Tag: Burin

Untrammeled settler violence spreads through Nablus region

International Solidarity Movement

16 April 2010

Israeli settlers have strengthened their campaign of colonization and violence in the Nablus region of the West Bank in recent weeks. A mosque was vandalized and three cars torched in a Israeli settler attack on Huwara village on April 14. In the neighboring village of Burin, attacks on Palestinian civilians and homes continue as six mobile homes have been established on Burin’s land, constituting a new settler outpost.

On Thursday, April 15, international solidarity activists visited Huwara, a village of 6,500 inhabitants, to express solidarity with the village after the mosque had been defaced by settlers early Wednesday morning. Huwara mayor, Samer Odeh, reported that five to six settlers descended on the village in the early morning hours and spray-painted graffiti on the eight-year-old mosque. They also set fire to three cars belonging to inhabitants of the northern region of the village that lies a short distance from Yitzhar settlement. The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) arrived and immediately closed off the entire area surrounding the mosque. They took pictures and then set to work painting over the graffiti – ostensibly to clean it up, but much more likely to cover up the act. The paint that was used was the wrong color and villagers came to clean the mosque as soon as the Army departed. Some of the graffiti remains and we were able to photograph it.

Another mosque in the village was defaced by settler colons in a similar way just two years ago. The mayor went on to note that the Israeli Army often comes into the village’s nursing school and harasses the women. The grade school, which is near the main road, also suffers such harassment – yet more examples of the extreme hubris of the Israeli Army which harasses and intimidates merely because it can.

From Huwara we traveled north to Burin to visit the head of Burin’s popular committee Bilal and his family and to hear about the incursion of the settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Bracha into the village. Bilal reported that two weeks ago approximately 20 settler colons entered the village at night, shooting and throwing stones into the windows of two homes. Shortly thereafter the Army arrived, echoing the settlers’ violence with further intimidation aimed at the people in Burin in an effort to silence their protest.

The settler colons from Bracha and Yitzhar are a constant problem and threat to the villagers of Burin – Bilal, himself, carries the scars of a beating by settler colons.

Four days ago, settler colons attempted to steal a horse belonging to a Burin farmer as he made his way down the slopes of the mountains that envelope the village, brandishing a weapon at villages as they came to rescue the frightened animal. Six months ago, settler colons set fire to the house that Bilal is building at the summit of a nearby hill. Since that incident, Bilal has set the house in concrete so as to avoid another arson attack, but that has not stopped the settler colons from spray-painting the home. Looking out over the surrounding hills one can see Bracha very clearly, where 20 new houses have recently been built, despite the alleged 10 month freeze on construction implemented by the Israeli government last year. Six new temporary mobile homes have been established on the peak adjacent to Bilal’s new home five weeks previously, constituting the establishment of a new outpost. Prior to this, settlers had set up tents on the hill, but have since upgraded the constructions to include walls and roves, as well as electricity and water supply.

The settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha, built on the lands of Huwara, Burin and the neighboring villages of Urif, Einabus, Iraq Burin, Madama and Asira al-Qabliya were originally established as Israeli military bases in the early 1980s. Despite their “de-militarization” and alleged transformation to civilian communities, their positions in the region retain strategic value to the Israeli military and significantly aid the continuing annexation of Palestinian land. Residents of the religious settlements have increased their campaign of violent colonization in the past two years, wrecking havoc on the indigenous Palestinian communities and aided by the conspiratorial forces of the Israeli military. Route 60, the main highway running north to south through the West Bank passes directly through Huwara village, constituting the constant threat of settler and military harassment. Burin, situated in a valley between the two settlements bears the brunt of their territorial zeal. Despite the settlements’ violation of international law, Yitzhar was earmarked for increased funding in Israel’s 2009 national priority map.

Military uses live ammunition on Burin demonstration

29 January 2010

Young boy from Burin plants Palestinian flags atop the threatened mosque

A demonstration against the Israeli order to halt construction of a nearly-completed mosque today, on threat of demolition, drew local, regional and international supporters in addition to attendance by the Palestinian Authority Minister of Religion. The demonstration was met with violent resistance by Israeli occupation forces, including the use of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and .22 ammunition. One local protester was removed from the area by ambulance when he was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The demonstration follows yesterday’s incursion, in which Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and a sound grenade at villagers as they attempted to plant olive trees on village land close to the nearby settlement of Yitzhar.

The order was issued three days ago to the village, declaring that the village must halt construction of the mosque, on consequence of demolition. Israeli officials claim that part of the mosque has been constructed on Area C, under full Israeli control in accordance the 1994 Oslo Accords zoning plan for the West Bank. Similar orders have been issued to 5 homes in the nearby village of Salim.

A newly draped poster of Yasser Arafat welcomed the people of the village Burin to their new mosque. The gathering is uncommon for the residents, an era of pacification entering the village in times of hardship and an ongoing campaign of settler and military intimidation. However, after receiving orders from the Israeli government to destroy their place of worship a groundswell of urgency for action fills their minds and attracts support from within the Palestinian Authority. The village’s collective anger reached its tipping point today. Their unified grievances exploded and were heard by their occupiers.

The expectant air hung heavy outside the mosque, which was then shattered at around 11:30 as a series of small explosions were heard coming from behind the school 150 meters away. The 100 villagers who were gathered for the demonstration hurried to investigate. Upon entering the schoolyard housing its soccer field, seven IDF soldiers and two jeeps were seen positioned at a crossroads less than half a kilometer south of the village. To the east, five settlers stalked one of Burin’s olive fields and vacated the area quickly on four-wheel all terrain vehicles. After coordinating with the IDF soldiers, the settlers returned to the Yitzhar settlement.

Israeli jeeps prior to the attack on protesters

Upon completion of mid-day prayer and a speech by the Palestinian Authority Minister of Religion, the villagers, waving Palestinian flags, marched to the crossroads seemingly to walk the olive fields where the settlers had been. As they neared the IDF soldiers they were met with low-flying tear gas grenades streaking one or two meters above their heads. Many villagers sought refuge in another olive field which flanked the road just to the west.

When it became apparent that the villagers intended to hold their ground amidst the tear gas the IDF soldiers began shooting rubber-coated steel bullets, and soon .22 caliber, live ammunition could be heard buzzing through the air and bouncing off the gravel on the ground. The villagers were able to maintain their positions on the road and in the field for another 20 minutes until, Sharif Haj, 22 year old resident of Burin, was struck in the right shoulder by a rubber-coated steel bullet and required assistance boarding an ambulance.

The military’s use of brute force is the second occasion in as many days in the village of Burin. January 28 saw an olive tree-planting initiative, authorized by the IDF and the Civil Administration and funded by “Green Palestine”, violently disrupted by the IDF. Soldiers approached the group of journalists and villagers, ordered them to disperse and attempted to confiscate all media equipment, claiming they were in a closed military zone. When the journalists refused to stop recording or turn over the cameras, the IDF accosted Rami Swidan, Ma’an News Agency photographer. Over a dozen tear gas rounds were fired into the group causing some of them to pass out. The journalists viewed the IDF’s action as an infringement on their ability to view and accurately document injustice. The villagers were outraged that they were unable to lawfully cultivate their land without the threat of forceful repression.

Settlers desecrate olive groves in Burin

7 January 2010

20 olive trees belonging to the Sufan family of Burin village were destroyed by settlers this morning. Burin, located in the northern West Bank, comes under frequent attack from the settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha enveloping the village.

Under the cover of dark, settlers entered the olive groves of the Sufan family home at around 3am and began chopping the trees. The attack is the third of its kind in the last two months, with the family losing 96 trees in November. The family’s home sits on the southern tip of the village towards the hill ascending to Yitzhar settlement, and bears the brunt of their violent neighbours’ attacks. It is the third attack of its kind in the last two months alone, with the family losing 96 of their olive trees in November directly after the harvest.

The Sufan family has experienced harassment from the settlement almost from the day of its construction in 1982, but the violence has peaked in the last three years, seeing settlers attempting to torch the home on several occasions, several rooms of which are still burnt and damaged. The family has been forced to equip every window in the house with strong wire fencing, in the hopes of protecting themselves when settlers descend on the property en masse, hurling stones at the house. Even the family’s livestock have come under attack.

Background:
Burin village is located in a valley directly between two mountains, colonised by two of the northern West Bank’s most extreme settlements – Yitzhar and Bracha. Burin’s 1000 residents have suffered greatly over the years, seeing destruction and arson of home and property, the slaughter of livestock and constant violence and intimidation at the hands of their neighbours. In addition to this, the village’s available farmland is under threat and continues to shrink, as Burin farmers abandon their lands, fearing the risk of harassment lest they be spotted by settlers and provoke an attack.

Yitzhar settlement is notorious for its fanatically ideological residents, the violence they inflict on neighboring Palestinian communities, and the extremist doctrines they espouse. Saturdays, the Jewish religious holiday of Shabbat, typically sees Yitzhar settlers roused to fever pitch zeal, wrecking havoc upon Palestinian villages unfortunate enough to live in its shadow. Settlers have frequently launched attacks with rocks, knives, guns and arson on Palestinian families and property in the area. In one of the most extreme act of terrorism students of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Hai yeshiva fired homemade rockets on Burin in 2008.

Not content with committing their own acts of brutality, Yitzhar rabbis are key players in incitement of targeted violence across the West Bank. Rabbi Elitzur from the same Yitzhar yeshiva published a book this November titled “The Handbook for the Killing of Gentiles”, condoning even the murder of non-Jewish babies, lest they grow to “be dangerous like their parents”. Rabbi Elitzur is vocal in his encouragement of “operations of reciprocal responsibility” such as the arson attack made on Yasuf mosque in November 2009.

Despite West Banks settlements’  status as illegal under international law, Yitzhar was included in the Israeli governments’ recent “national priority map” as one of the settlements earmarked for financial support. Construction has continued unabated in both Yitzhar and Bracha, despite the 10-month “freeze” announced in November. Yitzhar and Bracha also receives significant funding from American donations, tax-deductible under U.S. government tax breaks for ‘charitable’ institutions.

Brutality of settlers’ ‘price tag’ campaign erupts from notorious Yitzhar settlement

24 December 2009

Settler violence has erupted this week around Nablus, as outrage over the death of an Israeli settler triggers extremists’ “price-tag” campaign, its senseless violence directed once again at the hands of Yitzhar settlers on altogether unrelated, and repeated, Palestinian targets.

Ghalib Najar’s house sits on the southern tip of the beautiful, but long-suffering village of Burin. The family built their home in 1965, long before the arrival of settlers, their network of Apartheid roads or the Oslo zoning plans. Even when, in the early 1980s, the red-roofed houses of the (now infamous) settlements Yitzhar and Bracha began to dot the hillsides enveloping Burin, the Najar family still never expected what was to come.

In the years since, the family has come under repeated attack from their militant neighbours, their only crime to own land in the shadow of the mountain where Yitzhar settlement has now swollen and grown to 500 residents, living on thousands of dunums of what was formerly Burin and the neighbouring villages’ land.

Christmas Eve saw yet another attack on Najar’s family, including 8 children and 13 people in total. At 7pm 50 settlers, at least five armed with rifles, left their mountain stronghold and descended to Burin village. Surrounding the house, they began to shout and throw rocks at the windows, puncturing glass and terrifying the family. The noise alerted the village’s shabab (young men) to what was afoot, who then converged on the area in hopes of defending the village. The Israeli military arrived at 7:30, causing the settlers to disperse. At least one shot was fired by a settler as they escaped through the family’s olive groves, unimpeded by the army, towards the Yitzhar-bound, settler-only road lying some 50 metres from Najar’s home.

Four Israeli soldiers quickly entered Najar’s land, occupying the roof of the family’s home. Five military vehicles and an additional 10 soldiers remained positioned on the settler road, emergency sirens and lights blaring, but no attempt made to apprehend the assailants. Israeli soldiers atop the roof, denying any incursion had just taken place, attempted to prevent ISM activists from photographing the situation and threatened to apprehend the activists even as they interviewed Ghalib Najar and his family inside their home. The harassment came on the heels of lengthy questioning at nearby Huwara checkpoint, where soldiers had attempt to prevent activists from entering Burin, claiming that non-Arab people were not authorised to enter Palestinian villages. The military remained in the area for several hours, finally leaving the area around 10pm.

Yitzhar settlement is notorious for its fanatically ideological residents, the violence they inflict on neighbouring Palestinian communities, and the extremist doctrines they espouse. Saturdays, the Jewish religious holiday of Shabbat, typically sees Yitzhar settlers roused to fever pitch zeal, wrecking havoc upon Palestinian villages unfortunate enough to live in its shadow. Settlers have frequently launched attacks with rocks, knives, guns and arson on Palestinian families and property in the area. In one of the most extreme act of terrorism students of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Hai yeshiva fired homemade rockets on Burin in 2008.

Not content with committing their own acts of brutality, Yitzhar rabbis are key players in incitement of targeted violence across the West Bank. Rabbi Elitzur from the same Yitzhar yeshiva published a book this November titled “The Handbook for the Killing of Gentiles”, condoning even the murder of non-Jewish babies, lest they grow to “be dangerous like their parents”. Rabbi Elitzur is vocal in his encouragement of “operations of reciprocal responsibility” such as the arson attack made on Yasuf mosque three weeks ago.

Despite West Banks settlements’ status as illegal under international law, Yitzhar was included in the Israeli governments’ recent “national priority map” as one of the settlements earmarked for financial support. Yitzhar also receives significant funding from American donations, tax-deductible under U.S. government tax breaks for ‘charitable’ institutions.

Increased settler attacks on villages around Nablus followed by army invasions including the use of live ammunition

4 December 2009

Settler attacks have increased across the Nablus region this week, as residents of Yitzhar settlement target the villages of Burin and Asira al-Qabliya. Israeli Occupation Forces have aided and abetted settlers, terrorising the villages with the use of live ammunition, sound bombs and firing tear gas on Palestinian residents.

The homes of Ahmad Jamal and Ahmad Mohammad Saleh in Asira al-Qabliya sit a short distance from the Shalhevit Yam outpost of the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, notorious for the violent ideologies of its residents. At 8:30am this morning, December 4, approximately 50 settlers stormed the eastern edge of the village, swarming around the homes of the Jamal and Saleh families and hurling stones. Ten Israeli military jeeps arrived shortly thereafter, attacking the village already under siege from its violent ‘neighbours’. The jeeps entered the Asira al-Qabliya firing tear gas, sound bombs and live ammunition, the entire attack lasting 2 hours before the final jeep exited the village.

Residents speculate that the attack may have been ‘provoked’ by the presence of farmers in fields close to the settlement today. A severe and unrelenting problem for farmers unfortunate enough to own land close to Yitzhar, a task as simple as plowing or pruning becomes a test of one’s bravery and a potential risk for the entire village. For the Jamal and Saleh families, the fear is constant – for the homes they have built, situated on the edge of the village and dangerously close to the latest extension of Yitzhar. Since the Shalhevit Yam outpost began construction in 2001 the Palestinian families’ homes have come under attack countless times from settlers armed with stones and guns, going as far as vandalising the exterior of the houses. Windows are broken and spray-painted Stars of David emblazoned across the walls.

The story is familiar in the nearby village of Burin. The family of Abu Ayman’s home sits alone on the hill that ascends to Yitzhar, and has come under attack almost daily this past week. Settlers frequently attack en masse, hurling stones and terrorising the family, home to over 10 children, including a new baby. The Yitzhar ‘side’ of the valley that forms Burin’s land has seen over 200 olive trees cut down by settlers in the past two months, seriously damaging the economy of Burin farmers.

The ‘phenomenon’ of settlers taking the law in to their own hands has become normality, as the populations of Palestinian villages brace themselves for another outbreak of settler violence in response to the Israeli government’s latest luke-warm ‘concession’ to the Palestinians – a 10-month partial settlement freeze. Despite cabinet moves already being made to amend the freeze (effectively nullifying it), it has sparked outrage in settler communities across the West Bank – from public demonstrations to violent attacks, not only on Palestinians but Israeli inspectors attempting to supervise the halt to construction.