Tag: Yitzhar Settlement

Assira, surrounded on all sides

Assira al Quiblya is a West Bank village up on a hill between Huwwara and Nablus. But unfortunately, it is not sufficiently uphill enough to be free and safe from the Yitzhar settlement. This settlement, one of the most active in assaults, makes life more and more difficult for the Palestinian inhabitants.

outpost — Illegal colonial settlement Yitzhar

For many years Assira has faced the violence of the same script the rest of the occupied territories has faced: night raids, tear gas, sound bombs, and destruction of properties. There is tremendous fear, and the loss of peace and safety.

Currently, Assira is faced with a new problem, not coming from Yitzhar (for the moment), but from its own authorities – those who have the duty to protect its people. It’s hard to believe, but the Village Council has decided, without any consultation with the population, to open a road that will allow the settlers to reach the village more easily and quickly.

The path starts at the edge of Assira and this naturally frightens a lot the people living there, as they are completely exposed to the potential assaults from their extremists neighbors. In order to open the track, they will have to uproot olive trees, a source of both possible income and an important symbol for the Palestinian people. There has been no permission from the owners for this. Wasn’t there sufficient suffering and uncertainty already?

A group of citizens have gone to the Regional Authority hoping to find help to stop the project. It is absurd that the Palestinian people now must fight against the organising body that are supposed to be in charge of defending their rights. It is already a difficult situation caused by the violence of the illegal colonizing settlers and soldiers of the Israeli Occupation Forces.

The struggle continues for this community. Latest news states that the illegal colonial settlers have built a tower near the houses in order to continue to expand their territory.

Is there no end to their bullying?

Link to OCHA report from 2012 of settlement violence on the Palestinian village: https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_yitzhar_map_february_2012_map_english.pdf

Settlers set fire to Palestinian chicken farm

20th April 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team| Madama, Occupied Palestine

On Friday 18th April, during the night in the village of Madama, settlers from a nearby illegal settlement entered a Palestinian farm and sat fire to a newly built chicken house. The damage totaled $12,500 for the 3,500 chickens and their food, as well as $100,000 for the building itself. The Palestinian owner of the chicken house sold his car and some of his land in order to buy this costly farm, it is now completely destroyed.

The farmer described the day this incident occurred, stating how he finished his work and went home, passing two Israeli military jeeps on the road. When he returned to the farm at 4am on Friday, he found his chicken farm burnt to the ground, all 3,500 chicks dead. The fire was started near a window of the farm, most likely started with gasoline.

The owner said that he recently brought a lot of new chicks, and that he felt the attack was probably was planned. As a result of this attack the farmer now has no income.

The village of Madama has been continually attacked by settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Yizhar, as have the nearby villages of Burin and Assira. In Madama, the settlers have recently burned several cars, two houses, and several olive trees; vandalism on Palestinian property is unfortunately common.

The illegal settlement of Yizhar is notorious for its violent settlers, in 2011, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded the largest number of attacks against Palestinians from this settlement.

Illegal extremist settlement of Yitzhar expands during ‘peace talks’

28th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Asira al Qibliya, Occupied Palestine

Around 80 settlers and soldiers brought diggers and steam rollers near the Asira water project and started to flatten ground on private Palestinian land. Residents fear this is the first stage in an expansion of the illegal extremist settlement of Yitzhar that daily attacks Asira and the unfinished water project that will provide the village with the much needed resource.

Construction of illegal settlement expansion, after work was finished in the afternoon (Photo by ISM)

Early in the morning on Wednesday 28th August in Asira al Qibliya around 50 soldiers and 30 settlers set up a tent on the mountain in land between the illegal settlement of Yitzhar and the Asira Water project. Machines were then brought to start work on the land including a digger and a steam roller. The land was flattened in preparation for new illegal structures that will most likely be an expansion of Yitzhar, which is of major concern to the villagers.

The settlement is built on stolen land and the new construction is also taking land from the village, even when organisations such as the UN have visited the site and agreed that it always belonged to Asira, a Palestinian activist working for the village council told international activists. The family who owned the land was given no information by the army about any plans to construct on their property. Any expansion of the settlement not only steals land but puts the villagers in great danger. Settlers from Yitzhar have attacked numerous surrounding villages, attacking villagers, burning land and cutting olive trees. When attacking Asira, settlers have focused most of their attention recently on the construction of a water project that will provide much needed water to the village, presently Asira residents have to buy water tanks to sustain their families. Settlers have thrown petrol bombs to damage the project and stop the workers and recently, on Sunday the 25th August, stole equipment including water pipes. Expanding the illegal settlement puts the water project at greater risk, not just by the attacks of the settlers, but the close proximity to the new expanded settlement could justify it being claimed as a security threat by the army and so demolished.

This new expansion of Yitzhar is an extremely aggressive move by the Israeli occupation given that they are currently claiming to be committed to peace talks. Yitzhar already started to expand during the talks when land was raised near Einabus on the 21st August. The village of Asira feel powerless in the face of these moves.

Settler harassment continues in Asira’s Water reservoir project

4th August 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Asira al Qibliya , Occupied Palestine

This week, settlers from Yitzhar attacked the Asira village water project and its workers, once again. Israeli occupation forces who went to the scene did not to stop the settlers and instead occupied the roof of a Palestinian house located nearby.

On July 31st settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar attacked workers at the water reservoir project above the village of Asira. The Israeli army came to intervene and then in order to “check” invaded the house closest to the water project belonging to a family with small children. The army then stationed themselves on the roof of the water project for the remainder of the day.

The water reservoir project is aimed at providing residents from Asira with running water. Attacks on the project have been happening every day that there are workers present in the last months. Settlers trespass on to Asira village land and attack the workers often making “demonstrations” against the water project which will not affect the settlement in any way.

Asira al Qibliya, an ancient village with the current population of 3,500, and the other villages which surround the illegal settlement of Yitzhar face daily violence from its settlers.

In mid-1980s, the illegal settler colony of Yitzhar was established on the hilltop located around six Palestinian villages. Before the colony, the hilltop area was the locals’ breadbasket, thanks largely to its generous water resources. The nearby natural spring used to be Asira’s main source of water but the illegal settler colony, backed up by the Israeli government and the army, has completely blocked Palestinian access to the spring. Since then, villagers are forced to rely on water tanks; one such tank costs NIS 130 (US $36) in a place where unemployment is high; it is enough for a family for only a week. residents of Asira hope that when the project is completed, they will have access to water.

Residents of the illegal Israeli settler colony of Yitzhar are considered to be among the most violent in occupied Palestine; they physically attack Palestinian villagers (often children), set their land and property on fire, destroy houses, and cut or burn olive trees together with other vital sources of livelihood.

Arson attack on Asira village by illegal settlement of Yitzhar

30th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Asira, Occupied Palestine

At 1.30pm today, 30th May, thirty settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar trespassed on to land above the village of Asira, lighting fires and throwing rocks at around seventy villagers who came to extinguish the flames and defend their village. Israeli military and Border Police cooperated with the settlers whilst standing in front of them, firing teargas and blocking the Palestinians and fire service from putting out the spreading fires that in total burned 200 dunams of village land over the course of two hours.

Settlers from Yitzhar throwing rocks at villagers from Asira while Israeli army looks on

After setting fire to the village land above Asira the settlers then stood and threw rocks at any villagers who came near. Several youth from Asira were injured after being hit by rocks during the attack. Twenty five Israeli soldiers and Border Police were present at the scene throughout the course of events. Countless times the settlers ran down the hill towards the villagers throwing rocks and the army stood by or attempted to prevent the villagers from standing their ground and stopping the settlers from entering the village. In attempts to disperse the villagers the army threw sound bombs and shot tear gas into the stationary crowd.

The villagers could only stand and watch as their land containing olive trees and wheat crops burned in front of them. A tractor with a front end loader was visible at the nearby military outpost digging a trench around it to prevent the fire spreading into the outpost with no consideration taken for the many dunams of village land ignited. At 3pm the settlers turned and ran back up the hill whilst the army stood in front of the villagers threatening them with their guns.

Once the settlers had vacated the area, the villagers were still prevented from putting out the fire on their land. In desperation the villagers began to harvest wheat that was in danger of being burned. Another ten minutes passed before the army began putting out the fire themselves and then allowed the Palestinian Fire Brigade to complete the job. In total over 200 dunams of land had been burnt across land owned by the village of Asira and on to that of the neighbouring village of Urif.

Security employed by the illegal settlement of Yitzhar was also present, parking their truck with three Israeli Military army jeeps, observing the attack from above. This assault comes a month after a violent settler attack on Asira and neighbouring villages of Urif and Burin in retaliation for stabbing of a settler from Yitzhar settlement. Yitzhar is considered the most violent of settlements in the West Bank by the UN.

Asira and the other villages which surround the illegal settlement of Yitzhar face daily violence from its Zionist settlers. Palestinians are regularly injured, schools are frequently attacked, agricultural land it often set alight and residential homes are often damaged. The Israeli army also frequently raid the villages, often in the middle of the night, to search houses and make wanton arrests, often of children. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention collective punishment is a war crime.