in a group of 30 individuals who came within 75 meters of Palestinian homes. Once again, they fired indiscriminately at homes and threw rocks through several windows. Israeli forces again arrived and the settlers quickly moved back, but Israeli forces, rather than escorting the settlers back to the settlement, as they do with farmers who attempt to access their land in the same area, the Israeli soldiers began shooting live ammunition in the streets. Two Palestinian men were shot, one in the upper thigh and one in the lower back. Both required surgery to extract the bullets. Another two Palestinians were treated by medics on the scene with injuries due to rubber-coated steel bullets. Israeli media later reported that 4 Israelis, two settlers and two off-duty Israeli soldiers had been arrested for instigating the riot.

On Sunday, May 3, a man and two women with agricultural land near the illegal settlement attempted to pick grape leaves, accompanied by international solidarity activists who were present to try to deter settler violence such as that which occurred last week. Israeli soldiers arrived soon after the Palestinians arrived, demanding that the entire group leave immediately. They eventually presented a map and order that the entire agricultural area near the Bet Ayn settlement is a closed military zone, and therefore not accessible to the Palestinian owners, for the next week. When farmers pointed out that settlers were being allowed daily to walk through those same land to approach Khirbet Saffa, the Israeli commander only repeated that if the group did not leave within 5 minutes everyone would be arrested.

Two elderly farmers attacked by Israeli settlers in the southern West Bank

Palestine Solidarity Project

26 April 2009

On April 26th at 1:15pm, Israeli settlers beat two elderly Palestinian farmers with stones and sticks while they were working their lands close to Bet Ayn settlement, located in the southern West Bank.  The attack occurred shortly after Israeli soldiers, having observed the two farmers, left the area.  They did not reappear even after the attack.

Both farmers are from the village of Beit Ommar, with lands in Saffa, close to the illegal Israeli settlement. Abdullah Soleiby, aged 80, sustained two hair-line fractures and received ten stitches to the top of his head after three settlers held him down and repeatedly smashed his head with stones.  His brother, Hamad Soleiby, aged 72, was also beaten though he managed to put his brother on the back of a donkey and take him to the village, where he was briefly treated before being transferred to the hospital in Hebron.

This is not the first time this family has been the victim of vicious attacks by settlers from Beit Ayn.  In 2006, Hamad’

s head was also fractured by masked settlers while farming in the same area.

The day before on April 25th, Beit Ommar farmers accompanied by international solidarity activists, were able to work lands close to the settlement in the same area.  The army and settlers left the farmers alone, though two carloads of Israeli activists were prevented from entering the village earlier that day to take part in the action.