Tag: Itamar Settlement

Ongoing harassment and restrictions on farmers around Nablus

12th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Burin, Salim, and Awarta, Occupied Palestine

Early spring marks an important time of the year for farmers around Nablus, where critical work must be done to ensure a quality olive harvest in October. In high tension regions, where farmers risk settler attacks while accessing their land, District Coordination Offices have negotiated to ensure specific days when Palestinians can access their land under the “supervision” of Israeli forces.

In Burin, farming has been severely restricted by harassment from the surrounding Yizhar and Bracha illegal settlements. Sunday 8th March was the first of only three days in which farmers of Burin were permitted to access their own land. On this day, farmers attempting to reach their olive trees found 75 cut down and the road blocked by large stones, placed by settlers from the nearby illegal settlements. The following day, 3 villagers on tractors were attacked by settlers who threw stones from the hilltops. Israeli forces declared the area a closed military zone and the Palestinians were forced to leave. This restriction remained in place for what would have been their final access day.

Burin road block — Settlers blocked the road to Burin’s farmland with a stone barrier – Photo by Palestinian farmer in Burin

Settler harassment is common in Burin, with tensions running high during this critical period which also coincides with the 40 days of mourning since the death of 19 year old Ahmad Al-Najar.

grafitti Burin — Hebrew graffiti reads “God is King” on a Burin house which has been abandoned due to its proximity to settlements

The story is similar in nearby Salim, where Palestinian farmers found 300 olive trees uprooted by Israeli forces. Furthermore, in nearby Azmut it has been reported that farmers’ bulldozers have been confiscated and 2 men arrested on the grounds that the area is now classified as an Israeli Nature Reserve.

On Tuesday, ISM volunteers accompanied farmers from Awarta village as they plowed the land around their olive groves. Trees in this valley are reported to be from Roman times, along the ancient route to Jordan.

olive tree awarta — Roman-era olive trees in Awarta village

Local residents explained that turning the soil increases crop quality, removing weeds and thus competition for water and nutrients. Military presence had been limited thus far, with little contact with settlers. In previous years, clashes have broken out with residents of the illegal settlement of Itamar, which has recently constructed an access road through the farming land.

Many farmers have only 3 weeks a year in total to access their land; up to a week for plowing and around two weeks for harvesting their entire crop. Access outside of these periods entails high risk of settler attacks and military force. Thus crops are left vulnerable to settlers, with many trees cut down, burnt, poisoned, or used as for grazing livestock, damaging soils and young trees. Restricted access also significantly diminishes the ability to establish new crops as water and nutrient requirements are far greater in this time. As a result, many farmers are choosing to leave their land and find other means of income.

olive trees + settlements Awarta — Olive groves in Awarta overlooked by illegal settlements

Israeli settlers sabotage the olive harvest in Awarta

23rd September 2014 | International Solidarity Movement | Awarta, Occupied Palestine

Awarta Olive Trees — Photo by Maan News Agency

On the 28th of August, around 7:00 a.m., Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Itamar cut down and burnt more than 30 olive trees belonging to Awarta village before the harvest.

For the farmers living southeast of Nablus City, the olive trees are a basic, continual part of life.

The large, illegal settlement of Itamar is built on the lands of Awarta, Yanoon, and Aqraba villages. The settlers there have a company of shepherds. They have stolen the northeast lands from Awarta, so now people cannot work in that area without permission, and then only for a few days during the harvest.

Every year before harvest, settlers burn and cut the trees until the farmers cannot collect their fruit. In this way, they want to make people give in and forget their land. And they do not stop there. During the harvest, they attack the farmers, and release pigs onto Palestinian land to destroy it. Then settlers attack in groups, throwing stones and burning the grass, and most of them pick out the remaining fruit before the DCO gives permission.

These are the policies Israel uses against the land and the farmers.

Settlers attack farmer, kill sheep in Aqraba

2nd August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Aqraba, Occupied Palestine

At 530pm on July 30^th three settlers from the illegal settlement of Itamar violently attacked a farmer from the village of Aqraba, south east of Nablus. Four farmers from the village had spent the day grazing their more than 500 sheep on land belonging to the village, near to the settler only road dividing Aqraba.

Ahmed Yousef Banijaber, one of the four farmers, was walking along a narrow dirt road with his sheep when he came face to face with three settlers in an outdoor utility vehicle. The settlers grabbed him and tried to pull him towards the vehicle at which point Ahmed pushed them away. One settler then brandished a gun and began to shoot at Ahmed as he took cover behind an olive tree.

Two of the settlers whom made the attack and the outdoor utility vehicle used to kill the sheep (Aqraba Municipality, March 2013)

The other three farmers nearby hearing the attack then ran to Ahmed’s aid. The settlers then attempted to drive away quickly from the scene and in doing so deliberately ran over some of Ahmed’s sheep, killing two and seriously injuring another.

The settlers had first driven towards the other three farmers but did not approach them and instead choose to attack Ahmed as he was on his own. The land where the attack took place and where the farmers regularly graze their sheep belongs to the village and is classed as Area B therefore under Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control. The settlers had no reason for being in this area.

The settlers that attacked Ahmed are well known to the villagers of Aqraba as they have attacked farmers on numerous occasions. When shown a photo of the settlers from the past spring Ahmed confirmed it was two of the settlers that had attacked them and said “they are the troublemakers”.

The Aqraba Municipality are making an official complaint to the Israeli Police against two of the settlers, though they remain skeptical that anything will come of this as settlers have impunity under Israeli law for crimes they commit against Palestinians. A 2012 report by Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din states that “less than nine percent of investigations of violent crimes committed by settlers against Palestinians ended in the filing of an indictment”.

Two weeks prior to this, three farmers from Aqraba were arrested by the Israeli army for working at night on land near the settlement. The farmers had been requested to work on the land by the Israeli owner and were doing so at night because of the heat and Ramadan. The Israeli army found this suspicious and arrested the three farmers and took them to the police station in the illegal settlement of Ariel. The farmers were released a few days later without charge.

Settlers from illegal colony of Itamar destroy 1,500 Palestinian olive trees

12th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Awarta, Occupied Palestine

On the morning of Thursday 11th July, villagers from Awarta found that 1,500 of their olive trees had been cut down over the last month by settlers from the illegal settlement of Itamar. When they attempted to highlight this crime with media coverage, the mayor and several journalists were detained for several hours by the Israeli military.

Tree cut down by a chainsaw in the last month by settlers from Itamar (Photo by Awarta Municipality)

Four villagers of Awarta, including the Mayor, went to visit their occupied farm lands, accompanied by soldiers on the 11th of July. They have been denied access to this land for years, and are required by the Israeli authorities to apply for permission because the land has been annexed by the nearby illegal settlement of Itamar.

A month previously the villagers of Awarta had applied to see their lands because they could hear chainsaw noises and were concerned for their olive trees. However, they were left waiting for eight hours as no soldiers had arrived and they were concerned that they would be arrested if they went to their own land without the military.

The liaison between Palestinians and the Israeli military, the District Coordination Office (DCO), called the mayor of Awarta at 11pm on Wednesday 10th, telling the villagers they would have to meet the soldiers at 5am the next day if they wanted to visit their land. This inconvenient time, especially as it is currently Ramadan, meant that only three farmers and the mayor could attend.

When they reached the occupied farm lands, which are owned by 22 families of Awarta, they found that around 1,500 of their olive trees had been destroyed by residents of the illegal Itamar settlement. From seeing the trees the farmers could tell by the dry stumps that this violent destruction had been going on for over a month, with the most recent trees being cut only in the past few days.

The Mayor returned a few hours after this visit, accompanied by journalists who planned to report on this illegal destruction of Palestinian olive trees. Whilst the Mayor was showing them around, all of them were detained by Israeli soldiers and held for over two hours at the nearby military base in Huwara. Even though the land is legally owned by the village of Awarta the army claimed they had overstayed their visiting permit and their presence there was illegal. For more details of the land annexation of Awarta see previous ISM report here.

Villagers of Awarta also have to deal with regular attacks during settler visits to a local tomb. The tomb site is used by Muslim residents of the village as it is disputed as to who is buried there. The settlers come in the night escorted by soldiers, destroying property as they go; most recently they targeted the school, tearing down the basketball hoops.

The soldiers also raid homes without notice, destroying belongings and frightening inhabitants; the latest, Saturday 6th July, resulted in the arrest of an 18 year old boy, Murad Khaled. His current whereabouts are unknown – he is still under arrest.

Some of the 1,500 trees cut down by settlers from Itamar (Photo by Awarta municipality)

Land confiscation continues in Awarta

24th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Awarta, Occupied Palestine

Map of land confiscation in Palestine. (Photo by ISM)

Awarta, a small village south east of Nablus, faces constant intimidation from the Israeli army and nearby Itamar settlement.

In the past month, the Israeli Civil Administration handed out two land confiscation orders to residents of Awarta. The first one, three weeks ago, stated that 360 dunums of the village’s land will be confiscated and the second one, issued last week, confiscated 63.4 more dunums. However, residents of Awarta affirm that the actual total amount of land confiscated raises up to 1,500 dunums.

As you can see on the map, the area confiscated is located around the settlement of Itamar, where farmers own hundreds of olive trees. While the confiscation orders are valid until 2015, farmers fear that Israeli authorities will renew them so the land and thus, all olive trees are now lost to Itamar settlement.

The past ten years farmers have only had permission to visit this land once or twice a year, despite the fact that they have documents stating their ownership of the land. Three weeks ago, the 22 farmers affected from the first land confiscation order went together to visit the land but were denied access, only getting within 2km of the land before being stopped by the Israeli army. The farmers were attempting to visit the land due to the recent destruction of 300 olive trees and concerns that the 600 dunums of land was being damaged by chemical pollution from the settlement.

The olive trees are the main source of income for the farmers but due to the threat of violence and the restriction of access from Israeli authorities they would never visit their land alone.

When asked what are they going to do now, Awarta’s major said: “We have two ways of resisting, one, by appealing the order in the Israeli court and the other, by staying on our land. This is our land and we will never leave”.

Israeli army and settlers regularly bar Palestinian access to land surrounding settlements, one of the first moves in achieving land confiscation and settlement expansion. A B’tselem report, Access Denied: Israeli measures to deny Palestinians access to land around settlements, comprehensive report (September, 2008) states: “Blocking Palestinian access to land adjacent to settlements is the direct result, and an integral part, of the illegal settlement enterprise. This enterprise continuously violates the absolute prohibition specified in international humanitarian law on settlements in occupied territory.”

Located close to the Huwara checkpoint and military base, the village is designated within Area B but the surrounding farm land is Area C and therefore under Israeli civil and security control.

The illegal settlement of Itamar, constructed in 1984, has taken 30,000 dunums from the nearby Palestinian villages of Awarta, Beit Furik, Rujeib and Yannun. Awarta’s land comprises a total area of 22,00 dunums. However, Itamar has taken 12,000, leaving the residents of Awarta with only 10,000 dunums, most of it located in area C. Israeli government recently approved a plan to build 675 new housing units in the settlement of Itamar, Of the 675 housing units, 137 are existing apartments that have now been retroactively approved.