Tag: Settlers - Page 154 - International Solidarity Movement

Farmers in Saffa persist; access again denied

7 June 2009

This Saturday once again, international and Israeli activists joined farmers from the Saffa area of Beit Ommar on their land near the settlement of Bat Ayn. For the last two months, farmers have been forced to use Israeli and international accompaniment as they pick grape leaves and tend to their land in order to prevent attack from right-wing extremist settlers. The Israeli military has made it even more difficult by constantly ordering the entire area a closed military zone; an act that is supposed to be used temporarily but which this district commander has used to prevent farmers from accessing their land freely for 2 months, in violation of an Israeli supreme court order.

The military, for the second week in a row, selectively enforced the closed military zone against the farmers and solidarity activists while doing nothing to prevent the settlers from moving towards the farmers, screaming insults and rolling boulders down the hillside onto the Palestinian agricultural land.

The Israeli army prevents Palestinian farmers to harvest in the Settlers had also obviously been allowed access to land in the last week; several grape vines and fruit trees belonging to Palestinian farmers had been cut down and an area of the privately owned land had been burned.

The Israeli military forces and border police quickly forced one group of activists and farmers back into the village less than an hour after the group arrived in the area. Two other groups, accompanying Jabber and Hamad Soleiby, worked on the land for approximately 2 hours before border police arrived and ordered them out of the area, presenting a new closed military zone order covering the next seven days. The Israeli army prevents Palestinian farmers to harves in theWhen an Israeli activist approached the border police to remind them of their obligation under the Israeli Supreme Court order that they were required to allow access by the farmers to their agricultural land, he was arrested. Kobi Snitz, with Anarchists Against the Wall, was held for over 4 hours without an arrest report, in violation of the Israeli police’s own policies. He was then taken to the Qryat Arba police station where the police banned him from the Southern West Bank for 3 days. He was released that afternoon.

The farmers in Saffa, assisted by PSP and Ta’ayush, are collecting evidence of the violations of the Israeli military in ordering the area a closed military zone in perpetuity, and also of being complicit in settler attacks on farmers and solidarity activists in order to file legal complaints against the ongoing abuses.

Left-wing activists evacuated from tent built opposite outpost

Anat Shalev | YNet News

6 June 2009

IDF troops forcibly removed dozens of left-wing and Palestinian activists who were trying to erect a tent in South Mt. Hebron with a Palestinian family claiming ownership of the land. The family says that it owns the land near the Susya settlement on which an illegal outpost has been built. Settlers called the outpost Givat Hadegel.

The activists, members of Combatants for Peace, were successful in erecting their tent but were removed from the area a short time later by IDF troops alerted to the scene. A confrontation ensued between the two sides, culminating in the dismantling of the tent. The outpost still stands.

Ofra Ben Porat, a member of Combatants for Peace: “We came here in cooperation with Palestinian residents of Susya to protest the establishment of the outpost called Givat Hadegel, near Susya. This is a specific example of the reality in South Mt. Hebron. Week after week the settlers steal more and more lands, suffocating the Palestinians and their livelihoods, restricting their movement to the absurd point where their flocks can’t graze in the pastures they own. We came to the hill where the outpost was built and decided to build a tent on the Palestinians’ territory to assert their presence.”

Ben Porat accused the military of declaring areas claimed by the settlers as closed military zones and blocking entry to left-wing activists and Palestinians.

“The soldiers cleared us, 200 people, aggressively. There’s no law, everything is done according to the soldiers’ will. We know that even filing a complaint with the police won’t accomplish anything. When Peace Now turned to the military about this outpost, they were told that this outpost isn’t recognized. The policy is deliberately fuzzy, the soldiers set the policies and there’s complete lawlessness when it comes to the Palestinians,” she said.

The IDF has yet to respond to the protestors claims.

Settlers attack Palestinian vehicle with rocks, wounding four, and set fire to land in Qalqiliya district

International Women’s Peace Service

1 June 2009

walla. — Palestinian critically injured by settler during attack on a bus.

On Monday, June 1st, settlers from the Havat Gilad settler outpost in the Qalqiliya district of the West Bank reportedly attacked a minibus transporting 17 Palestinians to their jobs in Israel, critically injuring one. The settlers later burned an estimated 100 dunams of Palestinian land, leaving scorched earth and trees.

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on Monday a busload of 17 Palestinian men, mostly young and all with Israeli work permits, was stopped on the road near the entrance to Qedumim settlement by an estimated 50 settlers, who proceeded to throw rocks at the vehicle. Four workers were injured, one critically, and he remains in hospital.

The workers said Israeli soldiers were just 50 metres away from the settlers at the time of the attack. However, they reported, the soldiers did nothing to stop the settlers, nor did they take subsequent action. One uninjured worker asked soldiers to call an ambulance, but, he reported, they refused and even threatened to shoot him if he did not leave the area, which they had declared a closed military zone.

At around midday the settlers proceeded to burn Palestinian farmland, estimated by Nasser Sedda, the mayor of Jit, to cover 100 dunams and belong to eleven local families. Some of the land was planted with olive trees and with wheat, and an estimated 100 trees were destroyed in the fire. The Israeli army prevented farmers from reaching their land after the fires were set, the mayor reported, and consequently they were not able to extinguish the flames until between 4 and 5 p.m., by which time the damage was extensive.

One farmer with land near the neighbouring village of Immatin said that during last autumn’s olive harvest settlers from Havat Gilad burnt trees on his land. Four dunams of land had also been taken from the 17 dunams he owns for the construction of the outpost, and olive trees destroyed.

People & Power – Courtroom Intifada

Al Jazeera

3 June 2009

The small village of Bil’in is trying to regain land lost to the Separation Wall and an encroaching Jewish settlement through ‘legal resistance’. As their victory in the Israeli Supreme Court continues to be ignored, the villagers, helped by Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard, file a case against the international construction companies who are building the settlements for violating international human rights law by building on occupied land.

Settlers set Palestinian land ablaze and attack villagers in the West Bank

1 June 2009

Settlers rampage on Palestinian land in Faratta village

Early in the morning of the 1st of June, settlers started to burn farm land of the village of Burin. Continuing throughout the day, settlers also set fire to the crops and olive trees of Tell, Jit, Immatin, and Far’ata villages in the Nablus region of the West Bank. Six Palestinians were also attacked violently by settlers while they were on their way to work near the villages.

At 4 o’clock in the morning, the first group of settlers started to come towards a house on the outskirts of Burin. The family had to close all the shutters and doors to stop the settlers from entering the house.

One woman of the house said “We’re very afraid. This is not the first time the settlers have come. They harass us, cut the electricity wires to the house, and throw burning things on our roof.”

The settlers seemed to move away from the village, however, at 6 o’clock the first fires were seen by villagers of Burin only a short distance from the village. The fires burned throughout the day. The presence of settlers, soldiers, and road blocks prevented people and the fire brigade from extinguishing the fires.

Simultaneously, settlers made arson attacks on large areas of land belonging to the villages of Tell, Jit, Immatin, and Far’ata. Some of the settlers were masked and brandishing bats. The Israeli Army restrained the most aggressive settlers and forced the Palestinian farmers, who tried to access their land protesting against the destruction of their crops and olive trees, to leave. The Army threw a sound grenade to disperse the crowd forcing it back to the village.

In addition, six Palestinians were attacked by settlers on their way to work. According to Maan News, one of them, 44-year-old Ali As-Sadda from the village of Jit, was seriously injured and transferred to Al-Arabi Hospital in Nablus with a head injury.