Two Israeli solidarity activists arrested on Nakba commemoration day by the ISM Media Crew, 18 May 2007
On May 18 2007, a demonstration commemorating the Nakba (the “Catastrophe,” when Israel forcibly displaced three quarters of a million Palestinians from their homes, massacred civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages) took place in the village of Um Salamuna near Bethlehem. Around 100 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals gathered for prayers near the settlement road cutting the village off from its land. The army, border police and riot unit showed up with around eleven jeeps and 60 well-armed men. The aim of the demonstration was to cross the settler road and reach the village’s land in a show of peaceful defiance against the many years of occupation and oppression.
Following speeches from Palestinian villagers and members of the public, in which they detailed their wishes for peace and justice for their people, we all started walking the short distance to the gate between the village and the road.
Basha, a Palestinian demonstrator, said, “We were stopped almost immediately by the special riot unit, who pushed us back with much force. Two Israelis were arrested for “violating” the closed military zone order that had been imposed. Much violence ensued on the part of the riot unit.”
Two flying checkpoints were setup on the main road and the entrance of village stopping Palestinian vehicles and the residents of the nearby villages of Umm Salamuna to join their right to protest against the occupation and the thief of the their land. A group of Palestinians walked down the hill around the checkpoint to reach the demonstration.
The Palestinian leaders of the demonstration decided that we were to turn our backs on the soldiers and march along the route of the wall back to the village. A number of people spontaneously began to destroy the infrastructure of the wall, in order to make it more difficult for the Israeli authorities to complete their work. Once again, we were confronted by a line of many soldiers. A short and rather peaceful confrontation ensued and the demonstration was then ended by the Palestinian organizers.
One organizer of the event said, “the demonstration was a great success: we managed to get our message across. We were there to defy the Occupation and we did so.”
Palestinians will again be joined next Friday by Israeli and international solidarity activists.
Today I feel frustrated. I sat in a cute little apricot orchard in a village near Beit Lahem as the army watched us through binoculars from the hill, a menacing bulldozer in the background. They’re going to ‘doze this orchard to make way for sewage pipes from the Efrata settlement. New sections of Efrata are being built on the hill above the orchard. I was imagining all the problems that are going to happen once the settlers move in; villagers will need special permits to access their land. These permits will be difficult to obtain. Even if they do get permits, they will still be subject to the whims of the army who can either let them work the land or not, depending on their mood or the mood of the settlers controlling them. It will become like a hell, like so much of the west bank is already becoming. This has happened hundreds of times already.
this is the army
The only way to look at this is warfare. Land is stolen, no one in compensated. If some kid so much as throws a pebble in the direction of the invading army he’s going to get shot or arrested. People whose families have supported themselves for generations off this land are suddenly without a source of income and forced to rely on handouts from various NGOs since, as we know, foreign aid is no longer coming into Palestine because of the international boycott of the Hamas government. Does Ismail Haniyeh look like he’s starving yet ?
this is ismail haniyeh who is not worried about where his next meal is coming from
It’s starting to feel ineffective to sit around for a few hours here and there and block a bulldozer while the army is patiently waiting for you to get bored and leave, and they know you will. So we save an orchard for one more day. Maybe a few extra hours here and there.
But I do know something. There is absolutely no way to justify this in the name of security for Israelis. No way at all.
“Don’t S**T on our apricots!” by Martinez, 16 May 2007
Mohammad Abu Swai, who holds the deeds to this land, explains the situation in Artas village
Maybe it was because the word was spread, the call was headed, and 4 Israeli and 9 international solidarity activists joined Palestinians in the village of Artas today to resist the Israeli army’s demolition of a field of apricot trees in Jesus’ hometown of Bethlehem.
Photo of apricot tree, cut by Israeli forces, Photo: Jonas
Or maybe it was because it started to pour down rain, equipped with lightning and thunder, causing not only the army, but also the activists to take shelter in the nearby caves.
Israeli bulldozers ripping apart land for extension of Israeli settlement of Efrat, Photo: Jonas
Regardless, the Israeli bulldozers will be back tomorrow morning, and the Palestinians of Artas village are still seeking the help of solidarity activists to join them in resisting these abhorring actions on behalf of the Israeli army.
The illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat is in the distance. The army is destroying this field of apricot trees in order to pave the way for a new sewage system for the illegal colony. The day before we arrived, contractors and soldiers lined the trees and land with markers, reading “10 meteres, 40 meters, etc,” leading all the way up to 150 meters.
Israeli settlement of Efrat in distance, Photo: Jonas
Some of us talked about making T-shirts that say “Don’t shit on our apricots!”
Artas is a beautiful village, as are her apricot trees and her people. As Israeli bulldozers ripped away the hilltop in the distance to make way for military roads, settler roads, and a place for the militarily-funded Bedouin security personnel to sleep at night and guard the construction site, farmers from Artas whipped up some delicious tea and thanked us all for coming to resist the demolition of their fields.
But the rain came and pushed all the soldiers away. Villagers from Artas believe they will be back in the morning.
Bulldozers waiting to uproot Palestinian trees in the morning in Artas village by the ISM Media Crew, 15 May 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
15 May 2007
Artas Village, BETHLEHEM– At 10am tomorrow, Wednesday May 16, Israeli Occupation Forces will demolish a field of olive trees in the Palestinian village of Artas, according to residents of the village.
Hussam, from Artas, says, “The bulldozers are already waiting in the field in Artas to destroy our precious trees. It is a huge field of tress that the army will demolish. All of this in order to clear the way for a new sewage system for the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat. Soldiers came today and said they will destroy the trees tomorrow morning.”
Uprooting of trees in Bethlehem near the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat, March 2007, Photo from Bethlehem Bloggers
The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements has called on international and Israeli solidarity activists to support them and join in non-violent, direct action to stop the bulldozers from uprooting their trees.
The Israeli government has uprooted hundreds of thousands of trees. Many of these trees have been destroyed because they happened to fall in the path of Israel’s Apartheid Wall, or because they were “too close” to Israeli settlements, as is the case in Artas village.
Palestinians are expecting illegal Israeli settlers from Efrat and Israeli soldiers to intervene and halt the Popular Committee’s projected action.
For activists and press, there will be two meeting points for tomorrow’s action:
1. Palestinians will be joined by solidarity activists at 9:30am at the Palestinian Medical Relief Services offices in Bethlehem near the Deheishe Refugee Camp.
2. Those interested in joining the action may also meet at 9:15am at Bab Alzqaq in Bethlehem, (the last servees stop if coming from Ramallah).
For more information, please contact:
Samer, 0522-531-172
Hussam, 0599-674-996
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657
The Village of Husan Near Bethlehem by Cara Loverock, 14 May 2007
In the Palestinian village of Husan , Mahmoud, like so many farmers in the West Bank, faces daily challenges in having his land close to a settlement, which brings harassment, destruction and abuse with no help in sight.
Mahmoud lives in the village of Husan, near Bethlehem in the southeastern part of the West Bank, with his wife and six children; three girls and three boys. To make a living Mahmoud and his family work their land, which has become increasingly difficult over the years. The family’s property is located in an area adjacent to Husan village in what is now the Israeli settlement of Betar Illit. Mahmoud and his family have faced a great deal of hardship from settlers attempting to destroy their land, “Many people from there, from the settlement, come and cut the trees…They damage our wall, our stone wall.”
Recently settlers set fire to his land, not only causing damage, but now Mahmoud is being charged for having the fire extinguished, “This amount that they wanted from us in the beginning was 40,000 shekels,” explains Mahmoud. He says that after many appointments with officials they had it reduced, “We succeeded to limit this number from 40 to 14,000 shekels.” Although the fire was set by the Betar Illit settlers and put out by the Israeli fire authority, without asking, Mahmoud’s family is stuck with the bill. “Their sons do the fire and their fathers come to put it out and they want from us to pay for this”, he says.
He expresses frustration at the fact that he and his family are asked to pay for the harassment and abuse that has been inflicted on them without reason, other than the misfortune of having land close to a settlement. Betar Illit was built on land confiscated partly from Mahmoud’s family and partly from the village of Nahalin , a village very close to Husan and situated between three major Israeli settlements.
As Mahmoud takes a walk over his modest plot of land, he comes across a large pile of brush just on the other side of the fence, separating his land from Betar Illit. He explains that this pile of brush is something he sees often, as the settlers regularly use these materials when they set fire to his land, “They put many, many branches and put it there…They gather many, many things, wood, anything that will be burned and took it like you see it now…When they do the fires, this will be bigger than this many, many times. What you seen now. This will be many, many bigger than this, and when they burn the fire; the fire will go everywhere.”
The settlers don’t want the fire near their houses, but because of the fence that separates the settlement from Mahmoud’s property, they can’t get on his land this time. Asked how often fires happen, he explains that they are a fairly regular occurrence, “Nearly every four or five months…just in our place, in our field.” Upon the suggestion that something can be done to stop the destruction, Mahmoud answers simply, “No, we can’t.” He says that they are able to file complaints with the Israeli authorities, but recently he was informed that they threw out his file which documented the violations the settlers had committed against his family’s land, “It was exactly two days ago that they told us that this (folder) was closed and they don’t do anything.”
“They come all the time with the rubbish and put it on our field”, says Mahmoud. Looking around, it is very clear that the settlers have total disregard for the Arab family trying to make a living here. There is rubbish strewn about across the property; a tire, a rusted oven, a mattress, a stroller, among other garbage. He’s had to cut many of his trees in order to save them after they’ve been hacked up by settlers.
He points out a fence that has been clearly cut and put back together numerous times, says Mahmoud, “More than five times it’s been damaged and we return it back…They took it on the floor, and we return it back and use iron bars to make it more strong”. Not too far away there is another part of the fence that has been completely destroyed and is lying on the ground.
Looking at all the damage is clearly overwhelming, and Mahmoud tries to explain the frustration, “We haven’t enough strength I thought.” When asked about how it affects how much the land is able to produce, he seems annoyed at the obviousness of the answer, “Of course we get less. Of course,…You have to know something…if you know that nearly all of the trees cut are olive trees. Olive trees can make oil nearly in two years, one time. What I want to say is that we are making here work more than we must do, and this work doesn’t give us the bread we eat.”
As Mahmoud continues his walk through the trees, a group of young men are off in the distance, his nephews and cousins are hard at work, landscaping on this cloudy spring morning. In the area where they are working stands a large electrical tower. Mahmoud says it provides power to the settlement and that he and his family were not asked permission when it was built. “When they come, they don’t come walking…they come with bulldozers, with tractors”, he says.
Betar Illit was built in 1984, settlers have caused trouble on Mahmoud’s land from the beginning, he says, but it has been particularly hard in the last five or six years, due to the second Intifada. “You know, because of the Intifada, they don’t allow us to come in the fields all the time and when we want to enter,” says Mahmoud. He explains that during the Intifada, the Israeli authorities came down hard on security and did not allow Mahmoud onto his land very often, allowing the agriculture to be damaged, since he was not there to try and protect it.
“We do our work, just this. They are afraid because of the Intifada, they don’t allow for us to come when we want. And because of this, because we are not there, all the time the people come and do what they do.”
Directly in front of Mahmoud’s property, there is an area that looks like a construction zone, with bulldozers and garage type buildings. He says it used to belong to his cousin, but was confiscated because his cousin was ill and the land was not being used at the time. “Of course, we tried (to get it back) and all the time the answers were the land, like this, was not good like our land. They call it government land and they have to take it. Because our land is good with trees with stone walls, they can see that someone takes care of this, they know that this belongs to someone, because of this they didn’t take it,” says Mahmoud. Although, he explains that the Israeli government did initially try to purchase the property, “In the beginning they always tried to take it. They tried to take it…although we have the trees, we have everything and when we refused they tried. They said to us, if we want to sell our land. Of course we didn’t think about this at all.”
The family has a second plot of land not too far from the first area, but they are now unable to access it, explains Mahmoud, the small access road is now damaged to the point they can’t get through. “They damaged nearly all, especially in the last three, four years, because we can’t come here. They enter with a bulldozer and enter with rubbish and do a big stone wall there and do many rubbish like what you see”, he says.
Before leaving the area, Mahmoud puts down his three year old daughter and goes over to one of the trees that has not yet been damaged. He comes back with a handful of almonds and gives them to his daughter who smiles and laughs. Her demeanor is blissful, she is too young to understand the damage around her or the threat to her family’s land and her future.
