Tag: Farmers - Page 6 - International Solidarity Movement

Farmers protest closure of gate blocking them from accessing their land

18th of December, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Tulkarm team | Deir al Ghsoon, occupied Palestine

Hundreds of farmers protested on the morning of the 18th of December against the closure of an agricultural gate, which led Israeli commanders to agree to reopen the way. In 2002, 3200 dunumns of farmland got cut of from the rest of the two Palestinian villages of Deir Al Ghsoon and Al Jarosheyyah by building of the Israeli apartheid wall. Ever since, farmers have to cross one, out of two, agricultural checkpoints in order to get to their lands. The process of getting through the checkpoint takes a lot of time and not all farmers manage to get a permission to cross.

Farmer Abdullah Ghaner arrives at 6 o’clock to the checkpoint every morning in order to be among the first half of the farmers to cross the checkpoint. The soldiers are supposed to open the gate at 7 o’clock, but farmers often complain that opening hours are unreliable.

“When, and even if, we get through is depending on the mood of the soldiers”, says Abdullah.

He and his family own 16 dunnams of land on the other side of the Apartheid wall. The farm has been property of the family for three generation, and Abdullah is hoping to pass it on to his daughter. “We are born farmers. By enclosing our land they are trying to demolish her heritage !”, he says.

This part of the wall doesn’t in-circuit any settlement or military base. The only thing between the wall and the green line is Palestinian farmland. “This piece of land has not been surrounded by the wall for security reason, they surrounded it in order to steal our land”, Abdullah explains.

Yesterday, soldiers told the farmers that they would close checkpoint 623, one of the agricultural checkpoint leading to the farmland. Closing the checkpoint would be devastating for Abdullah and the 300 farmers that are dependent on this checkpoint for making a living. “What can we do ? he asks. We are farmers, we can only shout. They are soldiers, they can shoot”.

It it is not even certain that the farmers affected by the closure will get permission to enter the other checkpoint. Even if they do, the lack of roads on the other side of the apartheid wall will force them to walk for hours in order to reach their lands. It would take Abdullah 1,5 hour of walking from the other checkpoint to reach his land. That means he would only be able to work for a few hours on his land before having to return back to the checkpoint, in order to get there before the soldiers close it.

Yesterday morning farmers and Palestinian activists together with politicians gathered to protest Thursday’s announcement to close the checkpoint. After demanding the checkpoint to remain open, and threatening to take this decision to court, Israeli commanders agreed to leave the checkpoint open. For the farmers, this is a small but important victory. But the future of the checkpoint is still uncertain and farmers will not be satisfied until the apartheid wall has been removed, and the farmers guaranteed unlimited access to their land.

In Gaza, Israeli Forces brutally stop farmers from working on land

November 27th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza team | Khuzaa, Gaza strip, Occupied Palestine

Soldiers observe farmers working on their fields

In Gaza, farmers should have started to plant wheat almost a month ago. However, in Khuzaa, a village close to Khan Younis, farmers who own land near the fence have not been able to start, as they don’t have the permission to access their land. They have been waiting for help from the Red Cross, who has a project to support farmers who need to work their land in that area. However, each time they contacted the Red Cross during the last weeks, they were told that the Israeli Forces didn’t allow them to work, and threatened to shoot any person aproaching the lands.

Two days ago, tired of waiting, they decided to go to their land and start planting. A few minutes after beginning to work, several jeeps and a tank approached the area. A group of soldiers came out of one of the jeeps and stayed hidden next to the fence. They shot several rounds of live ammunition, without injuring anyone, and insulted the farmers and the international human rights activists.

Jeeps and a tank intervened to stop the farmers

Soldiers were shooting live ammunition at the workers

Burin farmers once again prevented from picking their olives

1st November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwarra Team | Burin, occupied Palestine

Yesterday, the 31st of October, close to the end of this year’s annual olive harvest, another family of farmers in the village of Burin, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, were again prevented from picking their olives by the Israeli army and illegal Israeli settlers.

Israeli army arrives to farmers' land to stop their harvest — Israeli army arrives to farmers’ land to stop their harvest. Photo credit ISM

Israeli army and guard from illegal settlement of Yizthar come to farmers' land to stop them from work — Israeli soldiers and guard from illegal settlement of Yitzhar. Photo credit ISM

At approximately 9:30 am, 4 soldiers and 1 guard from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar arrived to the field while the Palestinian family was picking olives and announced that they had no permission to work that day (but stated they were allowed to do so the next day and the day after). On the contrary, the farmers, who also own the land, explained to the soldiers that they did have a permit which was issued by the city council but the soldiers ignored them. Two volunteers from ISM who were present in that moment asked the soldiers to show a document that stated the farmers were not allowed to work. The soldiers told the volunteers to go with them, but they refused. Instead, the volunteers and the family continued picking olives with one soldier standing watching them while the other 3 soldiers went to look for the document that supported their claims.

Soldier stands watching creating tension in farmers' work — Soldier stands watching creating tension in farmers’ work

Farmer stops working in presence of the army. Photo credit ISM

15 minutes later, the soldiers returned with a document written in Hebrew and showed it to them. The Palestinian family decided to leave. They picked up all their bags with olives and equipment and put everything into their tractor. A few minutes later, approximately 5 illegal Israeli settlers wearing masks arrived to the field, scaring the farmers and causing them to flee. The two ISM volunteers walked closer to the settlers to show their presence, but the soldiers demanded that they stand back. The ISM volunteers did not want to leave, but the settlers began throwing stones at them, forcing them to move back while trying to document. Once they left the field, the volunteers approached the soldiers and asked, “Why didn’t you do something about this?” The soldiers got into their car and closed the windows without saying anything. Everyone left the field.

Illegal settlers, oftentimes extremely violent, this time managed to terrify the family away from their farm. Photo credit ISM

Earlier in the morning of the same day, a bus full of volunteers who intended to support picking olives in another farm were prevented to do so by the Israeli army, despite the fact that this group had coordinated with the Palestinian village council which in turn coordinates with the corresponding Israeli office and therefore had permission to carry out this action. Read more about it here http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768578

A large group of volunteers arriving to another farm to support olive harvest. Photo credit ISM — A large group of volunteers arriving to another farm to support olive harvest is confronted by the Israeli army. Photo credit ISM

Army forces volunteers to get back into their bus and leave. Photo credit ISM — The army finally forces volunteers to get back into their bus and leave. Photo credit ISM

Al-Khalil (Hebron) settlers disrupt Palestinian family’s harvest

19th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | West Bank, occupied Palestine

Recently weakened by heart attack and subsequent surgery, Hashem made his way slowly down the hill from his home in the Tel Rumeida section of al-Khalil to meet with the group of internationals from whom he requested assistance in picking what was left of his harvest of olives after settler theft.

Though no such law exists, the internationals were disallowed to get through the simple stretch of two minutes walk to get to Hashem’s land. After taking a back way to the property, Hashem was seated, trying to catch his breath after pointlessly walking down the hill only to be yelled at smugly by the near dozen Israeli forces to leave.

Within twenty minutes of the harvest’s commencement for the two trees left bearing fruit after settlers picked the area clean in recent weeks, a settler armed with an m-16 machine gun descended into the olive groves from the settlement up against Hashem’s property and began approaching the family members and volunteers, taking close up photos of them. Two settler women shouted abuse at the harvesters from the yard and window of the settlement.

A settler woman laughs as she and two others harass Palestinian farmers and international monitors.

Israeli forces and Israeli police arrived on the scene and rather than interrogating the armed man who was visibly and audibly harassing the family and volunteers picking, they approached Hashem and ID checked him while one of the women continued to shout abuse unabated, “Why are you stealing our olives! Go back to Germany and pick olives!” An all-purpose attack against anyone questioning settler violence, harassment, theft and brutality is that you are, without question or reason, a Nazi and you should go back to Germany.

Israeli forces, rather than end the abuse and let Hashem’s family, already the constant recipient of vicious settler abuses, harvest in peace, the family and international monitors were asked to hurry up and finish the harvest so they could be on their way. This wasn’t a difficult request to grant as there were nearly no olives left to harvest after the theft.

Machine gun armed settler photographs a Palestinian woman as she tries to harvest on her land.

Hashem’s struggles with settler abuse during his harvest in just the latest in a string of torment against Palestinian farmers, many whose only income is wrought from the olive harvest. In Burin, masked settler terrorists set fires to Palestinian farmer’s trees and property, splitting open the head of a British foreign national monitoring the harvest from close range with a stone and smashing the windows of a Palestinian farmer’s car.

Israel, who is purportedly addressing security concerns, has done nothing to help the situation. They have managed to exacerbate the escalating situation by sending additional Israeli forces into al-Khalil and enacted bag and body search protocol for Palestinians passing by on Tel Rumeida streets on their way to school, work and home.

Settlers terrorize Palestinian farmers in Burin: burn trees and disrupt olive harvest

14th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Burin, occupied Palestine

A Palestinian farmer and English human rights defender have been hospitalized and at least 40 olive trees burnt following an attack by illegal Israeli settlers in the northern West Bank town of Burin today.

At 10am this morning, as ISM and other international volunteers accompanied olive farmers who have repeatedly been restricted from accessing their fields, gun shots were heard ringing out across the valley from the settlement above. Approximately thirty masked settlers from the illegal Yizhar settlement then descended the hill and started throwing stones at the group which had peacefully been picking olives for several hours. International human rights defender David Amos, a Quaker from London, was repeatedly attacked with rocks from three meters away, causing two head wounds and copious bleeding. The owner of the land, Abed Musaa, was hit in the front and back with stones and has been treated for lacerations and bruising. The attacking settlers also stole phones, a camera and a bag from the international human rights defenders.

The settlers were then witnessed setting four separate fires to grass on the edge of the olive groves which rapidly grew in dimensions, consuming olive trees and the grasslands between family plots. Two Israeli forces jeeps and two collaborating illegal settler vehicles drove into the valley, took photos of the scene, and then parked alongside each other on the road to Yizhar as more fires were lit by the masked settlers throughout the valley.

Israeli forces then scaled the valley and were witnessed saying to Palestinians, “yes you want peace, we want peace, they want peace,” referring to the settlers. Burin farmer and school teacher Doha and Samir were prohibited from continuing to pick olives on their land, being told they required a permit despite no legal provision to that effect, being within Area B zoning under the Oslo accords.

Palestinian firefighters were prohibited from accessing the fire for three hours, being told that a permit was required to utilize the road to the Yizhar settlement, which has been heavily restricted to Palestinian traffic in recent weeks. Palestinian civil workers, farmers, and international human rights defenders attempted to put out the blaze with sand, shovels, and olive branches but were unable to stop the spread of the fire amid 30 degree heat and rising winds.

Olives are a traditional produce of the Nablus district and constitute 25% of the West Bank’s economy (OCHA 2014). This critical October harvest season falls amid rising tensions in the West Bank, as Israeli forces increase their deployment of soldiers and use of violence in the occupied territories. The Yizhar settlement has also been implicated in the tragic death of 18 month old Ali Dawabsheh and his parents in the Palestinian village of Duma two months ago.