Tag: Olive harvest - Page 9 - International Solidarity Movement

A perfect day ruined

by Stella

It was a beautiful morning but as usual too hot. We went with Mahmud’s family to harvest their olives. 7 of us rode with Mahmoud on his tractor as it jumped up and down the street filled with un-repaired potholes.

Once we arrived at the family’s olive trees, Mahmud’s wife began singing Palestinian folk songs. In any other world this would have been a perfect day with good food and happy people enjoying each others company while they worked. But this is not that world. This is occupied Palestine.

A military jeep pulled up close to Mahmud’s land and two soldiers approached us. They said we could not stay there without permission from the District Coordination Office (DCO). We explained that it is nonsense for Mahmud’s family to be forced to ask “permission” to farm land that he legally owns.

Mahmoud’s family is required to ask for permission to farm their own land because of the illegal Israeli settlement that sits a few hundred meters away. A road for Israeli settlers cuts through Mahmoud’s land. Two settlements sit on the tops of hills nearby and the residents speed past the olive grove. We suspect one of the settlers who drove past while harvested olives called the military.

Fearing he might be arrested if he protested this treatment too much, Mahmoud and his wife decided to return home. They had collected about one bag of olives. Some other bags filled with olives collected the day before had to be left once again.

This is the mundane reality of the settlements in the West Bank. They are obstacles to the normal lives of everyday Palestinian families just working to make a decent living and enjoy their lives. While politicians argue over non-existent settlement “freezes”, Mahmoud’s family hopes they can receive “permission” to collect olives off trees they own.

Join the 2010 Olive Harvest Campaign

At a time of increasing settler violence in the West Bank, the International Solidarity Movement is issuing an urgent call for volunteers to participate in the 2010 Olive Harvest Campaign at the invitation of Palestinian communities.

The olive tree is a national symbol for Palestinians. As thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted and burned by Israeli settlers and the military – (over half a million olive and fruit trees have been destroyed since September 2000) – harvesting has become more than a source of livelihood; it has become a form of resistance.

The olive harvest is an annual affirmation of Palestinians’ historical, spiritual and economic connection to their land, and a rejection of Israeli efforts to seize it. Despite efforts by Israeli settlers and soldiers to prevent them from accessing their land, Palestinian communities remain steadfast in refusing to give up their olive harvest

International and Israeli volunteers join Palestinians each year to harvest olives, and this makes a big difference. It has proven in the past to help limit and decrease the number and severity of attacks and harassment. The presence of activists can reduce the risk of extreme violence from Israeli settlers and the Israeli army and supports Palestinians’ assertion of their right to earn their livelihood. International solidarity activists engage in non-violent intervention and documentation and this practical support enables many families to pick their olives. In addition The Olive Harvest Campaign also provides a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Palestinian families in their olive groves and homes.

The campaign will begin on the 8th or 9th of October and run for approximately 6-8 weeks, depending on the size of the harvest. We request a minimum 2 week commitment from volunteers.

Training

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions which will be run every week. Please contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.

Ongoing campaigns

In addition to the olive harvest, there will also be other opportunities to participate in grass-roots, non-violent resistance in Palestine.

In occupied East Jerusalem, ISM activists have been staying in Sheikh Jarrah, where the Hanoun and Ghawe families, evicted from their houses by Israeli police and settlers, maintain a presence, and the Al-Kurd family endure constant harassment from settlers who have occupied part of their home . We will continue to support the initiatives of families who face evictions or demolitions in all Palestinian neighborhoods in order to resist the ongoing ethnic cleansing of occupied East Jerusalem.

ISM maintains a presence in Hebron and is making regular visits to the nearby village of Al Buwayra where settlers have terrorized villagers in recent weeks with regular attacks, including the unprovoked assault of two ISM activists. Lately the Israeli army has used brutal violence to suppress the regular demonstration for the opening of Shuhada street. They have shut down local shops and made numerous arrests of Palestinians and international activists in attempts to thwart the demo, sometimes also fabricating crimes and prosecuting activists leading to fines, bans and spells in jail.

We also have an apartment in Nablus from where we work on a number of projects including resisting demolitions in the village of Izbet Tabib, documenting the rioting and olive tree-burning of settlers and attending the weekly demonstration in Iraq Burin where the military have been illegally firing tear gas canisters directly at protesters.

Other regular demonstrations ISM participate in include those in the village of Bil’in where rubber bullets have been used to disperse unarmed protestors and a campaign of legal persecution has been waged against key protest organizers in an attempt to repress the grassroots nonviolent resistance movement.

ISM activists have also been attending weekly demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall, the annexation of Palestinian land and the construction of illegal settlements in Al Ma’sara, Ni’lin, An Nabi Saleh, Al Walaja and Beit Ummar.

Come! Bear witness to the suffering, courage and generosity of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.

Experiencing the situation for yourself is vital to adequately convey the reality of life in Palestine to your home communities and to re-frame the debate in a way that will expose Israel’s apartheid policies; creeping ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as well as collective punishment and genocidal practices in Gaza.

Burin celebrates successful olive harvest, despite numerous settler attacks

18 November 2009

On Wednesday 18 November, the village of Burin (south of Nablus) celebrated the successful conclusion of its olive harvest. More than 400 villagers came together to hear speeches by locals and nationally renowned politicians (including member of Knesset Mohammed Baraka, general secretary of Hadash), as well as to see the young men of the village dance the Dabke, the traditional dance of Palestine.

A large stage with sound system had been set up outside the local boys’ school and the festivities commenced at around 11am. Braving weather that seemed to change every 5 minutes from pleasantly warm to freezing cold, the villagers listened to speeches and music in clear view from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, one that has caused its fair share of problems for the village during the harvest.

Only 6 days before the event, settlers from Yitzhar attacked the fields of Burin, cutting down 97 trees. On 16 October, farmers as well as internationals were threatened by armed settlers while attempting to harvest the olives and on 28 September 150 olive trees, covering 4 dunams of land, were destroyed by settlers armed with chainsaws. It was therefore not only the end of harvesting that the residents of Burin celebrated that day, but also their success in continuing to work their fields despite persecution from their extreme-Zionist ‘neighbours’.

International activists from the ISM and Michigan Peace Team took part in the event, and a member of the ISM gave a brief speech on behalf of the internationals, thanking Burin for welcoming them and vowing that Palestine would never stand alone in its struggle against the occupation.

B’Tselem: Settlers harass Palestinians and steal crops during olive harvest in the West Bank

B’Tselem

20 October 2009

The video shows three events that took place during this year’s olive harvest in the West Bank .

In the first incident, documented on 15 October by a volunteer in B’Tselem’s camera distribution project, settlers are seen stealing olives from a grove belonging to a resident of al-Mughair village in Ramallah District, near which the Adey Ad illegal outpost has been established. The footage shows two settlers picking the olives and dragging filled sacks to a car. While filming the incident, the volunteer notified the authorities. Half an hour later, soldiers and personnel from the Israeli DCL arrived at the site and arrested the settlers. On 26 October, the investigation file was transferred to the legal division in the Judea and Samaria (SHAI) Police Department, which will decide, based on the evidence, whether to file an indictment.

The second incident also occurred in al-Mughair and was filmed by one of B’Tselem’s field researchers. Several days after the complaint was filed regarding the stolen olives, village residents discovered that several dozens of olive trees had been cut in their groves. Residents of other villages in the West Bank also reported olive trees that had been cut or uprooted.

In the third incident, which took place on 19 October in Sinjil, Ramallah District, one of B’Tselem’s field workers filmed settlers harassing olive pickers although soldiers were present. According to the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), residents of the village were also attacked by several dozens of settlers as they attempted to harvest olives. Army forces that were in the area removed the settlers and enabled the Palestinians to proceed with the harvest.

Information gathered so far about this year’s harvest indicates that the harvest has been relatively limited in scope, due to the meager crops, and that less harassment of Palestinians by settlers has been reported than in previous years. However, reports have been received of olive trees being cut or uprooted in several areas in the West Bank . In addition, during 2009, the conditions for receiving permits to cross through Separation Barrier have been made more stringent, increasing the difficulty faced by Palestinians who are separated from their land by the Barrier.

Villagers from Burin plant 50 olive trees to replace those destroyed by settlers

29 October 2009

On Thursday, 29 October, a group of international activists accompanied Palestinian farmers and villagers from Burin to the planting of approximately 50 olive trees as a part of the ‘10,000 Trees for Nablus’ campaign to replace some of the trees destroyed by settlers during the harvest.

Although the Nablus region saw fierce rains on the morning of the tree planting, there was a strong turn up when the action began at noon. Around 60 pupils from the Burin Girls School joined the march to the fields, followed by many more Palestinians of all ages. The demonstration was also attended by 30 members of the French solidarity organisation CCIPPP (Campagne Civile Internationale pour la Protection du Peuple Palestinien). In total, the tree planting was attended by between 150 and 200 people.

Although the trees were planted close to the city of Burin, and not in the threatened lands near the illegal settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha, the planting was an important act of resilience and a testament to the Palestinian steadfastness in their demand to be allowed to work their fields. It is hoped that this will be only the first of a series of tree plantings around Palestine, including in the threatened lands found around almost every illegal settlement in the West Bank.

These acts are vital due to the constant harassment by settlers. In Burin alone, this season has seen farmers and activists threatened by armed settlers on the 16 October, an arson attack against a building under construction on the 13 September and the cutting down of some 150 olive trees by masked settlers with chainsaws on the 28 September. When farmers attempted to protest this criminal act on the following day, they were forced off their land by the Israeli military.