Tag: Olive Trees - Page 8 - International Solidarity Movement

Big turn out and high spirits at Wadi Fukin Land Day olive tree planting and protest

31th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil Team | Wadi Fukin, Occupied Palestine

On Monday March 30th about two hundred people commemorated Land Day in the village of Wadi Fukin. The protest, which involved planting olive trees was a response to Israeli theft of village land.

Land Day protest marching in the streets of Wadi Fukin.

After midday prayer around two hundred Palestinians and internationals gathered in the village of Wadi Fukin to commemorate Land Day and support the villagers struggle against the illegal Israeli expropriation of their lands. People from Wadi Fukin, neighbouring villages and internationals started their march towards the green line carrying Palestinian flags, digging tools, playing music and singing, to where the settlement of Beitar Illit is forcibly taking over Palestinian land in order to expand. The protest continued peacefully through the small streets of Wadi Fukin and just before going to the hill above the village every protester was given an olive tree to carry. Spirits were high as protesters climbed the village hill overshadowed by the settlement expansion site and began to take back Palestinian land by planting the trees.

A village caught between settlements and under extreme pressure
Wadi Fukin is in a valley sandwiched between the Green Line to the north-west and the fastest-growing illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Beitar Illit. With around 80.000 inhabitants (as of 2014), Beitar Illit is part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc surrounding and cornering Wadi Fukin. In order to expand these settlements and steal even more land, the apartheid wall is being built on Palestinian land far inside the Green Line around this settlement bloc. Regular Friday demonstrations are held in Wadi Fukin protesting against this continuous illegal land grab.

200 people at Land Day protest in Wadi Fukin, Beitar Illit settlement block in the background.

Military attacking unarmed Palestinians on their own land.
As Land Day protesters reached the Israeli construction site they managed to plant both olive trees and Palestinian flags directly on the site. While Palestinian flags and olive trees popped up on the ground, young Palestinian men and women also managed to take over and plant flags on the unmanned bulldozers and tractors parked there.

After about ten minutes on the site 4 military jeeps arrived with more than 40 soldiers and border police. The military attacked the protesters with tear gas and stun grenades and a police helicopter began circling the area and filming the protesters from the sky. As tear gas clouds drove the protesters from their lands and down the hill, soldiers began kicking down and destroying the newly planted olive trees and flags.

Soldiers and border police gassing protesters on their own land.

Spirits kept high in spite of tear gassing
Though several people suffered from tear gas poisoning the protest continued on the hill between Wadi Fukin village and the settlement expansion on the Green Line. Alternately running from tear gas and planting trees, protesters managed to stay on the hill for an hour continuing to plant and protest.

As everyone returned to the village spirits remained high and the succesful event was celebrated with music, speeches and freshly made bread.

Olive tree and flag planting at Land Day protes, Wadi Fukin.

Land Day – a historic day for fighting occupation and expropriation
Land Day marks the day of a general stike on March 30th in 1976. The strike was a response to the Israeli Government’s expropriation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian land. There were marches in Palestinian cities within present-day Israel from the Naqab to Galilee. Six unarmed Palestinians were killed, 100 wounded and hundreds more arrested. The Land Day was a turning point in the struggle against the occupation as it was the first mass mobilization by Palestinians within the borders of 1948 Israel.

Protests have been and will be continue to be going on all through the West Bank in the weeks surrounding Land Day.

Resistance to the destruction of olive trees in Wadi Qana

Tuesday, 17th March 2015, four farmers in the Salfit valley of Wadi Qana were issued with notices that they had 48 hours to remove their olives trees or they would be removed at their own cost. Failure to execute the orders are punishable by imprisonment, or fines up to the maximum penalty of the law.

Supporters, many from the nearby village of Deir Istiya, as well as locals and internationals, turned out in anticipation of soldier presence or settler provocation, but no conflict took place.

A crowd of approximately 250 supporters gathering in the valley were met by a festive atmosphere. Representatives from various organisations in conjunction with the Deir Istiya Municipality converged to remove waste from the spring and its surroundings.

In 2008 and 2011 farmers of Wadi Qana were issued with similar notices. These removal orders were not carried out. In 2012 trees were removed without notice. Approximately 3,000 trees have been destroyed in Wadi Qana by settler attacks and by order of Israeli authorities.

The Deir Istiya region has a population of approximately 12,000 people, 4,000 of whom live in town. The illegal settlements of the area, of which seven surround Wadi Qana, house approximately 15,000 settlers. Wadi Qana itself sits within the 31,000 hectares around Deir Istiya which has been zoned as Area C, leaving only the 1,527 hectares of the township in Palestinian controlled Area A. Under the Oslo Accords, Israeli law forbids Palestinians to build structures or plant trees in Area C, while conversely, entitling illegal Israeli settlements to develop and expand. (Al Jazeera has a good explanation of the different areas here.)

Speaking of the situation in Area C, a frustrated resident of Deir Istiya exclaimed, “They have the right to cut the old olive trees but we have no right to grow a new one. See the discriminations?”

Wadi Qana is a strategic area in the region, containing several significant natural springs. These springs and the crops which they irrigate have been under serious threat since 1994 when settlements began running sewage into the valley. While this practice was limited in 2005, many ocurrences have been identified, with four settlements’ waste currently believed to be pumping into the valley below.

While only two of the seventeen natural springs remain unpolluted, water from the underground aquifers is dropping due to the increasing demands of the ongoing settlement expansion. This has caused many farmers to move away from orange and vegetable crops to the more arid-adapted olive trees. The livelihoods of farmers of Wadi Qana are increasingly under threat because of the occupation and its apartheid laws.

Palestinian protesters honor Tristan Anderson on 6th anniversary of his shooting

16th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

During last week’s Friday demonstration in Ni’lin the inhabitants of the village commemorated the anniversary of US activist Tristan Anderson’s shooting during a protest in the village six years ago. At the demonstration Israeli forces fired several hundred tear gas grenades and canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, and two rounds of live ammunition at protesters.

nilin5 — Soldiers aimed tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition at demonstrators in Ni’lin

The demonstration began from the village mosque after noon prayers, as villagers accompanied by international and Israeli activists marched down a road leading towards the Apartheid Wall. Palestinians from Ni’lin carried posters calling for justice for Tristan Anderson.

Tristan, who was volunteering with ISM at the time, was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas grenade by Israeli border police on March 13, 2009 after that week’s Friday demonstration in Ni’lin. The injury left him with permanent severe brain damage. He now suffers chronic pain, is blind on his right eye, paralyzed and requires 24-hour care. Tristan’s family is currently pursuing a civil lawsuit in court demanding that the Israeli government pay for the extensive care Tristan will need for the rest of his life.

As the protesters were walking towards the wall, which Israel illegally built on Ni’lin’s lands, Israeli forces fired several dozen rounds of tear gas to disperse the protestors. The Apartheid Wall annexed hundreds of dunums of Ni’lin’s land, which the village’s farmers can now no longer access.

After the initial military assault demonstrators spread out into the fields and Palestinian youth began throwing stones toward the army. The clashes went on for several hours, during which Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Toward the end of the demonstration, as Israeli forces retreated back behind the apartheid wall, they increased the amount of tear gas fired and threw several stun grenades. Finally as some of the youths followed the soldiers a hill overlooking the village, Israeli forces fired two rounds of live ammunition, though no one was hit or injured by the bullets. The protest ended when the Israeli occupation forces went back behind the Apartheid Wall and shot a few final rounds of tear gas.

nilin3 — Israeli forces blanketed Ni’lin’s olive groves with tear gas

Ongoing harassment and restrictions on farmers around Nablus

12th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Burin, Salim, and Awarta, Occupied Palestine

Early spring marks an important time of the year for farmers around Nablus, where critical work must be done to ensure a quality olive harvest in October. In high tension regions, where farmers risk settler attacks while accessing their land, District Coordination Offices have negotiated to ensure specific days when Palestinians can access their land under the “supervision” of Israeli forces.

In Burin, farming has been severely restricted by harassment from the surrounding Yizhar and Bracha illegal settlements. Sunday 8th March was the first of only three days in which farmers of Burin were permitted to access their own land. On this day, farmers attempting to reach their olive trees found 75 cut down and the road blocked by large stones, placed by settlers from the nearby illegal settlements. The following day, 3 villagers on tractors were attacked by settlers who threw stones from the hilltops. Israeli forces declared the area a closed military zone and the Palestinians were forced to leave. This restriction remained in place for what would have been their final access day.

Burin road block — Settlers blocked the road to Burin’s farmland with a stone barrier – Photo by Palestinian farmer in Burin

Settler harassment is common in Burin, with tensions running high during this critical period which also coincides with the 40 days of mourning since the death of 19 year old Ahmad Al-Najar.

grafitti Burin — Hebrew graffiti reads “God is King” on a Burin house which has been abandoned due to its proximity to settlements

The story is similar in nearby Salim, where Palestinian farmers found 300 olive trees uprooted by Israeli forces. Furthermore, in nearby Azmut it has been reported that farmers’ bulldozers have been confiscated and 2 men arrested on the grounds that the area is now classified as an Israeli Nature Reserve.

On Tuesday, ISM volunteers accompanied farmers from Awarta village as they plowed the land around their olive groves. Trees in this valley are reported to be from Roman times, along the ancient route to Jordan.

olive tree awarta — Roman-era olive trees in Awarta village

Local residents explained that turning the soil increases crop quality, removing weeds and thus competition for water and nutrients. Military presence had been limited thus far, with little contact with settlers. In previous years, clashes have broken out with residents of the illegal settlement of Itamar, which has recently constructed an access road through the farming land.

Many farmers have only 3 weeks a year in total to access their land; up to a week for plowing and around two weeks for harvesting their entire crop. Access outside of these periods entails high risk of settler attacks and military force. Thus crops are left vulnerable to settlers, with many trees cut down, burnt, poisoned, or used as for grazing livestock, damaging soils and young trees. Restricted access also significantly diminishes the ability to establish new crops as water and nutrient requirements are far greater in this time. As a result, many farmers are choosing to leave their land and find other means of income.

olive trees + settlements Awarta — Olive groves in Awarta overlooked by illegal settlements

Israeli settlers cut 36 olive trees in the South Hebron Hills

22nd February 2015 | Operation Dove | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

On the morning of February 20, Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills awoke to find that 36 olive trees had been cut or seriously damaged during the night, probably by Israeli settlers. The 25 year-old trees, owned by the Hushiy family from Yatta, were located near the village of Qawawis in the South Hebron Hills, between the Israeli illegal outpost of Mitzpe Yair and the Israeli settlement of Suseya, beside Bypass road 317.

p1060765_800 — The Hushiy family’s damaged olive trees – photo by Operation Dove

p1060762_800 — Olive tree cut by Israeli settlers from illegal settlements in the South Hebron Hills – photo by Operation Dove

This is the third incident of Israeli settler ‘price tag’ vandalism against the Palestinian inhabitants of the South Hebron Hills in the last two months. On January 9, in the same area between the Bypass road 317 and Suseya settlement, Palestinians discovered nearly 200 olive trees cut on their property. On December 31, two settlers threw a molotov cocktail into a Palestinian house in Ad Deirat village.

Palestinian residents of the South Hebron hills have suffered from the presence of Israeli settlers since the 70s. By occupying Palestinian agricultural lands and destroying Palestinian olive trees, crops and property the settlers seek to deprive the Palestinians of their main livelihood. Ongoing settler violence deprives Palestinian families of security in daily life, and restricts their freedom of movement.

According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are also considered illegal also under Israeli law.

Despite attempts by settlers to force them from the area through violence and intimidation, the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills remain strong in their commitment to nonviolent popular resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.