24th October 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qalil, Occupied Palestine
Yesterday, Wednesday the 23rd October, a Palestinian farmer and his family were olive picking in Kafr Qalil together with international activists. Close to the fields is the illegal settlement of Bracha and one settler aggressively intimidated the farmer until he left the area. Later during the day the farmer was able to access the olive trees, but only with close Israeli army and border police surveillance.
At around 7am yesterday morning a farmer, his family and several international activists were trying to pick olives in an area very close to the settlement of Bracha. The land of the farmer is separated by a street that leads to the illegal settlement. Before the group was able to cross this road, one settler arrived in his vehicle. He was aggressive and as the farmer and his family had been attacked in the past, they decided to leave and pick in a safer area. The farmer, his family and the international activists later returned, no settlers arrived and they were monitored by Israeli forces. The Israeli army followed the group and stood on the street observing the olive harvest, though they did not disturb the olive picking any further.
Several years ago illegal settlers destroyed a great number of olive trees to build a garden for their illegal settlement. This year, as well as last year, the farmers in Kafr Qalil have to deal with settler attacks and harassment by the Israeli army and border police. Some of the olive trees close to the settlement were burned and were therefore carrying very few olives this year.
14th September 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qalil, Occupied West Bank
Photo of Bracha settlers taken after running for our lives (Photo by ISM)
Late Friday night we received a call to accompany a farmer to harvest almonds early the following morning in Kafr Qalil, a village south of Nablus. This is a completely normal activity, harvesting crops when they are ripe and ready-to-pick; however, in Palestine, simply trying to tend to one’s land can be a life-risking event.
At times, international activists and observers accompany Palestinian farmers whose lands are close to settlements and who are at great risk for attack. For some settlers, though a limited minority, international presence can act as a deterrent against violence. For the settlement of Bracha, widely known for its unfettered brutality against Palestinians, there seems to be little that can influence the scope and scale of their attacks.
As soon as we received the call, our team began to scramble a bit- rereading our fellow activists’ reports from a few weeks ago in which the same farmer and his family were violently assaulted by the settlers from Bracha, his almond harvest and donkey stolen. We discussed our plan should the settlers attack again and reassured ourselves that the majority would likely be in synagogue all day, as it was the holiday of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.
The following morning we arrived to Kafr Qalil around 6:30 to meet the farmer and international observers from EAPPI. After a few quick rounds of tea, we set off for the almond and olive groves in the south of the village. The farmer’s young son led our convoy, riding a donkey and carrying the tools and bags necessary for the harvest. As we walked and chatted about the general situation in the area, the farmer kept close watch over his son, calling him back anytime he rode too far in advance.
We walked the long, windy hills until we reached the groves where we split into two groups, two of us taking the higher hill and four, including the farmer and his son, taking the lower. As my partner climbed the highest hill to look for trees ready to pick, I waited down below, inspecting those badly damaged by fires set two months before by the settlers. The leaves crumbled in my hands to dust.
No more than five minutes later, in a flash of white, the settlers attacked. Without warning, around 15 men and teenage boys began running through the trees, shouting abuses and hurling massive stones toward the farmer, his son and the internationals present. As I called to my partner to warn him, the settlers also began charging toward me, also throwing stones and screaming. Needless to say, and not at all an overstatement, we all ran for our lives. From the corner of my eye, I managed to spot the farmer ahead of me, struggling to run quickly as he walks with a cane. His son and the donkey were even farther ahead. One of the international volunteers was hit in the back with a stone. The settlers continued chasing us through the trees until we reached an area closer to the village, out of breath, panicked and exhausted. Eventually, when they tired of shouting at us to leave, they settled under a tree, dashing any chance of returning to harvest.
Nearly 20 minutes after the assault, the farmer got in touch with the army commander of the area, who just happened to be sitting in a military jeep on the settler road below the olive grove. The commander insisted that we walk down the steep, rocky terrain to talk to him and explain the situation. After a brief discussion, one of the soldiers arrogantly declared that they “kicked the settlers’ asses back to the settlement,” (conveniently) well after the attack and botched harvest. They assured us that they would stay in the area so that the farmer would be able to work. An international volunteer asked where she could make a complaint about the assault, an inquiry which was met by some laughter from the soldiers who told her she was welcome to make a complaint at the Ariel police department (a futile journey, indeed).
Settlers shouting across the olive and almonds groves (Photo by ISM)
Slowly, we marched back up the hill, listening to the farmers advice to stay quiet and keep our eyes on the horizon, should the settlers return. Unsurprisingly, the army remained quite far away, seemingly unconcerned about the potential for another assault. As we sat under the tree to make a new plan, the farmer told us about all the attacks before, the stolen equipment and donkeys, the many fires that had burned most of the trees that surrounded us. It was hard to understand how a man could remain so calm and kind after a mob of religious nationalist extremists attacked him and his family yet another time.
It felt like a failed day, as not even a single almond was picked. Only the farmer managed to keep a positive attitude. He said that the almonds that we would have harvested are not the most important thing. He came to show both the settlers and the army that this is his land, just as it belonged to his father and his grandfather before him. This is his land and he will continue to plant it and to harvest his crops. This is his land and no violence by the settlers, no violence supported by the army, will ever drive him away.
I feel really uncertain as to what would have happened if the settlers had managed to catch any of us, particularly the farmer and his son. I keep going over the event in my mind, trying to piece together an attack that happened so quickly, but was so extreme in its violence and intensity. In the end, I feel sure that if we ran a bit slower, if the farmer or his son had been caught, the day would have ended quite differently, with someone badly hurt or even killed. It is not uncommon here in Palestine, where farming one’s land must be considered a brave and courageous act.
22 May 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qalil, Occupied Palestine
The Israeli army invaded seven family homes in the village of Kafr Qalil, south of Nablus, between 1am and 2am on 20th May. They trashed the properties and people’s possessions and stayed in them for several hours apiece. Lastly, they arrested a university student, Saleh al-Amer, 22.
Saleh al-Amer had thought administartive detention was done with and he could look to his future
Instead of just ringing the bell, they obliterated the homes’ heavy metal doors, creating fear and manifesting uncertainty for the innocent residents. They were given no reason for the destruction of their property despite repeatedly asking for one. Nader Soloman, one of those who had his home invaded, having his 2 and 4 year-old daughters terrified in the process, even spoke in Hebrew but answers were still refused. The army ransacked their homes, ordered the adults and children about, broke their furnishings and emptied cupboards of clothes, throwing them on the floor to then continually walk all over them. The army remained in the homes for 4 to 5 hours.
At 2am the army changed tact and knocked on the door of the al-Amer family house, home to eleven people. The army didn’t enter the house and asked the family’s father who the sons of the household were. He said the two names and the officer requested Saleh, was then placed under arrest and taken to Huwwara military base for a few hours, before being moved to Salem prison on the Green Line for another couple of hours. At which point he was able to contact his lawyer and tell him of his whereabouts before being transferred to Megiddo prison in Israel.
The younger children are now traumatized by the event, crying when they see images of the army on the TV, while other family members are unable to sleep. Saleh’s younger sister explained to the activists who came to speak with the family that Saleh had done nothing wrong; “my brother is the most lovely person, we can’t live without my brother. He needs to come back to his house, to his family, his village, study”. Saleh had just finished his first-year university exams and was happy about the changes to the family home to accommodate him and his soon-to-be wife. Saleh studied hard and also worked to bring money into the home, he enjoyed sport and caring for and playing with the younger children.
Saleh was arrested two years previously and held in administrative detention for five months, only seeing his family once, when they were in court. At that time the army officer during his arrest told him he was being arrested so that he wouldn’t be able to go back to university.
Administrative detention is the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial by administrative rather than judicial procedure. International law, as set out in the Fourth Geneva Convention, allows for it only in very extreme cases of ensuring security and even then grants the right for those interned to be held within the occupied territory with support to be given to their family and dependents. They are also due greater privileges than ordinary prisoners. The Israeli government has claimed that administrative detention is not an arbitrary form of internment, in part, because detention orders are subject to review. However they can be renewed indefinitely every six months, leaving prisoners and their loved ones with no countdown to their release.
The front doors of one house look as if they were broken with more than human strength (photo: ISM)
Huge metal chunks flew off the door and its frame into the corridor (photo: ISM)
The door will be replaced, a sense of safety is harder to come by (photo: ISM)
12th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Nablus, Occupied Palestine
Team Nablus
Mother of arrested siblings Tahrir and SaddamAt 1:30 am on May 12, Israeli soldiers arrested a brother and sister from Kufr Qalil without charge and ransacked their home, terrorizing their family and leaving them with no information about the siblings’ imprisonment.
Israeli soldiers arrived at the residence of Abu Mahyoub Mansour in Kufr Qalil in south Nablus as at least five army jeeps surrounded the family home and eighteen soldiers entered looking for his daughter Tahrir, 29 and son Saddam, 27. All thirteen occupants in the house, including two small children, were woken and made to walk downstairs into one room, among them the youngest daughter, 19, who is severely disabled with cerebral palsy. She cannot walk and had to be woken up and carried down, crying in fear.
The children were scared and crying when soldiers put eye covers on them with slots for the eyes and then repeatedly screamed at them to be quiet. The noise of the raid woke up all the neighbours though no one dared to look out as more soldiers remained outside pointing their guns at windows.
Tahrir, who works as a seamstress during the day, was at home and taken into a separate room where she was searched and interrogated. After interrogation, her eyes were covered as she was taken into the other room where her sister asked her what they had said to her. Tahrir had laughed as they attempted to scare her and the commander said, “Don’t laugh because we we will give your family reason to be sad and cry about you and you will never see your family again.”
Saddam, married and father of two small children, was not at home as he works night shifts. His father was ordered to call him and ask Saddam to wait near a specific spot in Kufr Qalil. Abu Mahyoub and Tahrir were then driven by the army to locate Saddam. Saddam’s hawwiya (Palestinian ID) was taken and he was interrogated before being arrested and taken to the the house, eyes covered and hands bound.
The ransacked home of arrested siblings Tahrir and SaddamThis is the second arrest for Saddam, who was arrested previously with his sister Samoud in 2005 when they went up near the illegal Bracha settlement to look for their brother Mahyoub on the day he was killed by Israeli forces. Subsequently Saddam spent two years in prison and Samoud spent four and half years.
On return to the house, Abu Mahyoub saw all the soldiers were outside and that inside the house had been taken apart, searched and ransacked. Wardrobes were emptied onto the floor, cupboards broken and a toilet seat had been ripped off. A computer hard drive, laptop, camera memory sticks, mobile phones and municipality gifts for prisoners’ families were taken.
The army was there until the first call to morning prayer at about 4 am. The officers did not state a reason for the two arrests and gave no information on where the young brother and sister were being taken. The family still has no information about their whereabouts; meanwhile, Mawahib, Saddam’s 4-year-old daughter, believes her father is away at work.
Residents say that army jeeps often enter Kufr Qalil, making arrests randomly and whenever they want. Relatives of the two arrested in Kufr Qalil have a 42-year-old son who has been imprisoned for six years, a father of two sons, one 12 years old and the other 6 years old, who was still unborn when his father was arrested. The six-year-old met his father for the first time yesterday, May 12. The father, Shahir Mansour, is also said to need some medical attention which he is lacking in prison.
18 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Tuesday, a family in Kufr Qalil cancelled all olive harvest because of the death of a family member.
While the people in the household were at the cemetery to attend the funeral, settlers from the adjacent Berakha settlement took the opportunity to visit the household’s farmland. A shepherd witnessed how the settlers stole the furniture, equipment and tools (including a chain saw) that were used by the farmers during the olive harvest.
The farmer family in Kafr Qalil has been harassed by settlers earlier. Five years ago, settlers cut down all almond trees in the yard.
The olive harvest is traditionally a joyful time in Palestine, and the oil produced from the olives is the main income for many families. Israeli occupation has however had huge impact on this practice. Many farmers nowadays have to seek special permission from Israeli authorities to harvest their trees.
Harassment by settlers and ignorance from the Israeli military make the harvest time uncertain and stressful.
Kufr Qalil mourns as Zionists steal - Click here for more images
