23rd June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Ad Dawa, Occupied Palestine
On the 19th of June, a group of settlers from the Illegal settlement of Itamar attacked a building that was being constructed for solar energy to provide electricity in the village of Ad Dawa, near Aqraba.
Residents of Ad Dawa around the demolished building (Photo by Ad Dawa municipality)
The building was being constructed without a roof to house the solar system, including the solar panels and the water pump to provide Ad Dawa with electricity and water. This is part of a project financed by a Spanish cooperation and the Energy Research Center at An Najah University.
The building, located in a valley with a small pond and over 100 trees on the land including figs, lemons, pomegranates and oranges, was completely smashed and demolished.
Settlers from Itamar settlement frequently attack the residents of Ad Dawa. They usually disguise themselves as soldiers and tell people to leave their own land, attacking farmers and trying to work Palestinian land. Thus, the five families living on the outskirts of the village, in this area, are subjected to continuous settler harassment, violence and land theft.
7th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Beit Furik, Occupied Palestine
by ISM Nablus
Fouzi, his bandages freshly changed for the day, holds a memento of the day he nearly was killed (photo: ISM)
Two olive farmers from the village of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, are recovering from head wounds in a near-lethal attack by colonial-settlers. Although both survived, they are in need of daily check-ups at a clinic in Nablus and are afraid to return to work on their land.
In the early afternoon of Monday 29th April, Fouzi Mousa Nasasra (65) and Abad al-Rahman Khatatba (50) went to put out fires started by settlers, from the nearby illegal settlement of Itamar, on their land just a brief walk away from their neighbouring homes. The fire service from Nablus also came to help put out the fire. Afterwards the pair took a rest on their land, which sits on a mountainside. Suddenly three settlers came at them in a surprise attack, with fifteen more in support. They hit them both in the head, with sharp farming tools and stones, repeatedly, causing them to collapse. Fortunately, other villagers saw what was happening and ran to help them, so settlers backed a retreat up the mountainside.
Both men needed hospital treatment for serious injuries to the head. Fouzi received 12 injuries to his head on 3 sides and Abad, 5 injuries to his head as he was able to put his hands up to protect himself. The fire, although it was put out, caused damage to approximately 300 olive trees.
When asked about the attack Fouzi spoke of how the settlers were laughing and ‘proud’ of what they were doing. He added that if there were no villagers about to see what happened he would be dead. He spoke of his concern of going back to his land, where he hasn’t returned even though it begins part-way along his road, after what happened and of past attacks in the last 12 years which have claimed two lives, 88 year-old Abu Odie and his own brother, 33 year-old Farrid Nasasra. Now Fouzi has to visit a clinic in the city of Nablus every day to change his dressings, as his wounds bleed all the time. Thankfully, he is expected to make a full recovery, scars aside, and should have the bandages and stitches completely removed in a month.
The attacks and killings are accompanied by the Israeli Occupation Forces forbidding Beit Furik’s farmers from harvesting olives on the mountain. This attack has been one of several in a recent upsurge in violence by settlers, particularly from Yitzar (in Burin, Huwwara, Urif and Asira), Esh Kodesh (in Jalud) and Elon Moreh (in Azmut), over the last week in the Nablus governorate district.
Abad and Fouzi’s land on the mountainside by their houses (photo: ISM)Fouzi’s bloodstained shirt, with further loss of blood he believes he would have died (photo: ISM)
19 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement
On Monday 17, September, six Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Itamar attacked three members of the Benijaber family, who were walking home to the Palestinian village of Aqraba from their olive groves.
Maher Hashem Mostafa Benijaber reported that he, his brother Omar and cousin Hafed were set upon by six men, three of whom were armed with semi-automatic rifles. The attack occurred just before 7 p.m., around 600 metres from their home. The settlers punched and kicked the three men, as well as beat them with rocks and sticks. They also tried to block the path back to the village so Maher and his family could not escape.
Omar managed to escape, calling neighbours for help. Meanwhile, the attack on Maher and Hafed continued. After the arrival of other residents, the Israeli attackers fled the scene. Maher then attempted to walk back to the village, but collapsed, lost consciousness, and had to be carried.
Maher Hashem Mostafa Benijaber in the hospital being treated for injuries after settlers attacked him on his way home.
Maher, Omar and Hafed all required medical treatment at the local clinic in Aqraba for the injuries they sustained during the beating, and Maher was hospitalized overnight in Nablus. All three men suffered injuries to their arms, head, back and legs, consistent with a sustained beating with sticks. When asked what he thought about the latest attack, Maher said, ‘if no-one had come to help, they would have killed me.’
The family contacted the Israeli army via the Palestinian Police and District Coordination Office to report the attack, however the army instead visited Yanoun village, which is also near Itamar settlement. Despite being informed that they had gone to the wrong village, they never attended the scene of the attack in Aqraba or spoke to Maher.
The attack on the Benijaber family is just the latest of many on the village of Aqraba. Four days previously, an elderly shepherd was attacked and forced to flee from his fields back to the village. The attacking settlers then stole some of his sheep. Such attacks on Palestinian villages are commonplace throughout the West Bank, and there is effectively impunity for settlers who carry them out. According to the Human Rights Watch 2012 report, “The Israeli government generally took no action against Israeli settlers who destroyed or damaged mosques, homes, olive trees, cars, and other Palestinian property, or physically assaulted Palestinians.” Illegal settlements such as Itamar continue to be encouraged to expand with the support of Israeli government and occupation forces.
9 April 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Israeli settlers attacked and chased a group of Palestinian farmers last Thursday, causing a tractor to flip over during the chase, causing the death of the Palestinian driver.
On Thursday, April 5th, armed settlers from the illegal Israeli colony of Itamar attacked a group of Palestinians en-masse. In haste and in fear for his life, twenty-eight year old Fadi Abu Zeitoun’s tractor tipped and crushed him as he fled from the pursuing settlers.
The villagers who own olive groves near Itamar rarely get “permission” from the Israeli District Coordination Office to access their own land. During the harvest season, they are permitted a few days, but in the spring when the land needs to be tended they have more difficulty acquiring permission. During this spring harvest, the villages of Hawarta, Yanoun, Aqraba, and Beita were told they had only four hours to access their land. The area to be tended is approximately 1000 dunums so the villagers collected forty tractors to work as much land as possible in the shortest possible time. Israeli activists from the movement Peace Now, and a group of international activists were present in solidarity. Prime Minister Salam Fayad joined them to make a statement re-affirming their right to utilize the stolen land that they were standing upon.
During the Prime-minister’s visit, Israeli authorities were positioned nearby and prevented the settlers from passing. However, shortly after Fayad left the area, Israeli soldiers permitted a mob of settlers to converge upon the Palestinian farmers tending to their land. They began by throwing stones, causing the group to separate and begin descending the hill. The settlers then proceeded to fire M-16 assault rifles in the direction of the unarmed farmers before releasing dogs. In the ensuing chaos, and as Fadi desperately attempted to escape, his tractor flipped over and fell on him, mortally wounding the young man.
Palestinians witnessing the incident ran back towards the scene to offer assistance. The settlers promptly dispersed as they rushed him down the hill to the road, unfortunately he was already dead.
Fadi is of the village of Beita . With a population of only 12,000, this death resonates among all the residents. As Fadi’s father-in-law, Isam Bani Shams says, “This is not our first martyr nor our last, we have been in this situation for sixty-four years. Our village has lost some seventy martyrs.”
On the same date, twenty-four years ago, two men from the village of Beita were also murdered by settlers from Itamar.
In the gathering following the funeral, Fadi’s father, Sleman Abu Zeitoun, sat with his head down. Beside him sat three other men who have had a son murdered by Israeli soldiers or settlers.
Fadi was newly married to nineteen year-old Fida’ Bani Shams who is left widowed and six months pregnant. Her brother was killed at the age of sixteen by Israeli soldiers during the second intifada, and as her father says, “She has lost a brother and a husband so what can I say of her emotions? She is in grief. She is exhausted.” Fida’ sat slouched in a corner of the room, her eyes closed and blankets covering her feet.
Fadi’s sister has had a nervous breakdown since the death of her brother. She does not recognize her husband or her daughters. Their mother, Mona Fihmeh says, “in terms of how I feel, I have patience, but my back has been broken from the burden.” Mona spent last night praying over her feverish body, and today she sent her daughter to the hospital. Her husband was on the way back from a funeral in Jordan when the accident occurred. He returned to Beita to find that his son had been killed.
Throughout the funeral, political talk arose about the various results of Israeli occupation and apartheid on Palestine. At first, the unemployment rate among Palestinians does not seem relevant to the death of Fadi Abu Zeitoun, but one soon realizes that Israel’s apartheid policies are to blame for both the impunity with which settlers are treated, and the numerous other negative consequences on livelihood.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory reported that over 90% of complaints regarding settler violence filed by Palestinians to the Israeli police in recent years have been closed without indictment. OCHA’s report on settler violence notes that “the root cause of the settler violence phenomenon is Israel’s decades-long policy of illegally facilitating the settling of its citizens inside occupied Palestinian territory. This activity has resulted in the progressive takeover of Palestinian land, resources and transportation routes and has created two separate systems of rights and privileges, favouring Israeli citizens at the expense of the over 2.5 million Palestinian residents of the West Bank. Recent official efforts to retroactively legalize settler takeover of privately-owned Palestinian land actively promotes a culture of impunity that contributes to continued violence.”
Declared one of the men at the funeral, “every time Israel builds a colony, we will build another Palestinian town; every time they erect a building, we will build a new building.”
“Our steadfastness protects our land,” another proclaims.
Rana H. is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
7 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The illegal settlement of Itamar, constructed illegally on the land of Aqraba, Awarta, and Beit Furik, has taken a provocative step of incitement in the village of Yanoun, from which Zionists have also stolen land. On 7 March 2o12 illegal settlers entered the village of Yanoun and rose the flag of Israel over the home of village elder Abu Muhmad al Ajoori, who resides in the lower part of the village. Another flag was suspended over a water reservoir in the upper part of the village. The settlers were then seen by locals, wandering off into the hills.
Yousef Deria, a local activist against the wall and settlements, said locals contacted him following the incident, avoiding any conflict with the settlers who tend to have violent tendencies against Palestinians through their declared “Price Tag Campaign” which violently targets Palestinian villagers.
Deria was accompanied by peace activists and locals as they removed these flags.
Residents of Yanoun have suffered many years of terrifying violence at the hands of Itamar settlers – the murder of villagers, slaughter of their livestock, desecration of crops, property destruction and daily invasions and intimidation by armed settlers. The increasing brutality climaxed in 2002, as settlers rampaged the village, cutting down over 1000 olive trees, killing dozens of sheep, beating Palestinians in their homes with rifle butts, and gouging out one man’s eye. Unable to stand the fear – and indeed reality – of terrorism any longer, the entire village evacuated at the time, mostly families fleeing to the nearby village of Aqraba.
An international and Israeli activist campaign was launched immediately to allow the residents of Yanoun to return to their lands. A permanent international presence was established in the village by EAPPI which has assisted in encouraging people of Yanoun to return home, and has remained instrumental in what little peace of mind the people of Yanoun have salvaged since they were uprooted from their land. One by one, they boldly returned.
Over the 2002-06 period the entirety of the village’s families eventually came back to their homes and attempted to start their life in the shadow of Itamar’s ever-increasing outposts that dot the hills surrounding the village. Approximately 100 people remain in the village – 40 in “lower Yanoun” in the valley, and 60 in “upper Yanoun”, whose houses ascend the hill to where just a few hundred meters away lie dozens of settlement houses and agricultural complexes.
Although the entire village is located in Area C – under full Israeli civilian and military control – and stands at risk of being slated for demolition, residents believe that the settlement’s – and Israeli government’s – strategy is what may already be underway – a gradual exodus of families and individuals as they are confined to an ever-shrinking amount of land, engulfed by the expanding settlement and its violent inhabitants.
There are some who remain though, who are determined to stay – many families steadfastly refusing to relinquish the connection to the land that is rightfully theirs. The very existence of Yanoun today bespeaks its fighting spirit, one that will hopefully continue despite the collective punishment waged on the village.
