Tag: Salfit

Note under a rock: “We’re stealing your land”

12th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Bruqin, Occupied Palestine

It was only days after it had been placed that a farmer accidentally found a piece of paper that stated he was no longer the owner of his own land. The undated paper, in Hebrew and Arabic, had been hidden under a rock in the farmer’s fields in the village of Bruqin, occupied Palestine. It said that the farmer’s land was being taken for the expansion of the nearby illegal Israeli settler colony of Ariel west.

This farmer was not the only one to be informed about a crime in such a way. More land owners, including the village’s mayor, received the same notifications. Additionally, this week the Jerusalem Post published an announcement that more than 500 new houses would be built on land stolen from Bruqin and its neighbouring villages Sarta and Kafr-ad-Dik (the article itself made no mention of the villages, implying they don’t exist). The exact number of dunums of land being stolen is not clear. Villagers have been given 60 days to file official complaints with the occupation authorities. New houses may be built any time now.

Area of land stolen from Bruqin, Sarta and Kafr-ad-Dik (Photo by Stop the Wall)
Area of land stolen from Bruqin, Sarta and Kafr-ad-Dik (Photo by Stop the Wall)

The illegal settler colony of Bruchin started off as a military base in 1999. Not long after, the first houses were built on a hilltop; today, there are around 50 of them, with some still standing empty. According to residents of Palestinian villages, those and any newly built houses will be free for incoming illegal settlers. This is one of the tricks the Israeli Apartheid state uses to increase the number of illegal settler colonisers in occupied Palestine: to provide them with free houses built on land stolen from its Palestinian owners.

All settler colonies in Palestine are illegal under international law. In 2012, the illegal settler colony of Bruchin was “legalised” as an “authorised settlement” by that same power that does not respect human rights nor international – or even its own – laws. The latest announced land theft in Bruqin, Sarta, and Kafr-ad-Dik is just another logical step in this crime.

Bruqin is situated 13 km west of the city of Salfit; the industrial zone of the illegal settler colony Ariel can be seen from the village, as is Bruchin. In addition to land theft, constant military invasions, settler and wild pig attacks, the village is under severe stress from sewage and untreated wastewater that is released from the settlement and its factories. Pumped underground, chemical wastewater contaminates local water resources and causes immense damage to the natural environment; the settler sewage river that runs through the village is just one example of such behaviour. Residents say that cancer cases in Bruqin are much higher than Palestinian average; children in particular are suffering.

The location of Bruqin, Sarta, and Kafr-ad-Dik, as well as other neighbouring villages, is strategically important: the Salfit Governorate boasts some of the most productive water zones of the Western Aquifer, a key water resource in Palestine. They also fall in the way of the “Ariel finger”, the Zionist project that intends to annex Palestinian land by connecting the many illegal settler colonies in the area into one big entity. It would also cut the West Bank in two, putting even more pressure on the Palestinian people.

Salfit continues to suffer from illegal settlement sewage

18th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Salfit, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

The agricultural district of Salfit, about 25 miles north of Jerusalem, is facing health and environmental problems throughout its villages because of a constant stream of sewage from nearby illegal Israeli settlements, most notably Barkan and Ariel settlements which also hold illegal factory developments. See the below video with photos and video taken on a recent visit to Salfit by solidarity activists.

Salfit’s rich agriculture threatened by factory development and settlers’ sewage

3th April 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Salfit, Occupied Palestine

By Team Nablus

Illegal Israeli factory settlements in Salfit are threatening to damage the rich agricultural land of the surrounding villages and are adding a health risk already escalating due to sewage flow from illegal Israeli settlements in Salfit.

Salfit municipality representatives said that some of the illegal factory developments in Salfit are banned from existing in 1948 Palestine by Israeli environmental law; however, on Palestinian land in the West Bank, the factories can run without regard to the same environmental risks. Palestinian farmers in Salfit also say that trees are threatened and dying due to the factory development.

The two largest illegal settlements in Salfit are Ariel and Barkan. Both settlements have industrial and domestic establishments. Sewage from those settlements and others in Salfit run sewage rivers in the 18 Salfit villages. Winter rains earlier this year had the sewage flooding roads, forcing village municipalities to bulldoze river trails for the sewage.

Municipality representatives in Salfit also noted that the smell and insects from the sewage streams are causing stomach and skin illnesses for Palestinians, illnesses which have in some cases not been seen for 10 years in the population. Covering the sewage is also prohibited as some Salfit villages exist under Area C, under full Israeli civil and security control.

Additionally, Salfit Palestinians are restricted by road closures and sometimes threatened by vandalism from nearby settlers. Last year, settlers set fire to a mosque in Burqeen, a village that suffers severely from the sewage overflow from illegal settlements in addition to agricultural damage from settlement factory development.

Another ongoing issue in Salfit concerns the Wadi Kana valley near Dir Istya. The 7 km rich agricultural valley is surrounded by five illegal Israeli settlements whose residents frequently use the valley for recreational visits protected by Israeli soldiers. The valley is a land cultivated by farmers in Dir Istya. During settler visits, Palestinians say they cannot be in the valley.

Salfit district is about 25 miles north of Jerusalem with about 24 illegal Israeli settlements in and around its villages. It is said to hold three tombs of prophets, making it a destination for large groups of Israeli visitors that often disrupt residents and are a source of vandalism in the area. Visits by these large groups, Israeli soldier protected, and the illegal development of settlements and factories causes constant concern for the health of the district’s agriculture and the ability of Salfit Palestinians to live peacefully on their land.

Curfew imposed on Kifl Hares as settlers invade

21 December 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Kifl Haris, Occupied Palestine

At around 9.30pm last night several Israeli Army vehicles entered the village of Kifl Haris as they do many times every year. They immediately imposed a strict unannounced curfew. The Israeli military tell nobody this will happen, nobody can leave their homes, nobody is able to visit a doctor or a hospital. If settlers attack your home you must deal with it alone. Kifl Haris is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located six kilometres west of Salfit and 18 kilometres south of Nablus. Unfortunately for the villagers of Kifl Haris they are amongst the nearest village to the West Banks largest illegal settlement Ariel.

The pretext of the invasion into Kifl Haris is a pilgrimage to three disputed tombs, praying and dancing at a site they claim holds the remains of biblical ancestors. But as a resident explained, if they want to visit the tombs, why does it have to start in the middle of the night, and go onto the morning? Why do my children have to lay awake as they sing and drink alcohol? This isn’t about religion. This about them continuously intimidating us and seizing our land.

Settlers invade the village anywhere between 5 or 10 times a year, with an Israeli military escort. Last year at around the same time around 10,000 settlers invade the village of Kifl Haris. They arrived at midnight and stayed till around 7 in the morning. This year as we awaited the arrival of the settler party we heard reports that 60 bus loads were waiting at the entrance to the village. Fortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and the rain began to fall very heavily, only a fraction of the numbers of Israeli’s that were expected actually made streets of Kifl Haris.

On certain visits the settlers have caused various different sorts of damage the village of Kifl Haris. They have forced their way into peoples homes leaving a trail of destruction behind them and often have damaged cars, by puncturing tyres or smashing windows. As the rain continued to fall the organisers began to pack belongings away earlier than expected by 2am in the morning. Although the settlers left early the Israeli Military continued to aggressively and beep there horns and rev their engines, in what certainly seemed to be intimidation.

 

Kufr ad-Dik: At the crossroads of Israeli confiscation

by Neil

30 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The village of Kufr ad-Dik in the Salfit region of the West Bank has become the latest in a series of villages to launch weekly protests against mass land theft by Israeli occupying forces.

Residents of Kufr ad-Dik took part in their fifth demonstrationon Friday, 27th of January. While this demonstration was short due to weather conditions, the previous demonstration on the 20th of January was much longer. Israeli forces used large amounts of tear gas to repel the protesters before firing more gas directly into the village and using rubber bullets on some remaining demonstrators.

Two ISM activists were the only internationals present at the most recent demonstration, and there were   no Israeli activists. This is in spite of the presence of perhaps dozens of internationals and Israelis at the  nearby demonstration in Nabi Saleh.

Eighty percent of the land of the village has been confiscated by  the Israeli military  in the name of security. The village is surrounded by four different settlements as well as a collection of recently built Israeli factories. Israel currently has plans to build a fifth settlement nearby atop a hill.

Eleven houses are currently under demolition orders, some of them for the past three years.  A total of twenty-one farm buildings have also been served with demolition orders. So far five of them have been demolished. Most recently, on 17th December, three wells and five rooms belonging to one farmer were destroyed.

The region of Salfit, in which Kufr ad-Dik is situated is extremely important to Israel both because of its possession of significant water resources. Its location comes at at a point where the border separating 1948 lands and Palestinian villages is quite thin. There are currently eighteen illegal Israeli settlements in the Salfit region, but only eleven Palestinian villages.

Neil is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed.)