21 January 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Umm Safa
Maher Sabah, a village leader, holding an olive tree during the day of work in Umm Safa. Credit: ISM.
On January 20, ISM volunteers joined with Israeli activists to work alongside villagers of Umm Safa, a village 30km north of Ramallah, planting olive trees and vines on part of the 200 dunums (50 acres) of the village’s communal land. Replacing some of the many olive trees destroyed by settlers is both an economic necessity and an act of resistance, clearly saying this is our land and we intend to stay on it.
As the day progressed and we came in view of the illegal settlement, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) turned up to disrupt this challenge to the Zionist settler colonial project. Immediately, they started pushing people around, shouting and pointing their weapons, demanding everyone leave the area, declaring it a “Closed Military Zone”. They seized gardening tools, uprooted some of the newly planted trees and seized mobile phones when they could.
After another jeep full of soldiers arrived, it became apparent they were going to escalate their violence. As we moved back, volleys of tear gas were fired at us whilst a military drone hovered overhead collecting intelligence (fortunately it did not eject a cloud of tear gas as we have experienced at previous confrontations). To avoid more serious violence from the IOF (like use of live ammunition) and/or arrests, the village leaders decided to stop the work and return to the village.
Umm Safa is one of the many Palestinian communities at the sharp end of ethnic cleansing. It is subject to regular violent attacks by armed illegal settlers – backed up by the IOF- from the nearby settlement of Ateret and its outposts.
The villagers’ land is being stolen from them in front of their eyes. Only one week ago, 14 dunums (around 3.5 acres) of land cultivated with olive trees was seized and cleared by settlers with IOF in tow, with the apparent intention of establishing a new outpost. Further pressure has been put on the community since 7th October, with the Israeli army blocking the village’s only access road to the main road network with a locked gate and impassable earth mounds.
Despite the premature end to the day, the community had made a clear statement of resistance. Most of the olive trees had come through the confrontation unscathed, the tools and phones seized were left behind by the IOF, but, most importantly , the community’s determination and right to stay on their land had been unambiguously asserted.
Existence is resistance.
A video of the disruption caused by Israeli army can be found here.
September 15 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Palestine
ISM is issuing an urgent call out for volunteers to join the 2022 Olive Harvest at the invitation of Palestinian communities, starting next month.
Olive trees are a national symbol in Palestine. As hundreds of thousands of trees have been uprooted by the Israeli military and illegal settlers – more than 11,700 olive trees were destroyed in 2021 alone – harvesting has become more than a source of income, but a form of resistance.
Recent years have also seen an explosion in settler violence against Palestinian communities, and a series of illegal settler outposts set up across the West Bank.
The new outposts – primarily located in the northern regions of the West Bank close to the cities and towns of Salfit, Hares and Nablus – puts Palestinian farmers in these areas at an increased risk of violence and attacks this Olive Harvest.
ISM is calling for volunteers to join Palestinian farmers on the ground to support them to assert their right to earn a living and be present on their lands.
International activists joining the harvest engage in non-violent direct action, practical support and document human rights abuses against Palestinians, which enables many families to pick their olives. ISM activists work alongside other international organisations to support farmers during the Olive Harvest.
The harvest will begin on October 1 and run until mid-November 2022. We request a minimum 2 week commitment but we ask that if possible, volunteers could stay as long as they can. Our work is dependent on relationships with the Palestinian communities in which we work, and a long-term presence is a massive help towards that end. We kindly ask volunteers to start arriving in the first week of October if possible, so we are prepared when the harvest begins. ISM activists will receive training upon arrival with information on what to expect and how to act in what can be tense situations.
To register your interest in joining the Olive Harvest this year contact ismtraining@riseup.net
August 20 | International Solidarity Movement | Beit Ummar, Occupied Palestine
Beit Ummar is an agricultural town and farming community just north of Hebron, with a populace of about 17,000. Al Shoroq, a Palestinian led group comprised of local activists based in the region since 2013 founded by longstanding committee members, work with families, farmers and the community to create resistance based empowerment through skill building, construction and collective work. Al Shoroq as an organisation are focused primarily on assisting in sustainability and development in Area C; Israeli controlled areas containing Palestinian families, farmland and buildings long standing on now occupied territories, which currently makes up 70% of the land. Beit Ummar is under constant scrutiny and stress from the Israeli government and military, and more increasingly, Israeli settlers.
Settlers are extremely volatile in their treatment of the residents of Beit Ummar, frequently shooting at farmers, cutting down their trees, attacking their livestock or burning their land so that the soil will not bear plantation. One of Al Shoroq’s avenues of support for the farming community is to replant trees. Recently 1000 olive trees were planted to replace those destroyed previously by settlers, only for the settlers from Bat Ayin to then tear them down and raze the ground earlier this year. Israel also controls and restricts the integral local resources in the area, including water, as Yousef Abu Maria explained: “Israel takes all the water to use on their trees, you can see the difference between the Palestinian and Israeli trees.”
There is growing evidence of extreme oppression in the area, and the rate in which land is taken and occupied is faster than ever. Another founding member of the organisation warned: “Problems like this happen constantly; it is impossible to live and work well here. The Israelis want the Palestinians to leave their land. 15 years ago, there were only 10 houses in the settlement in Karmei Zur, now, you can see 1,000. To do this, they take Palestinian land. The Israeli area has grown from 100 dunums” (100,000m2) “to 6,000 dunums”. (6,000,000m2). In interview, representatives of the municipality asserted that “This is the main aim of the occupation – to press the people, until they are fed up, to make them leave their land, to leave Palestine. It will NEVER happen. We are Palestinian. It’s our land. We will stay here. We will die here.”
Settlements at this point are surrounding and cutting off Beit Ummar, from all accessible sides, via Karmei Zur, Bat Ayin and Gush Etzion. On the remaining side are uninhabitable rocky valleys and mountainous terrains. While the entirety of the West Bank is dramatically affected by the occupation, Beit Ummar is a special case, as they are completely surrounded by settlements and the apartheid wall. The settlements are constantly undergoing expansion, ebbing away at Palestinian land. Naturally this has made daily life incredibly difficult for residents of Beit Ummar, their routes cut off and their land under threat from the occupation and biased military intervention. “If a Palestinian has to go to the hospital, or they want to go to pray, but the checkpoint is between them and the hospital or mosque, they can’t” explained one of the founders of Al Shoroq, Yousef Abu Maria.
“The suffering is daily, in our own land. This is our land.” – The Mayor of Beit Ummar.
The community suffers first hand in this situation. Whilst under constant harassment and devastation of the land, there is also the factor that Israel bars Palestinian farmers from sending their produce to external markets, overseas or even as close as Jordan. This coupled with the lack of employment and opportunity results in economic turmoil.
The occupation affects every Palestinian territory in the West Bank. In the case of Beit Ummar, a once thriving agricultural community is now under the constant threat of a new invasive manipulation of the law served only to make life harder for Palestinian residents, whilst simultaneously closing the area off, making movement incredibly difficult.
A blocked Palestinian access road.
International funding for Settler-only roads is met, whilst pre-existing roads for the Palestinian people are blocked and destroyed. A member of Al Shoroq stated that: “Any Palestinian that wishes to work in Israel occupied areas, cannot enter without a special permit, and even then, they must pass through a checkpoint which takes hours. Workers have to get to the checkpoint at 2am to wait to pass through to get to work in time. There are many people waiting there, and have to wait 4-5 hours to enter Israel. For many Palestinians, they are not even granted a permit, so are unable to move through checkpoints.”
Representatives of the municipality added: “So what about the farmers? Daily they have to go to their land to take care of it. They need permission every time? It is too difficult!”
The main entrance to the town is now situated next to an arbitrarily designated ‘military zone’ with a consistent Israeli military presence. However, there is no Palestinian police station in Beit Ummar, and so, if police presence is required, it has to be approved by the Israeli Civil Administration. This process takes up to 6 hours to get approval to enter, which more often than not, will result in rejection. This is not only dangerous, but denial of a basic human right for the people of Beit Ummar. as they cannot receive direct or timely emergency response in critical situations.
Al Shoroq’s work is imperative in sustaining a resistance to the land grab tactics and destruction long imposed on the innocent civilians of Beit Ummar. They are a singular force taking a stand against the ceaseless abuse of human rights in the town.
The founders of Al Sharouq have been working as a commitee for 15 years against the separation wall, settlements, the closing of road 60 for Palestinians. Around 2013, they formed Al Sharouq organisation and started working in humanitarian intervention, supplying food boxes, clothes, beds. The opportunity to start a small scale project for the farmers or for the women has been difficult. Al Sharouq do what they can, but it is not easy to do this work alone. They need support from the international community, to support fundraising for this project in their countries to help the farmers of Beit Ummar. – Al Shoroq member.
As the only tangible source of support, Al Shoroq are an integral part of the Beit Ummar municipality, also performing outreach work across Hebron and Yatta. They are small in number, but their dedication to improving the quality of life for Palestinian inhabitants of Area C is great, and appreciated throughout the community.
“What can we do to resist the occupation? We protest Israel’s plans for demolitions, building of walls, and sometimes we are successful in stopping their building plans, but most of the time we are not. The occupation has been going on for so long, that any small thing we can do to fight or support people to stay in their land, is a big thing.”
“Maybe we can’t stop the wall, but we can support people to stay living and working where they do, near the wall, or near the settlements. If the farmers do not have anyone to support them to stay where they are near the wall, or a settlement, and they leave, it is easy for Israel to expand the settlement, and push back the wall even more.” – Al Shoroq member.
Al Shoroq and the community of Beit Ummar are fighting daily against multiple impending threats as a result of the occupation. How dangerously close the settlements now are, the threats of security guards and settlers, the burning and razing of plantations, of homes, and of land to ensure that nothing is rebuilt. The terrorising nature of the occupation is seen here in full swing. A crater of rubble and corrugated twisted metal from the Israeli military’s destruction of what was – until recently – a thriving family home, acts as a reminder that nothing is off limits to the Israeli occupation.
“But there are many things we can do. We support the farmers to plant olive trees, we build wells so the farmers can easily access water, we run workshops on how farmers can resist the occupation and stay on their land, we provide legal support and documents to the farmers so that they can prove ownership of their land to Israel, we make food boxes for the people who are really suffering. All of these activities we do, while we never stop demonstrating against Israel and their plans. This is the goal of Alshouq, it’s a simple goal.” – Al Shoroq member.
“We can start small and get bigger and bigger.” – Yousef Abu Maria
But to achieve this goal effectively and to make a deeper impact on the unrelenting injustice of the occupation, Al Shoroq require the support of internationals and partner organisations. To focus and maintain global attention to their cause, to support and assist in the excellent progress they are making in the face of the oppressive Israeli regime, and to help expand their team and abilities with people power, funding, publicity and communication. Al Shoroq would like to reach out to fellow communities, organisations and individuals, so that they may visit and support the people of Beit Ummar by building small projects in the area, improving the stance on agriculture, support and outreach, by spreading the word, fundraising, planting, building and making imprints on the unjust state of things; sowing the seeds to return their land to a place of strength, unity and resistance.
“We have so many daily problems, but we have to exceed them. By any way we have to exceed them.” – The Municipality of Beit Ummar
To join Al Shoroq’s voluntary programme or to donate to their important work, please contact:Palestine-Hebron-Bayt Umar-Main Street
July 30 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | Bit Arawa, occupied Palestine
This is the first of a series of reports documenting the control and devastation of water sources by Israel as a tool of oppression.
On Thursday 18th July Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) came to the Al Baqa’a area, east of Hebron, and destroyed an irrigation system that carried water to two agricultural fields, growing around 10,000 tomato plants each.
Ghassan Jaber, 40, is the son of the owner of one of the fields. His family have been farming this land for generations. He told ISM that about thirty IOF arrived in five military jeeps at 7am. Jaber asked the IOF to show him a military order or permission form from Israeli authorities but they would not speak to him, instead forcefully evacuating him and his family away from the tomato fields. The soldiers cut the majority of the pipes that make up the irrigation system, crushing tomato plants in the process. They confiscated three of Jaber’s pesticide machines, each costing around 4000 NIS (1,100 USD). The family are currently watering the plants and administering pesticide by hand, which has greatly increased their workload. Since the incident, many of the tomato plants have died. This week, Jaber and his family are replacing the cut pipes. He estimates that this will cost about 40,000 NIS (11,000 USD), not including the additional labour costs. Jaber and his sons told ISM that they would be working for the next 24 hours to replace the pipes in time to save the crops.
Water pipes in the tomato fields destroyed by IOF
The IOF claim that Jaber’s farm is diverting water from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement Kiryat Arba. The farm has traditionally taken its water from a well owned by the Jaber family, situated on their land. In 2009, the IOF blocked the well with rubble rendering it unusable. It cost Jaber about 30,000 NIS (8,500 USD) to replace this well, and last winter the IOF blocked it again. Jaber decided to build a hidden groundwater well so that the IOF would not be able to find and destroy it. This cost Jaber about 150,000 NIS (42,500 USD). It is this groundwater well that now supplies the irrigation system. On Thursday, Jaber told the soldiers that he is using his own groundwater but they went ahead with the destruction regardless.
Jaber told ISM he is concerned that once he replaces the irrigation system, the soldiers will return and destroy it again. The extended Jaber family own and farm a lot of the land around Al Baqa’a, which is the most fertile land in Hebron. It falls in area C, under Israeli control. Kiryat Arba is very close by, making this highly contested land. The Palestinian population in this area is small, but they own most of the land. The IOF have banned the construction of new homes on this land and have previously demolished houses here, most recently in 2010. A month ago, the IOF confiscated 24 dunams of Palestinian owned land in this area.
Plants ruined by IOF and lack of water
Jaber says that this incident is not just about his family, farming and water but is linked to bigger political tensions. The IOF, he says, are targeting the Palestinian people’s sources of income and self-sustainability. They are damaging the local food supply: he predicts that as a result of the incident the price of tomatoes in Hebron will rise. This systematic assault on the everyday lives of Palestinian people is part of the Israeli government’s comprehensive warfare against Palestine.
17th February 2019 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
At the end of January the occupation barred international ‘observer’ groups from Al-Khalil (Hebron), who were stationed throughout the city for more than 20 years, following the massacre of 29 Palestinians inside Ibrahim mosque in 1994 by a fanatical Israeli terrorist. Illegal settlers, many of whom proudly celebrate this massacre, are becoming increasingly empowered; effectively given free reign to attack and intimidate Palestinians, facilitated by the occupation soldiers who protect them as they run riot throughout the city.
Last week, hundreds of settlers were bused in from their fortified colonies, roaming the streets laying siege to Palestinian houses, bombarding them with bottles and stones. Families were gravely threatened that if they don’t vacate their homes, they would meet the same fate as the Dawabshas’ who were horrifically murdered by settlers in their home near Nablus. In 2015, Israeli settlers infiltrated the village of Douma, under cover of darkness, to firebomb the Dawabshas’ home, where the family of four were asleep in their beds. The father Saad, mother Reham, and 18-month-old Ali were burned alive, while 4-year old Ahmad suffered from 3rd degree burns over most of his body.
In this ‘organized demonstration’, a mob of settlers marched along Shuhada Street, chanting racist anti-arab slogans, before descending upon Palestinians homes and climbing onto rooftops. Terrifying shrieks for help could be heard as the settlers attempted to force themselves through the front and back entrances of houses, with families stacking furniture behind the doors to barricade themselves inside. At the same time, dozens of occupation soldiers, dressed as though they were entering a war zone, surrounded local and international activists who were attempting to reach the families – detaining them under orders to prevent them from leaving. Eventually, in the distance we could see the frenzied mob ushered back into buses and chauffeured by police escort, only for the sake of the military who feared the repercussions should any settlers get hurt.
Palestinians in Al-Khalil are deeply concerned that the expulsion of international observer groups, authorized to operate for the past 20 years, will further galvanize settlers, who make no secrets about their intention to expel Palestinians through violence and intimidation, in order to occupy the entire city. In spite of this however, the communities in Khalil are mobilizing to prepare for the new conditions on the ground. Today, in the primary-school on Shuhada Street, Rana* the principal organized a meeting, gathering more than forty mothers among local and international activists, to discuss strategies to protect the community from future attacks. Particularly the morning and afternoon ‘school runs’, where settlers swoop on Palestinians traveling and returning from school and work; regularly harassing and hurling abuse, driving up and down the road, accelerating through puddles when children walk past. Sometimes they accelerate directly towards the children. Residents have already begun an accompaniment system, while others including the Hebron Defense Committee are positioning themselves on rooftops daily to scout and record.
The illegal settlers and their heinous tactics of intimidation are a vulgar extension of the occupations intent to colonize the entire city. Talking with the principal from a school down the road, he spoke of his kindergarten students who are subject to bag and body searches as they pass through checkpoints each day. Teachers who stand waiting more than an hour as collective punishment for a few stones thrown on the roof of the armored mini-fort the night before. Hundreds of tear-gas canisters collected in and around the schoolyard from illegal invasions made by the occupation soldiers, as they kidnap children accused of throwing stones. Concussion grenades thundering before the first bell. Tear-gas wafting through the classroom before lunch..
Since the 67’ occupation, the Israeli settler movement has concentrated on the colonization of Al-Khalil, with the construction of five illegal settlements penetrating into the heart of the Palestinian city. A policy of indiscriminate restrictions on Palestinians has developed as a means to perpetuate indigenous displacement and the expansion of these illegal colonies. In the early 2000s, the occupying military imposed curfews on the Palestinian community, with entire streets shut off from access. Over 520 Palestinian shops in the center of Khalil were forcibly closed, and another 1000 closed due to the economic impact of Israeli’s checkpoints, road closures, and settler violence. Khalil is described as a microcosm of the colonization of Palestine, with apartheid and occupation in its most acute and vulgar form. Although, despite its perceived entrenchment, a fierce rejection of normalization exists throughout all fragments of society. Organizers tirelessly mobilize protests and actions, non-violent resistance committees are established regularly, shebab in symbolic defiance rain stones on the rooftops of checkpoints, and the Palestinians as they say, remain in Al-Khalil like the roots of their thousand year old olive trees.
