Tag: Nablus

Settlers terrorisation of Kufr Qaddum continues

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.

Village of Azmut attacked by settlers for second consecutive day

Village of Azmut, near Nablus

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.

Settlers smash Palestinian family’s car while soldiers refuse to intervene during olive harvest in Azmut

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.

Two Palestinians injured and five Israeli activists arrested after settler attack in Turmas’ayya

Two Palestinians were injured and five Israeli activists arrested in the village of Turmas’ayya during an Israeli settler attack.

Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement outpost near Shilo surrounded villagers from nearby Turmas’ayya during the yearly Palestinian olive harvest, attacking two villagers who had been separated from the rest of the harvest. Talal Gebrara, an elderly member of the Turmas’ayya municipality, had parked his car and was walking back to the mountains when he was confronted by a carload of Israeli settlers, yelling at him in Hebrew. ‘I didn’t know what they were saying, but I knew they wanted to fight me’. Settlers then punched him in the head, the blow striking his temple. Talal recalls that he tried to fight back, but was quickly overwhelmed when two more carloads of settlers arrived. ‘I am just one old man, and there were twelve of them, from 25 to 40 years old’. After suffering a few more blows, Talal ran over to the nearby Israeli military, who had been standing by, doing nothing to protect him. With the soldiers, he walked back to his car, and found it had been destroyed by the settlers – windows and windscreen smashed and all tyres slashed. Another car parked nearby also had its windscreen and windows smashed by the settlers.

Villagers also report a woman from the village was then attacked by settlers as she made her way back from the olive groves towards the road. Despite having her five small children with her, settlers reportedly sprayed an unknown burning substance in her face, causing redness and swelling.

During these attacks, a 90 year old shelter in the olive groves, belonging to a Palestinian family was torched by unknown persons. Awad Hazama, whose family owns the shelter and the surrounding lands, was harvesting olives at the time, but didn’t see the arsonists. He was accompanied to the lands by Israeli activists, due to the threat of settler violence, which was suspected due to the recent erection of an illegal settlement outpost on the lands.

The accompanying Israeli activists saw the flames and moved closer in order to take photos, when they were set upon by settlers throwing stones at them. The activists report that they attempted to run away, but were cornered by a settlement security guard, who, loading a gun in their faces, demanded they get into his security car, while he called the police. Quickly, they were surrounded by settlers armed with clubs and machine guns. The activists, fearing for their lives, were removed from the situation when they were arrested by Israeli police officers on unsubstantiated charges of arson.

Activists report that the charges were based on the accusations of one settler who they claim was not present during the event. The accusations were levelled at one activist in particular, an elderly photographer.

Villagers, including the family who own the land and structure, reject any suggestion that the Israeli activists were involved in the fire. ‘That’s not true. No’, said Talal, who drove the activists to the olive groves. Many villagers, rather, believe that it was the settlers who torched the shelter, in order to disrupt the Palestinian olive harvest.

‘When they make trouble like this, it’s good for them, because military come and everybody comes and it makes a big problem. Then next year when we want to go to our lands, they [Israeli DCO] will say no.’

Currently Palestinians from Turmas’ayya are only allowed to access these olive groves during olive harvest. They report that if they attempt to go at other times they are attacked by settlers and driven away. This is the second incident during Turmas’ayya’s olive harvest this year, following harassment by settlers on Sunday.

Two Palestinian farmers injured as Yitzhar settlers attack olive harvest near Huwwara, Nablus

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians farmers near Huwwara on Saturday 11th October.

More than 25 settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yizhar descended upon Palestinian farmers while the farmers were undertaking their annual olive harvest. The settlers were armed with machine guns, and one fired a single shot in the air before they began to hurl rocks at the Palestinian farmers, injuring two. One of the injured, Mustafa Najah from Burin, was hit in the head and taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. He is thought to have sustained eye injuries.

The attack continued for ten minutes before Israeli soldiers arrived on the scene. The soldiers, however, instead of removing the settlers from the land, started to fire into the air, insisting that the Palestinian farmers cease their harvesting and leave the lands. Farmers report that the soldiers and settlers then walked around the groves together, telling farmers to leave their own lands. The farmers were forced from their lands for over an hour, before eventually being allowed back to continue their harvest.

Settlers continued to maintain a menacing presence on the hilltop overlooking the olive groves throughout the afternoon, kept at bay only by the presence of the Israeli army, who, after their initial rampage, took on the protective duties by which they are legally bound. The farmers were also joined by Israeli and international activists, who will continue to maintain a presence with the farmers until their harvest is complete.

The farmers, however, expressed concern about the well-being of their olive trees overnight, after arriving at their lands to find more than 15 olive trees had been cut down by settlers in the preceding days. Lying in the shadow of Yizhar, the olive groves had been unattended by farmers since ploughing was done in May, as this area is considered extremely dangerous.

Settlers from Yizhar regularly terrorise the surrounding villages: burning lands; attacking houses; shooting at Palestinian villagers; and stealing livestock and farming equipment. They have destroyed more than fifty percent of the surrounding olive groves, and, according to the municipality of Huwwara, throw stones at Palestinian cars on a daily basis. “No stones, no trees, no people are safe from them.”