On the morning of October 25th, two Palestinian farmers from Burin arrived in their fields to harvest olives only to discover their farming equipment and one olive tree burnt by settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Bracha.
A total of 10 buckets, 7 tarps, 3 ladders, and one olive tree were burnt by 9 settlers – 3 women and 6 males. The settlers were still present and 4 were armed as Palestinian farmers boldly continued their work, first alone, then accompanied by international activists. The Israeli settlers kept a presence on a nearby hilltop overlooking the farmers throughout the day. Palestinian farmers have been subject to intimidation, property damage and physical attacks during the annual olive harvest season when trying to harvest their crops.
Burin, a village just outside of Nablus, is sandwiched between the illegal Israeli settlements of Bracha and Yitzhar and has suffered numerous terrorist attacks from the nearby residents of the settlements. Activists also witnessed the presence of a further tent construction, expanding the scope of the settlement further, illegal under both Israeli and International law.
On Monday 20 October farmers in Azmut were subject to a fourth day running of intimidation and intrusion onto their land as they harvested their olives near the illegal settlement of Elon Moreh.
At 15:00 international activists and farmers from the village of Azmut to the east of Nablus city witnessed 3 settlers patrol in their olive groves just 100 metres north of where they were harvesting their olive trees.
This is the fourth consecutive day settlers from the illegal settlement of Elon Moreh have attacked and intimidated residents of the village of Azmut. In a campaign of terror settlers have so far forced farmers from their land, damaged a vehicle and violently attacked a elderly farmer and his family.
Palestinian Presidant Mahmoud Abbas has already stated this year’s olive harvest as a ‘dangerous escalation’ in violence from settlers that has seen 429 incidents in the first half of 2008, against 551 in all of 2007. The harvest in the Nablus region has already seen attacks in the villages of Burin, Deir Hatab, Tell, Huwwara, Kafr Qallil and Awarta. As the occupying force the Israeli army are obliged to provide protection to Palestinians, however in reality the army are at best slow to respond to reported attacks and, as seen in Asira al Qibliya recently, complicit and active in supporting terror attacks from settlers against Palestinians.
Palestinian farmers in Kufr Qaddum were stoned by settlers as they attempted to enter their lands on Sunday 19th October, and found olives and equipment stolen.
A group of 9 male youths, known widely as “hilltop youths”, from the illegal Israeli settlement of Qedumim, harassed and threw stones at farmers and international activists, yelling “This land is ours!” To the accompanying activists, one called threateningly, “You in the blue shirt – be careful!”. The youths, who have built a Sukkah (an outdoor temporary dwelling used during the holiday of Sukkot) on the hill of the lands belonging to villagers from Kufr Qaddum, menacingly approached the farmers and activists, unhindered by the Israeli soldiers who merely stood by, doing nothing.
The owner of the land, the mayor of Kufr Qaddum, Mohammad Abu Nimah, called to the soldiers as he first entered his lands, demanding that they keep the youth under control. The soldiers ignored this, and it was not until Abu Nimah phoned the Isreali District Coordination Office (DCO) and higher-ranking officers arrived, that the soldiers at the site began to reign in the boys.
When the unit commander was questioned as to why the soldiers at the site had failed to respond to the attack, he simply shrugged. When pressed on the issue, he would only stare at his boots. The soldiers who were stationed at the site then advised Abu Nimah that he shouldn’t come to his lands, because the youth will make trouble for him. Abu Nimah dismissed this idea as ridiculous – “These are my lands”, he said. “Why should I not come here?”. The commander of the responding army unit claimed that if they removed the youth from the lands, they would simply return, inferring that there was nothing the army could do.
The hilltop youth, known for their beligerant Zionism that spurs them to erect illegal outposts in order to steal greater tracts of Palestinian land, built the Sukkah at the beginning of Sukkot, and so will remain on the hilltop for another two days at least. The commander advised that according to Jewish religious customs, “They must sleep, and play in there”, despite the fact that the land does not belong to them.
Upon arriving to the bulk of his land, Abu Nimah discovered that olives from three of his trees had been stolen by the youths overnight. Pointing to the broken branches, his wife, Kafah, explained “Here they have used a stick to beat the olives from the tree”. It was then discovered that two sacks of olives had been stolen, one from Abu Nimah and one from his brother whose land lies adjacent. The couple explained that one sack contains 60 kg of olives, and produces 15-20 litres of oil, depending on the quality of the olives. Also stolen were all of the harvesting implements belonging to Abu Nimah’s brother, and all of the olives from neighbours’ trees. Kafah surmised that the stolen implements had been used to harvest the olives from her’s and her neighbours’ trees.
When going to make breakfast for the family, Kafah then found that all of the plates, glasses and the kettle for making tea were also stolen. “We leave these here at night”, she explained, “because we have to come a long way; one hour walking each day. It is too difficult to carry. I went to take one [plate] for [serving] potatoes, it is gone”.
This is but the latest in an escalating series of attacks by settlers on the people in Kufr Qaddum. On Thursday 16th October, settlers burnt lands belonging to Fathi Amer, and stonings and harassment have been reported daily.
Palestinians picking olives on their land in Azmut were attacked by Israeli settlers two days in a row.
On Saturday, October 18, according to villagers a group of approximately eight settlers from the illegal Elon Moreh settlement attacked an elderly man in his field with sticks and stones, injuring him severely enough to require hospital treatment.
The settlers returned on Sunday and began yelling insults and threats to a family consisting of 3 women, 3 children and one man as the family
attempted to bring in their olive harvest. A group of journalists and internationals arrived at the olive grove very quickly after the settlers came and began taking photos. When the settlers saw the cameras, they left immediately.
Elon Moreh settlement is located about 500 meters from the field where the villagers were attacked. When the attack occurred on Saturday, according to villagers, soldiers arrived from the nearby army base, but they did nothing to stop the attack.
These two attacks followed the destruction of a Palestinian farmer’s car in the same village on Thursday October 16th. See report of this attack here.
At approximately 10:40 on Thursday morning a Palestinian family from Azmut, in the northeast of Nablus, was harvesting their land near the illegal Elon Moreh settlement when a group of five settlers terrorized the family.
The settlers, wielding bats and knives, proceeded to attack the family car, smashing all windows and slashing all tyres, before retreating up the hill to the settlement.
Handala Assus, the owner of the land was picking olives nearby with his family and five small children when the attack occurred. After shouting at the settlers, demanding that they stop, he quickly ran to the nearby Israeli army base to alert soldiers of the attack. He reports telling the soldiers: ‘Here they are! Come, come to help us’, while the settlers were still in the area. ‘They said to me, go away, go away’. Assus then recalls that it took the Israeli soldiers more than twenty minutes to arrive at the scene of the attack, despite being just fifty metres away. The Israeli soldiers who did eventually attend the scene were not from the nearby base, and when questioned as to why the soldiers from the base had failed to respond one of the officers simply responded ‘I don’t know’.
The Assus family, who were unable to finish their harvesting for the day were very distraught about the damage done to their car. When questioned as to the cost of the damage Assus could only shake his head sadly saying: ‘really I don’t know, really I don’t know’. Others present on the scene estimated the damage to be in an excess of 5000 shekels.
The family, however, seemed most distraught about the lack of response from the Israeli army whose responsibility it is to protect the Palestinians from this kind of attack. Despite Israeli police eventually arriving at the scene, one army officer stated that it would be the security guard hired by illegal Elon Moreh settlement would carry out the investigation.
This is the most recent in a spate of attacks on Palestinians during the annual olive harvest. On Wednesday two cars were similarly damaged by settlers in Turmus’ayya; while on Thursday olive groves were burnt by settlers in Kufr Qaddum; and settlers from Yitzhar stoned farmers harvesting their olives in Burin.
