Tag: Nablus

Over 100 Palestinians and international activists were attacked by Israeli soldiers with tear gas and sound bombs as they attempted to march to the evacuated Israeli settlement Homesh from the village of Burqa, near Nablus, on Friday 14th November.

The villagers and internationals intended to enter the settlement, which was evacuated by Israeli authorities in August 2005 as part of the so-called Israeli “disengagement plan”, in order to plant trees inside the grounds of the former settlements – lands which legally belong to Palestinian villagers. The tree-planting was to symbolise a reclamation of the land, which, though evacuated, has not been returned to its legal owners, and remains under Israeli military control.

Demonstrators carried placards that read: “We will not allow the nightmare of Homesh back again!”, referring the high-levels of violence enacted by settlers before Homesh was evacuated, and is continued by settlers who visit and attempt to re-occupy the land. This is exemplified by the recent burning of more than 500 olive trees by Israeli settlers at the beginning of this year’s olive harvest; as well as by attacks on shepherds and their livestock which continue despite the settlement’s evacuation.

The demonstration was prevented from reaching the evacuated settlement, however, by Israeli military and police, who immediately threw sound bombs and tear gas into the non-violent crowd, burning two people. After initially fleeing, the villagers returned to stand their ground, refusing to be further intimidated, despite constant threats from Israeli soldiers. Instead, they chanted: “They steal our water and we are thirsty” and “Settlements are the death of our land”, demanding an end to the settlements and the occupation which enables Israeli settlers to steal Palestinian land. Villagers were also demanding the removal of the military checkpoint near the entrance of the settlement, which denies Palestinians freedom of movement.

After speeches from representatives from a number of the surrounding villages who were participating in the demonstration, as well as the Nablus governorate office and various supporting organisations, the crowd began to disperse, at which point the Israeli soldiers again started to fire tear gas into the crowd.

Villagers were not deterred from their struggle by this use of violence by the Israeli army. One local youth remarked “We don’t have guns to fight the army, but we have big hearts for our land”.

Other villagers noted that it was particularly ironic that they were not allowed to enter the evacuated settlement, as it was alleged that an Israeli settler had entered the settlement the night before and erected a tent in which he had slept the night. Villagers claim he was still inside whilst the demonstration took place. Many Palestinian villagers from the region are concerned that the lands will be permanently re-occupied by settlers.

The villagers, however, are determined to continue their struggle, committing to regular demonstrations against the military occupation of their lands.

Three households were terrorised by Israeli soldiers in the village of Zawata on Friday night, 7th November.

At least twenty Israeli soldiers from the nearby military base at Shave Shomron stormed through the upper parts of the village on foot – throwing sound bombs and firing at family homes; surrounding houses and forcing families out into the night. Soldiers advised the invasion and terror tactics were a response to the discovery of a few small children burning a tyre on the nearby military road.

Soldiers entered the village at approximately 5pm, first surrounding the Attaallaa family home. “We were sitting here, with guests – my cousin, his wife and their three children – watching tv when the sound bombs went off; two at the front door and two at the back”, recounts Ahmad, a 23 year old English teacher. “They [Israeli soldiers] were pointing the laser sights of their guns through the windows. As you can imagine, everyone became frightened. The kids started crying”. The 20 people in the house were then all forced outside at gunpoint, with two of the soldiers pulling aside Ahmad’s elder brother, 32 year old Mohammad who wears a neck-brace due to a recent car crash. The soldiers started beating him, especially attempting to exacerbate his injury by punching him in the neck. The soldiers repeatedly asked Mohammad about “the terrorists”. “Who is the terrorist?”, asks Mohammad. “Who is coming here and making all the kids frightened? They keep talking about terrorism and they are the terrorists”.

After 30 minutes soldiers left the Attaallaa family, letting them back into their home, taking two of the spent sound bombs with them. “This is strange behaviour for them”, says Ahmad. “They don’t want the world to know about their violent behaviour”.

The soldiers then surrounded the nearby home of Azam Zarifi, where, after firing three bullets into the air, soldiers again threw sound bombs at the house, and stones at the front door, shouting and forcing the 10 family members out of the house. The commander of the unit then threatened that if children from the village go back to the military road, the soldiers would return to the Zarifi family home and beat the entire family, and smash the house.

The unit then moved on to the last house on the road, home to the elderly Ahmad Khawalid and his extended family of more than sixty people. There, soldiers shot at the three-storey house, further marking the front wall that is already covered in bullet holes from belligerent Israeli soldiers. The soldiers also threw sound bombs at the doors, and, without waiting for the doors to be opened, kicked them in, damaging them. Soldiers then entered the house, forcing all family members out into the cold night, including 9 month-old Mohammad, who was being bathed by his mother when the soldiers invaded. Regardless of his mother’s pleas, soldiers forced her to carry the baby soaking wet and without clothes out of the house, where they were kept for over an hour while soldiers searched the home.

Ahmad Khawalid was also threatened with return by the soldiers. The commander again threatened Ahmad that should children come near the military-only road again, the soldiers would come and attack his family, beating them and damaging their home.

The Khawalid family have suffered a great deal as a result of the military-only road, which was built on village land in 1997-8. Mohammad Khawalid, nephew of Ahmad, and shepherd, was murdered by Israeli soldiers when he was with his sheep near the road in 2002. He was just 25 years old. Israeli soldiers have also killed a horse and a donkey belonging to the family – shooting the animals as they were driving past the family’s fields that lie close to the road. During the second intifada, the family would suffer daily, as the area was “like a bottle for the Israeli soldiers and resistance fighters”, says Ahmad. Each day the soldiers would shoot at the windows of the house, forcing all of the family out of their home, searching for resistance fighters. “Now it is just when children from the village go up to the road and whistle at the soldiers” – something that happens monthly.

This kind of collective punishment is illegal under international law. As Ahmad Attaallaa recounted: “I said to him [the soldier], if someone sets fire to a tyre on the road, then deal with them. Don’t come to my house and bother my family, scaring them all, making the kids cry”.

For the second time in one week, Palestinian firefighters were called to put out a fire in Burin, a village south of Nablus. According to eyewitnesses, at approximately 3pm, on Thursday 6th November, Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Bracha, burnt Palestinian farmers’ olive trees and agricultural irrigation systems.

The attack took place in lands near to the notorious Huwarra checkpoint, highly visible to all those at the checkpoint. One resident of Burin commented “My friend called me from the checkpoint saying ‘come and see the settlers burning the lands'”. The fire was lit directly adjacent to the lands which were burnt exactly one week before – an attack in which settler youth, witnessed milling about the area during the blaze, were the only suspects.

A number of dounums of land were torched, including olive groves, orchards, and grasslands.

Burin has faced many arson attacks this olive season by settlers from the Bracha and Yizhar settlements. Ali Eid, the mayor of Burin estimates that over fifty percent of the village’s olive groves have been burnt by the settlers, greatly diminishing the yield of this year’s harvest. Other attacks on Burin farmers during this harvest include settlers throwing stones at farmers, with one requiring hospitalization; shooting into the air; as well as burning farmers’ equipment. In other areas, settlers have severely beaten farmers; smashed cars; and stolen olives before farmers can harvest.

These attacks have been increasing throughout the West Bank since the launch of the “Price Tag” or “Mutual Responsibility” settler campaign, designed to prevent any settlement eviction anywhere in the West Bank by wreaking havoc in areas surrounding every settlement. The main targets of this campaign are Palestinian farmers whose lands lie near to the illegal settlements, with the burning of Palestinian lands being advocated as a prime tactic.

This increase in the number of attacks and levels of intimidation taking place has led to some farmers in neighbouring villages feeling unable to harvest their olives at all, for fear of attack – even with the offer of accompaniment by international and Israeli activists. These attacks are enabled by an apartheid policing system that not only ignores Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and their lands; but also many times facilitates them through direct collusion between Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Many acres of land were burnt in the village of Burin on Thursday 30th October, in what appeared to be an arson attack by settlers from nearby Bracha settlement.

The attack came at approximately 2pm, when Palestinian farmers and international activists were harvesting olives nearby. The fire quickly spread along the edge of the road that leads to Bracha settlement – an Israeli-only road. Burin fire-fighters were quick to respond to the fire, but were held up when they were unable to enter the Israeli-only road without permission from Israeli authorities. Upon reaching the scene, firefighters were able to contain the blaze after approximately fifteen minutes, with assistance from farmers. Approximately 20 olive trees were damaged in the blaze, with many more trees saved only by the fact that the land was damp due recent rains.

Farmers suspect the arson was a direct response to their presence on their lands, with some suggesting it might have been an attempted scare-tactic. Several settler youth were visible on the scene as the fire was quenched, but denied any role in the blaze. Instead, Israeli authorities advised farmers that the youths had claimed it was the international activists who were assisting with the olive harvest who had started the fire. Clearly, these allegations were implausible even for Israeli authorities, who were seen afterwards questioning only the settler youth.

The lands around the illegal settlement of Bracha are scarred with black – testament to the countless fires previously torched. This tactic has been employed by settlers not just to deprive Palestinian farmers of their olives, almonds and other fruits – thus injuring them economically; but also to scare farmers from their lands, attempting to break the generational connections with the land, thus rendering the land easier to annex. For this reason many Palestinian farmers in Burin consider it vital to undertake the olive harvest each year; not just to collect whatever olives have not been burnt or stolen by settlers, but to also affirm their ownership of the lands.

This fire is but the most recent in attacks on the village of Burin from both Bracha and Yitzhar settlements. Ali Eid, the mayor of Burin, estimates that at least fifty percent of Burin’s olive trees have been burnt by rancourous settlers, with arson attacks occuring at least once a month.

On Friday 24 October settlers from the illegal outpost of Yitzhar erected 3 fence posts in what local Palestinian villagers suspect is an expansion of the settlement.

In direct contradiction with Israeli and international law, settlers appear to be expanding the illegal outpost bringing the barrier of the settlement within 200 metres of Palestinian homes in the village of Asira al Qibliya. Settlers continued work on the fencing the next day. Despite public declarations and obligations under the Annapolis negotiations, illegal settlements continue to expand in this manner with little or no action by the Israeli authorities.

Asira al Qibliya has been the victim of numerous terrorist attacks from the illegal outpost residents . Settlers attacked the village shooting and damaging property in early September in what the then Israeli Prime Minister described as a ‘pogrom’. However, to date no settlers have been arrested for the attacks and the Israeli army continues to regularly harrass and invade the Palestinian village and its residents.