Tag: Olive Trees - Page 5 - International Solidarity Movement

Protective Presence at Burin olive harvest

24th October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus-team | Burin, occupied Palestine

Today, international activists joined members of the Najjar family from the village of Burin to harvest their olives and provide a protective presence should settler colonists or Israeli forces attempt to attack and disrupt the harvesting. Thankfully, there were no violent incidents todayand the international activists enjoyed a beautiful day harvesting olives with the wonderful and hospitable Najjar family.

The Najjar family’s land is adjacent to the illegal Israeli settlement Yitzar. This year, the family was issued a permit to access their land for only three days to harvest their olives. The permits required by Israel for Palestinian farmers to access their own land are also typically restricted to limited times each day. According to the family, three days is not nearly enough time to harvest their whole crop. As a result, international activists have been harvesting olives together with the farmers without permits which brings the risk of retaliation by both settler colonists and Israeli forces. It has been reported that settler colonists often harvest Palestinian’s olives for themselves without any repercussion. The Najjar family reported that this year they counted four of their trees stripped of their olives before they had the opportunity to access their land themselves.

All of these restrictions together with the settler colonist violence serve to further the theft of Palestinian land. Often, farmers are only given permission to access their land during harvest time and not throughout the year so as to maintain their corps and ensure a good harvest. One member of the family told us, “last year my father came to clear the land, but they kicked him out.”

olive-2 — The city of Burin, with the illegal Israeli settlement of Bracha that lies atop the hill to the upper right.

The village of Burin is trapped between Yitzar and Bracha illegal settlements and has endured settler colonist violence and the destruction of their olive trees for years. As is the case for villages across the occupied West Bank, the farmers in Burin depend economically on the olive harvest to provide annual income for their families. “Its so important because there is no work. All the people wait for the olive harvest to come because the only work available is to sell olive oil. They live for justice and oil.”

Settler attacks school-children and orders soldier to assist her

24th October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Monday morning, infamous Israeli settler Anat Cohen attacked a group of school-children harvesting olives near their school in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). She then ordered the soldier to not only evict the students and teachers from the area, but assist in her attack.

A group of scout students was helping Palestinian families, picking olives for them next to the Qurtuba school on Shuhada Street. Immediately after the group started picking the olives, a soldier from the nearby Daboya checkpoint came to order them not to pass the fence when harvesting, but allowing them to harvest the olives, as long as they don’t cross the fence.

Only a short time after, he came back, this time with infamous settler Anat Cohen. Anat Cohen has at many times attacked the school-students, teachers and families in this area, always with complete impunity. She makes no difference between elderly, children, men or women, and deliberately attacks Palestinians for the sole fact of them being Palestinians, and also internationals supporting them. She is well-known for those vicious attacks and insults, many of which were caught on camera. Despite this video-evidence, she is always showered with the unwavering protection and support from the Israeli soldiers and civil police, and thus enjoys complete impunity for her crimes.

As the soldier came back together with Anat Cohen, he suddenly ordered the students and teachers to stop harvesting immediately – orders that obviously came straight from Anat Cohen, who was standing right behind him. This is just another example of soldiers acting directly on the orders of the settlers from the illegal settlements, without any interest at all for the law or human rights. Even when Anat pushed a teacher, the soldier refused to intervene or arrest her, and instead threatened to arrest the teacher. The teachers tried to reason with the soldier, telling him that he allowed them to harvest before, and now clearly takes his orders from Anat, and assured him that they would leave if he has an official order stating that the harvest in this area is not allowed. As a reply, the soldier that communicated just fine in English before, suddenly stated that he does not speak any English. The soldier proceeded to grab, push and pull students himself, all the while Anat was cursing and harassing the group. He then pulled a student, that was held up to reach the olives by the director of Qurtuba school, almost causing him to fall down from great height.

This is just another in a string of attacks of Anat, for which she never has to feel any consequences. This impunity provided for by the Israeli army and civil police only emboldens her in her vicious attacks. The collaboration between the Israeli forces and settlers, together against the Palestinian civilian population of the area is obviously geared towards the ehtnic cleansing of this area, in order to instead create a ‘sterile’ continous illegal settlement.

https://youtu.be/M9XIN4Nrtoo

Olive harvest next to the illegal settlements in Bruqin

23rd October 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah-team | Bruqin, occupied Palestine

On October 21st, an ISM-team joined farmers in the village of Bruqin, Salfit district, for the olive harvest. The family’s fields are occupied by an illegal Israeli settlement and they are denied access to their land by the Israeli military except during the olive harvest.

A team of solidarity activists went to meet the farmers and set out to the olive fields together. The crop this year was very small as the access restriction prevents the farmers from caring for their trees during the year. The wild condition of the field made the harvest more difficult and less fruitful. Neither settlers nor military appeared during the harvest day.

In 1999, the illegal Israeli settlement Burchin was established near the village of Bruqin. The establishment of this illegal settlement led to local farmers being denied access to land which has belonged to their families for generations. In 2011, the settlement structure was expanded by several baracks, confiscating even more land. The illegal settlers have repeatedly harrassed the local farmers verbally, phyiscally and by also cutting down olive trees in their fields. Moreover, the local farmers are harrassed by the Israeli military every year, trying to deny them access to their land even on the day of the harvest. On one of the local family’s fields, the access restriction and harressment by settlers and military has led to a huge decrease in gain from the harvest from formerly 1000 kg of olives per season to now 30 kg of olives per season.

Apart from the harrassment and land restrictions, the nearby illegal industrial settlement Barkan streams its toxic waste water down into the village of Bruqin. This poses also an environmental threat to the olive harvest and the peoples’ health in the village in general.

The olive field is overgrown as the access restrictions prevent the local farmers from caring for their fields during the year

Call to action: Olive Harvest 2016

9th September 2016 | International Solidarity Movement | Ramallah, occupied Palestine

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 2016 olive-harvest on the invitation of Palestinian communities.

The olive tree, a national symbol for Palestinians, is an affirmation of Palestinians historical connection to their lands. Israeli Forces and settlers have tried in numerous occasions to disrupt this special relationsship between the Palestinians and this thousand-year old crop. Thousands of olive trees have been bulldozed, uprooted and burned by Israeli settlers and the military, but Palestinians farmers refuse to be intimidated – under the Israeli occupation harvesting has become more than a source of livelihood; it has become a form of resistance.

Despite efforts by Israeli settlers and soldiers to prevent them from accessing their land, Palestinian communities have remained steadfast in refusing to give up their olive harvest.

Palestinian farmer and internationals discussing picking permit with Israeli forces.

In solidarity with Palestinians farmers, ISM volunteers help with the olive harvest each year. If you join ISM over the olive harvest you will work with other ISM’ers in Palestinian olive groves especially exposed to violence and harassment from Israeli settlers and military. Our presence can make a big difference. It has been proven in the past to deter the number and severity of attacks as well as harassment, hence supporting the Palestinians universal right to be and work on their lands. 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 also provides a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Palestinian families in their olive groves and homes, there is nothing like sipping tea under a olive tree after a long days work.

The harvest will begin in start-October and run until mid-November. We request a minimum 2 week commitment from volunteers but stress that long-termers are needed as well. We kindly ask that volunteers start arriving in the first week of October, so we are prepared when the harvest begins.

Training

The ISM will be holding mandatory two day training sessions which will run weekly on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Please contact palreports@gmail.com for further information.

Ongoing campaigns

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

ISM maintains a constant presence in Hebron, where settler harassment and violence is a regular occurrence. Lately, Israeli army violence has escalated for Palestinians living in proximity to the illegal inner-city settlement. Israeli forces have used the Palestinian neighborhoods for military training. Harassment, humiliations and violence is an almost daily occurrence. A valuable part of the ISM’s work in Hebron is to monitor checkpoints near Palestinian schools. In the morning and afternoon schoolchildren have to pass through the checkpoints, which often lead to violent situations. From time to time young Palestinian boys throw stones on the occupying forces, which leads to collective punishment by the Israeli Forces as they lob dozens of teargas canisters and stun grenades, onto the schoolchildren. ISM is present at these checkpoints to document these extremely violent responses to boys throwing pepples, and to serve as an protective presence.

ISM also has an apartment in Nablus from where we work on a number of projects including resisting demolitions in various villages, and supporting Palestinians resisting settler theft of their lands. In addition to these activities, we participate in the weekly demonstration in Kafr Qaddum, where protesters face excessive force by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

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.

In Solidarity,

ISM Palestine

Israeli forces uproot trees and destroy greenhouses in Kafa district

8th of December 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Tulkarm Team | Kafa district, occupied Palestine

Settlers from the nearby settlements and soldiers watched the scene

On Tuesday, Israeli forces entered the village of Kafa in the outskirts of occupied Tulkarm. Within a few hours, they uprooted over 150 olive trees, 30 lemon trees and demolished four greenhouses from the land of the Esmail family. Even though this land has been owned by the family for multiple generations, Israel has declared it state property. “They didn’t just cause a loss of income, they also attacked my culture and my heritage”, says Munir Fathi Esmail, owner of the land.

The farmers were harvesting tomatoes inside one of the greenhouses when the Israeli forces entered the farm with bulldozers. The army didn’t give any notice for their intervention. The operation was covered by 12 soldiers from the israeli army and 4 men from the Isreali border police. Palestinians witnessing the demolition suspected that some of the armed Israeli civilians that assisted during the destruction were from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Avnei Hefetz, located just a few kilometers away. One of the armed settlers was instructing the bulldozer where to go, and telling the international human rights activists that where present to back off.

Israeli forces uprooted trees with a bulldozer

Munir explained that even though he will be able to buy new greenhouses, the economic loss resulting to the uprooting would be severe. “I will be dead before the new trees will be old and strong enough to give the same amount of harvest”, he stated.
The destruction of farmland, wich is illegal under international law, is just one form of oppression that the Palestinian farmers are facing. This farm, like most other agricultural areas in the West Bank is located in Area C, as 60% of the West Bank, fully controlled by the Israeli authorities. For Palestinian farmers in area C, this means harsh restrictions of movement, sometimes not being allowed access to their lands as well as not being allowed to build new constructions. Israel uses these methods as a way to get Palestinian farmers to leave their land, in order to give more room for expanding settlements. But Munir Fathi Esmail is determined to stay : “I will plant new trees, and I will never leave my land.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXfo5ExK6a4&app=desktop