Tag: Nablus

On 21st June the villages of Sarra and Qussin, near Nablus, organised simultaneous demonstrations against the apartheid road system that denies them freedom of movement. Organised as part of the Summer Against Apartheid campaign, both villages marched towards the respective roadblocks that enable the existence of the Israeli-only road stretching from the Beit Eba checkpoint to the Jit checkpoint.

Sarra

Qussin

In Sarra approximately 200 residents and internationals attempted to remove the earthmound roadblock, using spades and shovels to dig away at the mass of earth, rocks and rubble that blocks the villagers from accessing the Beit Eba – Jit road. Holding a banner that read “This is apartheid!”, protesters continued to work at removing the roadblock for approximately 20 minutes before Israeli soldiers finally arrived.

Demonstrators sat in the middle of the apartheid road, chanting “Freedom for Palestine”, before moving back to stand in front of the roadblock as five jeeps and one Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) arrived. Soldiers immediately took up sniper positions, removing Palestinian flags that had been planted in the land by the road, in a clear attempt at provocation. Protesters, however, refused to take the bait, and maintained a non-violent demonstration. After one and a half hours, the demonstration moved back to the village, determined to continue the struggle for their freedom.

In nearby Qussin, approximately 50 residents of the village were joined by international human rights workers (HRWs) and marched from the village to find their way already blocked by an Israeli APC. Activists confronted the soldiers, marching directly up to the jeep, bearing banners that read: “This is apartheid!” and “Free the village of Qussin”. Soldiers ordered protesters to leave the area and attempted to intimidate them by driving forward in the APC, bearing down on the activists. The demonstrators, however, held their ground, refusing to yield to the intimidation.

Shortly thereafter, the mayor of the village entered into negotiations with the soldiers, resulting in the arrival of the Israeli District Coordination Office (DCO) – the office responsible for the coordination of Israeli military activities in each region. The negotiations resulted in an agreed meeting on Monday 23rd June, to further discuss the possibility of opening the road-gate that prevents the villagers from accessing Nablus directly.

The villagers, however, will continue to demonstrate against the road-gate that forces them to pass daily through the notoriously difficult Beit Eba checkpoint each day in order to reach the nearby city of Nablus.

Both villages have committed to joint, weekly demonstrations against this system of apartheid, which prohibits the residents from entering or exiting Nablus without passing through checkpoints. This level of coordination between villages is new for the Nablus region, but both villages are hopeful that more of the surrounding villages will join them in their upcoming demonstrations, in the hope of reviving the Palestinian popular struggle in the area.

For the past three weeks, international human rights workers (HRWs) have been accompanying farmers from the village of Zawata near Nablus to their lands, in order to care for their olive trees. Ordinarily farmers from this village are too scared to go to their lands, because passing through them, 1 kilometre from the centre of the village, is a 6 kilometre long, Israeli military-only road, forbidden to Palestinians. For 200 metres either side of this road, Israeli authorities have imposed a “closed military zone” – in theory an area that is only accessible to Israeli military; in practice a space that prohibits Palestinians.

Residents of the village advise that to go to this area is to risk being shot at, or beaten and forcibly ejected from their lands. Especially in danger are the farmers whose land lies beyond the military road that curves through the northern part of the village, who are forced to cross the road in order to care for and harvest their olives. Olive trees in this area, and those on the southern side of the road are much neglected – the mayor of Zawata estimates that while usually each olive tree will yield one gallon of olive oil, it takes ten of the olive trees in these areas to yield just one gallon of oil. The affected land totals approximately 500 dounums (125 acres). This situation is especially difficult for the village as most of the residents are dependent on agriculture for their income.

Zawata municipality and the local Charitable Society are committed, however, to break through the fear that exists around going to lands which are near or beyond the military road. To that effect, they have invited international HRWs to go with farmers to their lands each week throughout the Summer Against Apartheid campaign – in order to both embolden the farmers and show to the Israeli military that they are not afraid, and that they will not be kept from their lands.

On Thursday, 19th June approximately two hundred residents of Nablus took to the streets demanding the Palestinian Authority (PA) take action to ease the suffering of the poor people in Nablus. Organised by the leftist parties – PPP; PFLP; and DFLP – residents marched through the city, chanting “Abbas and Fayyad: people want bread and peace!”.

The protesters called on the Palestinian Authority to initiate subsidies on basic foodstuffs such as bread and oil for poor people in Nablus, where, according to the local government, there is over 70 percent unemployment, and 70 percent of families live under the poverty line. Demonstrators also called on the PA to subsidise the high cost of petrol in the West Bank, which, at six shekels per litre, is unaffordable for many; as well as the cost of water.

While the focus of the demonstration was on the responsibility of the PA to care for the people in the West Bank, it is clear that the primary cause of the widespread poverty and unemployment in Nablus is the occupation itself. Nablus, which was once the economic hub of Palestine, has now spiralled into an economic recession. Surrounded by checkpoints and roadblocks, businesses have fled the once booming city due to the difficulty of trade in the besieged city. Palestinian farmers regularly complain of the impossibility of getting their produce to markets in Nablus because of the checkpoints – by the time their loads have been cleared to enter, the produce is already unsalable. While there are extremely limited employment opportunities within the city itself, the cost for workers to reach other cities, such as Ramallah, in search of employment is also prohibitive, with a round trip costing a minimum of 26 shekels each day, largely due to the price of petrol – which is kept artificially high because of the taxes levied on it by the Israeli government.

Nablus residents are not alone in their suffering – it is estimated that throughout the West Bank and Gaza, the average daily income is just $0.2. While the seige on Gaza has highlighted the plight the Palestinians there face, without access to clean water, fuel, basic foodstuffs, this situation is being replicated throughout the West Bank as well, but to a lesser extent. Countless villages face high unemployment; lack of access to water – or water prices that are hyper-inflated by Israeli authorities; regular curfews that cripple their economies as businesses are forced to close and residents stay in their homes. In the case of Hebron, the entire old city, the once-thriving hub of commerce in the south’s largest city, has become a ghost town due to the presence of belligerent Israeli settlers who have, through brutal intimidation and the support of Israeli military, forced the vast majority of businesses to close down. Shahuda street, once a main shopping thoroughfare, is now just a row of shuttered, empty shops.

Regardless of fundamental causes, however, Nablus residents have vowed to keep protesting, demanding support from the Palestinian Authority to help ease their suffering.

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The International Women’s Peace Service were notified on the morning of 19 June that Israeli setters from the illegal colony of Yitzhar had carried out a series of attacks on the village of Asira al Qabiliya in the Nablus district. According to villagers, the settlers burnt fields, threw stones and attack villagers, while also putting graffiti on houses. Residents of the village, however, were able to drive the settlers off.

As IWPS volunteers made their way to the village to document the attacks, they were again notified that the Yitzhar settlers were carrying out a new attack against the village of Burin, less then five kilometres from Asira al Qabiliya According to a journalist in the village at the time, up to 50 settlers began throwing stones at Palestinian cars and homes, but were initially driven off by the residents of Burin. The illegal settlers, however, then set fire to the village’s fields. According to the journalist more than 100 dunums of Palestinian land to the south of the village are currently burning. IWPS volunteers speaking with the journalist on the telephone could hear clashes in the background between the Israeli military, Palestinian farmers and settlers, as the illegal settlers once again attempted to attack the village.

On Wednesday 18th June, approximately forty farmers from the villages of Tammoun and Khirbet Atuf, near Nablus, along with internationals, made a symbolic protest at the Israeli-imposed barrier that prevents them from entering their lands, in the first of what is to be series of protests against the discrimination they face.

Looking out over the fields to the illegal Israeli settlements of Beqa’ot and Roi (known by local Palestinians as Al Hadidiya, after the Palestinian village it abuts), as well as the Israeli military base, villagers held up a banner proclaiming “This is Apartheid!”, as they stood on the earthmound that demarcates the area in which Palestinians are forbidden to enter. They advise that if they attempt to cross this artificial boundary, they will be shot at. Or they will be arrested and held in the checkpoint of Al Hamra for anywhere between four and twenty-four hours.

More than seventy percent of the villages’ lands have been stolen by the settlements and military base. Now, the lands they have left (less than thirty thousand dounums) are inaccessible from the villages directly – farmers must make a trip back towards Nablus and around through the Al Hamra checkpoint – a trip that can take up to two hours, instead of the five minute journey that they used to make. Even then, many farmers are not permitted to enter their lands at all, requiring permission from Israeli authorities that is rarely given – and when it is, is only for sporadic times.

The Israeli authorities also prohibit the farmers from accessing water to irrigate their lands. Whilst Israeli settlers have access to limitless water supplies, Tammoun has access now to just one well, which they are not allowed to dig deeper than 400 metres, useless because a well of at least 800 metres in depth is required to properly function for agricultural use. The effect of this apartheid agricultural system is startling – in a wide swathes of land that is now barren and dry, where farmers can only grow in the rainy season, the settlements stand out for their remarkable greenery. The oasis has indeed been created in the desert, at the expense of Palestinian farmers.

The long-suffering farmers of the Tammoun district received a final blow two days ago, when they received written notification from the Israeli military that a further 356 dounums will be confiscated to create a military training ground, unless the farmers can prove ownership by 2012. While all affected farmers have documentation dating back to the Turkish occupation of the area, many fear that this proof will not be accepted by the Israeli authorities – as in the village of Al Aqaba near Tubas which is scheduled for demolition, where Israeli authorities refuse to acknowledge the validity of their title deeds because they are from the Turkish era.

Motivated by this further injustice, farmers are taking decisive steps, not just to save their lands from this new threat, but to demand their rights to enter their lands from their villages; to irrigate their crops; to graze their animals. With the belief that the Israeli authorities and settlers are trying to drive them from their lands, villagers have vowed to fight – to enter their lands without taking permission from Israelis; and there to hold non-violent demonstrations until they achieve their freedom of movement and livelihood.