12th January 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Occupied Palestine
Today in Kfar Qaddum the protesters, marching towards the road closed off due to the illegal settlement of Kadumim, were suppressed by Israeli military. Protesters were met with teargas and rubber coated steel bullets. Luckily there were no serious injuries. Three days ago though, hundreds of settlers from the illegal settlement of Havat Gilad attacked the neighboring village of Far’ata.
When ISMers spoke to the protesters in Kfar Qaddum, they expressed more relief than usual about there being no serious injuries today. “There is so much violence around the West Bank right now, so if something happened here we fear that it would go unnoticed.” says the main coordinator Murad Shtawi. He showed ISM the video taken by his friends in Far’ata where dozens of settlers forcibly enter the village.
Following the funeral of a recently killed settler from the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, dozens of settlers attacked the nearby village of Far’ata. The settlers from the illegal outpost threw stones at seven Palestinian homes, breaking windows and causing other property damage. The attacking settlers also damaged trees belonging to Palestinian villagers.
Photos from the security cameras in the Far’ata families’ homes.
The illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, founded in 2002, has had numerous incidents of land theft, destruction, vandalism, and violence towards nearby Palestinian villages. The illegal outpost is scheduled for demolition under an international agreement, but Israel has yet to remove the illegal outpost. Outposts, like Havat Gilad, are illegal under Israeli and International law.
The villagers in Kfar Qaddum have been protesting the effects of the illegal settlement Kadumim since 2011. Apart from the land theft, which is still ongoing, in 2003 the villagers lost their main connection with Nablus increasing their commute to almost an hour instead of previous ten minutes.
15th November 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwarra, Occupied Palestine
Israeli settlers of Yitzhar, set fires in two places in Palestinian olive fields around their illegal outposts, and attacked a group of farmers a day later, under the eyes of around 30 border police, present at the site.
On Sunday 5 November, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, ISM activists saw smoke coming from olive fields on both hillsides underneath an outpost of Yitzhar, the illegal settlement south of Nablus, built on the Hill between the Palestinian villages Huwarra and Burin.
It wasn’t the first time this has happened. Since the expropriation of the farmland of Huwarra, Burin and Madama, and the illegal creation and steady expansion of the Israeli settlement Yitzhar, violent settlers do anything they can to harm the Palestinian farmers and families without any risk of being punished for these crimes.
Attacked in 2016. No sign of life a year later.
A farmer from Burin, whose olive field was set on fire, explained to us that the settler group chased him and his two companions and that they managed to escape.
The Palestinian Fire-brigade of Burin waited for permission from the Israeli authority to extinguish the fire, which they apparently did not get.
Israel is authoritative for the security in Area-C, and should instead of blocking the Palestinian Fire brigade, fight any fire in Area-C themselves, which it has not done in the 25 year since this authority was agreed on in the Oslo accords.
Instead of this, we saw border police, settler security and the settlers side-by-side in the illegal Hilltop outpost, looking at the burning fields.
The next day, 6 November 2017 already at 8:30 AM, a group of nine settlers tried to attack farmers and workers who had official permission of the Israeli security authority, to harvest and cultivate the fields of the Owda family, which was partly burned down the previous day.
The large group of border police refused us entrance to the the area, which apparently was declared a closed military zone. The commander showed us the declaration on a paper, which didn’t show many details.
Instead of assisting the farmers, we could only be remotely present and filmed the situation from a distance. We again witnessed a close cooperation between the settlers, the settler-security and the border police. The threat of an instant attack was constantly felt that day.
Around 14:30, a group of around 20 settlers attacked the farmers, and most border-police did little to avoid it and arrested none of the settlers. Instead it commanded the farmers to stop their work and quickly leave their land.
Settlement outpost are illegal, even by Israeli law, although that law may change one day.
In February 2017, the Israeli Knesset passed a new law to legalize all 4000 illegal outposts. But, the High Court had concerns and postponed the implementation in August 2017.
However, if that law ever comes to reality, it would accept these 4000 outposts as new settlements ready to expand, and would give legality to the expropriation of more private Palestinian land, in a clear violation of the Oslo Agreements of 1993.
1st October 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Urif, Einabus & Huwara, occupied Palestine
It was a somber trip through the villages of Urif, Einabus, and Huwara yesterday. Their peripheries continue to be threatened by the illegal settlement of Yitzar, which sits strategically on a hill above them, allowing for fast and terrifying raids on the Palestinians’ homes and cash crops below.
The mayor of Urif shows ISM activists where settler attacks have come from
In Urif we met the mayor, who walked us by the village school and within view of the illegal settlement houses perched above a hillside rich with olives. Finally, he took us to see a man named Munir al-Nuri, the subject of a tragic story about an April day that would change his life forever. It surely began like any other – with the handful of chores that keep his house up and running. On this day however, heavily armed settlers – in the company of Israeli soldiers, no less – would march into his village, enter his home, beat him, break his legs, terrorize his family in the process, destroy the family car, and as a final measure, slice his foot open with a knife, robbing him of any hope of working his land for the next year, possibly longer. Needless to say, the soldiers did nothing to protect Munir, discourage the settler from carrying out more attacks like it in the future, or provide justice or reparations to Munir’s family. It was a gut punch for us listening, and frankly we didn’t know whether to cry or scream at the injustice of it all.
Munir al-Nuri keeps printed photos of the extremist settler who attacked him in his home.
In Einabus, we sat in the office of a local council member, who again walked us through the terrors of the same settlers in his village. He began with the chemical poisoning of the Palestinians’ olive trees – a break from the settlers’ more commonly used tactic of simply burning them. Finally, he came to the story of a shepherd who encountered an invading settler out in the fields. The settler, heavily armed and primed for violence, stripped him of his clothes and sent him naked back to his village – an obvious form of cultural and psychological warfare in a modest society, and even further, one that conjures up remembrances of Abu Ghraib. The man had a heart attack and died a week after the event.
As we sat in his office, I felt a similar thought passing through all of us: ”How could I possibly convey the gravity of what I was hearing to people – particularly Zionists – back home?”. With the hill perfectly framed by the window behind him, the stories carried a certain resonance.
Short of people sitting there with us, however, and looking at the hillside, where you’re actually able to picture the death squads walking down the hill into the villages, I remain unconvinced that it will translate. But perhaps a start, for those who don’t understand just what the illegal settlements mean for Palestinians, or who yet don’t care, would be to emphasize that the buildings themselves are not the source of such primal terror felt by the villagers. It’s the settlers – barbarically violent and insulated from recourse – that constitute the more immediate danger.
While the land itself is pregnant with meaning, as is the Palestinian memory it summons, the truth of these settlements is that no matter how inanimate they may seem, they’re ultimately tantamount to neatly paved, artfully constructed gore. When Netanyahu, Danny Danon, and the like talk about “strengthening the settlements”, what they’re really advocating for is bloodshed. Not hyperbolically, and not anything less. Brick by brick, Palestinians are attacked, they’re murdered, their farms and olive trees and their livelihoods set on fire. Next year their kids will grow weaker with hunger, life savings will be tapped into just to make ends meet, and the flame of bright futures will be extinguished in an instant. And all of this will happen because of mere buildings, for the settlers are the settlements – terrorizing, functionally above the law, and quite literally a threat to Palestinian survival.
Masked settlers in Urif the day Munir al-Nuri was attacked, with Israeli soldiers protecting them. Credit: Institute for Middle East Understanding
8th September 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara-team | Kafr Qaddum, occupied Palestine
During the demonstration in Kfar Qaddum today, Friday the 8th of September, a 20-year old Palestinian protester was shot with a rubber coated steel bullet in his chest, and treated at the scene, while camera drones were buzzing above the heads of the participants. The ISM-ers present also noticed how the Israeli military forces were photographing and filming the protesters. This material is usually used in order to arrest participants, often underage and denied access to lawyers.
Israeli military forces taking photos and filming the protesters.
The Israeli army is blocking the road leading from the village of Kfar Qaddum to the city of Nablus since 2003. The closure of the road has doubled the commute to Nablus for the villagers, increasing both travel time and cost. Since 2011 the villagers have protested weekly against this road closure.
The settlement of Quedummim, bulit in 1975, has expanded over the last years, and during just the past weeks new illegal mobile homes have been placed in the outskirts of the settlement annexing more Palestinian land. The caravans are placed strategically in order to connect the two parts of Quedummim, which would cause the Kfar Qaddum villagers losing several dunams (hectar) of land nourishing hundreds of olive trees.
The illegal caravans placed strategically between the illegal Israeli settlement of Quedummim and the land with olive trees belonging to the village of Kfar Qaddum.
The expansion of settlements, blocking of roads and land thefts are witnessed daily in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.
5th September 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Umm al-Kheir, south Hebron, occupied Palestine
Spent the last two days at Umm Al Khair, a Bedouin village in the South Hebron Hills enjoying the wonderful hospitality, generosity, and loving kindness. This was not my first trip there. And as much as I hate to say it, as with most things in Palestine, things are so much worse than my last visit. The illegal colonial settlement of Carmel belonging to the entity called israel surrounds the village on almost every side. Some of the tents and housing units are less than 20 feet from the “security” fence. Housing units in the illegal settlement have increased and more are being built with plans to take more of the land owned by the village to continue expansion.
Some of the newest settler homes in Carmel
The villagers sit day after day waiting for the illegal occupation soldiers to come with their bulldozers to demolish more of their housing. People speak openly about their discouragement for their future but still stand steadfast that they will not be moved or defeated. Our tent was one of those closest to the Fence and for two nights we sat up most of the night while zionists threw stones and rocks over the fence at the tent at anything that appeared to move. The village leader says the violence is increasing all of the time and fears that one of these night something much worse than rocks will be thrown. Fortunately no one was hurt (physically) the past two nights but there was little to no sleep for us or any of the men of the village who sat up keeping and open eye and ear to try to spot the thugs doing this. The commotion would wake up many of the villagers and you could hear the crying of many frightened small children throughout the night.
The “security” fence less than 20 feet from the tent
This is an every night occurrence and everyone is exhausted, all of the time, and can only catch a few hours of sleep after sunrise. Phone calls to the police of the entity called israel Police as well as the Palestinian Authority Police are a waste of time. No one will respond to the calls for help to make the settler violence stop. Many internationals, such as ourselves go for a few nights (when we have the people to do so) to help with a protective presence but it doesn’t stop the ever increasing settler violence. The Bedouins are very peaceful people and are committed to nonviolence but they are called the terrorists by the zionists, and most of the zionist supporting governments of the world (such as the United States). More International presence is needed and more of the world needs to know the truth.
