Tag: Salfit - Page 2 - International Solidarity Movement

CALL TO ACTION: Salfit under brutal settlement expansion

ISM/Charlie Donnelly — Bil’in weekly demonstration, 17th Feb. 2017

11th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement | Occupied Palestine

Since the beginning of the year, the Salfit municipality in the occupied West Bank (Palestine) has become a target not only for illegal settlement expansion and growth but also for the imposition of serious restrictions to the daily lives of Palestinians.

For a long time the Salfit area has been subjected to land theft, the uprooting of olive trees and the pollution of the area’s water supplies, as a result of Israeli-led excavations and the dumping of untreated wastewater coming from illegal settlements. These actions produce severe damage to Palestinian crops and to water sources essential for the livestock, and restrict Palestinians’ access to their lands and means of livelihood, by constraining agricultural activity or transforming agricultural land into natural reserves.

Since 2017 started, the Salfit area has received 30 orders to stop construction work and 3 notifications for land evacuation. On March 23, in Wadi Qana, a village west of Deir Istiya and surrounded by illegal settlements, Palestinian farmers were prohibited to access their lands by the Israeli forces, who justified it with the need to create a “comfortable atmosphere” for the settlers. Two weeks later, on the same area, with no prior notice, 135 olive trees were uprooted, after being described as “damaging to the view and values” of the nature reserve. In total, 165 trees have been uprooted in the Salfit area since the beginning of the year.

Furthermore, in two cases (both in Salfit municipality and Bruqin), municipality crews’ work that would allow Palestinians access to their agricultural lands was stopped by Israeli forces, and 100 dunums of Palestinian land were confiscated in order to expand an industrial zone around illegal Israeli settlements or to build new roads connecting these illegal settlements to Jerusalem and Israel.

As the lives of the Palestinians living in this area continue to be deeply affected by the intensifying attacks against their mobility and access to their lands, they still challenge them by organizing popular demonstrations, solidarity vigils and working with human rights organisations.

Support by the international community, both abroad and in occupied Palestine is still necessary. ISM urges you to denounce the situation by:

Exposing the practices of the occupation in international forums;
Contacting your state authorities and pressuring them to halt relations and cooperation with the occupying state as per BDS guidelines;
To share the stories of Palestinians affected by the reality of the occupation and the violation of their basic human rights;
To visit Palestine in a demonstration of solidarity;
To support the right of the Palestinian people to nonviolently resist occupation, as a right enshrined in international law.

If you wish to join the International Solidarity Movement please contact your nearest support group for a briefing (see our website, bottom-right corner). If you are currently in the UK, please note that a training session will be held in Manchester on the 22nd and 23rd of April.

Israeli forces demolish Palestinian farm in Abu al-Ra’eesh, west of Salfit

5th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Abu al-Ra’eesh, occupied Palestine

*Israeli forces demolish residential tents and livestock pens in Abu al-Ra’eesh*

On the morning of April 5, 2017, the Israeli occupation forces demolished residential tents and six sheep pens in the area of Abu al-Ra’eesh, southwest of Dirbolut, west of Salfit.

The structures belonged to the Shheibar family and were located between the villages of Deir Balout and al-Lubban. They were forcefully removed by Israeli forces, who ordered the owner to remove the remaining structures within a week. According to the owner, Mohammad Shheibar, the demolition order was only issued three days ago.

2016 saw an average of 156 Palestinian structures a month demolished by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, displacing over 1,500 people and destroying the livelihoods of another 7,000. Meanwhile, building permits are frequently granted to the 550,000 colonial Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank, and Israeli authorities remain intent on expanding the nearby illegal settlement of Elqana.

Israeli forces take a next step in threatening 3 families from Deir Istyia.

December 9th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Deir Istyia, occupied Palestine

In the end of November we told the story of three families, living in the outskirts of Deir Istyia who were under daily threats and harassment from the Israeli forces. Now the threatening from the IOF has reached another level for these 3 families. Last week the soldiers cut both the electrity ground cable to the house and a couple of days later the powerline, one of the families was therefore without electricity for 7 hours. The family waited an hour and a half before they dared going out, see what happened and why the electrity went off. When they went out, the soldiers started shooting teargas towards them and their house, while shouting that they should leave the area. The Israeli forces also threw stones at the houses.

We visited the families twice last week. Both parents and children were traumatized after repeated attacks. We realized how Israeli Defence Forces are threatening vulnerable families to take over their houses and land that have been theirs for decades. One of the families who used to live there moved into the village of Deir Istyia last year. Now the army is trying to make these three families’ lives so unbearable that they too would decide to move out.

Near Salfit, Palestinians try to save the last hill that is not yet occupied with a settlement

December 4th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement with IWPS, Huwwara team | Kafr Addik, occupied Palestine

On friday 4th of december, around 50 locals from the villages of Kafr Addik, Bruqin, Sarta and Biddya, in the Salfit governorate, gathered on a hill called Daher Sabbah, located between the four villages, in order to protest the occupation of their land by Israeli forces and settlers. The group had barely arrived, when the Israeli soldiers and border police came towards them and aggressively ordered them to go back where they came from.

Soldiers took the keys to all cars when people arrived

A first group of people had arrived earlier and managed to reach the top of the hill, but the second group wasn’t let through by the Israeli soldiers. After taking the keys to everyone’s cars, they eventually let the group be united on top of the hill. Locals sat peacefully on the hill and celebrated the morning prayer, guided by sheikh Youssef Qa’oud, who also happened to own this land in earlier times. After the prayer, the group was urged to leave right away.

“I am afraid of young people”, explained the mayor, Jamal Ad’dik, a while later. Because this hill is far from villages and roads, it is hard to access if anyone is injured. “The soldiers who were here today, they wanted to make a problem. One mistake, they shoot. They were here to kill”, he added.

Soldiers stopped Palestinians from going to pray on top of the hill — Soldiers watch Palestinians while they pray on top of the hill.

If people have decided to go to this particular hill for their weekly prayer, it’s because Daher Sabbah is the last one that is not being occupied by a settlement or an outpost, but locals fear this may soon change. Two years ago, the Israeli forces came with bulldozers and started to work to flatten the land during a few months, then stopped. A few months ago, they came back and planted grape trees. According to the mayor, the goal would not be necessarily to build a settlement, but most likely to use this place for agricultural purposes. The villagers want to show, by their presence on Daher Sabbah this past Friday and by making this a weekly meeting, that they refuse to give up this land. “This is our land, we refuse them”, explains Jamal. Two years ago this land was declared state land by the state of Israel, which makes it very difficult for Palestinians to fight for it. The owner of the land, Youssef Qa’oud, took the decision to the military court, to claim that this land was his, as it had been registered, but he lost the case.

Make facts on the ground

This area is a very strategic place for the Israeli forces. 80 % of the village of Kafr Ad’dik, for example, is in area C. Which means that people are allowed to build on 1200 dunums (area B) from the 17 000 dunums that is their village. It is easy, with these settings, to completely block the expansion of Palestinian villages and to have the space and time to expand illegal Israeli settlements intensely. The goal is, as always, to make facts on the ground. “If you go up to Daher Sabbah, every hill is a settlement. You look around and you think ‘where is Palestine, there is no Palestine !’ They want to create history”, says Fares.

In the Salfit area, the four Palestinian villages of Biddya, Sarta, Bruqin and Kafr Ad’dik are separated by an Israeli road, a few settlements and industrial areas. In the east is the illegal settlement of Ariel, fourth largest settlement in the West Bank with a population of over 18 000 people. “They want to deepen Israel in this area. Here it is only 19 kilometres wide”, affirms Fares. But if they can take this hill, then they will be able to open a large cut, a “finger”, as they call it, deep inside the West Bank, all the way to the Za’atara checkpoint, which could, in the end, completely isolate the north from the south of the West Bank.

About 66 litres of water per person and per day

One of the factors that explains Israel’s effort to take over land in the Salfit Governorate is that Kafr Ad’dik, Bruqin, Sarta and Biddyia are standing on the second largest aquifer in historical Palestine. The water is exploited by Israeli water company Makarot, which means that Palestinians have to buy limited resources of water to Israel for an excessive price while the surrounding settlements have access to an unlimited amount for a fair price. For both the villages of Kafr Ad’dik and Bruqin, around 10 500 inhabitants in total, only 700 m3 of water is granted per day, around 66 liters per person and per day. As a comparison in France, the average water consumed per day per person is over 150 litres per day. One of the other problems brought by the presence and expansion of settlements in the area is the water pollution, which would, according to the mayor of the village, be coming from the illegal industrial area of Ale Zahav.

In the last five years, settlements have aggressively expanded in the Salfit area. According to Fares Dik, member of the Kafr Ad’dik municipality, “settlements are 300 % bigger today than in 2010”. Palestinian villages, on the other hand, haven’t been able to grow. In this region the Palestinian population is of around 60 000 divided into 19 villages, but they are now outnumbered by settlers from the 24 illegal Israeli settlements.

Israeli forces invade homes and threaten families with nine children in Deir Istyia

November 30th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement with IWPS, Huwwara team | Deir Istyia, occupied Palestine

Deir Istyia, in Salfit district, is a village of 4000 inhabitants who mostly live on agriculture. The Salfit district has 19 villages and 24 settlements. Land confiscation is ongoing in the area and many of the settlements are growing, as the road that connects them is widening.

The 3 families are now the only Palestinians living on the west side of the road.

Now three families, living in the outskirts of Deir Istyia (see photo), are under daily threats and harassment from the Israeli forces. They don’t know if the goal is to take over their land or just to try to make their lives so unbearable that they will themselves decide to move from the land on which they have been living peacefully for many generations.

It started in the beginning of october this year, where the soldiers started to come to the houses and harass the families, mainly at daytime. Often the women are alone with the children during the day while the men are working. Israeli forces have chosen this time to come to the houses and scare the families. One of the women explained to us that the soldiers hit her, told her that the house wasn’t hers and that she soon would have to move away. They also told her that she was a terrorist, and that the soldiers would soon come back and shoot her.

Over the last 4 days the Israeli forces have been there day and night, telling the families that they have permission to stay on the roof of one of the houses. One night, they stayed all night and slept on the roof. They claim to have to watch the road and the surroundings, because of stone throwers, even though there hasn’t been any stone throwing in that area. Last Saturday, when the soldiers were there, they took pictures of the house and the yard.

Now, the children are very insecure, and their mothers don’t leave the houses as they are afraid of leaving them alone, a situation that makes them feel, as they describe it, as in prison. They can hear the soldiers walking around outside their houses and standing on the olive hill behind them at night.

Volunteers from International Solidarity Movement and International Women’s Peace Service will follow up on the situation of these families.