Settlers in Hebron.
July 16, 2009Hebron and Southern West Bank
On the evening of 1 May, approximately 20 settlers from the Bat Ayin settlement north of Hebron opened fire on homes in the Palestinian village of Safa. The settlers burned a field which was planted with wheat and belongs to farmer Mohammed Husain Musleh Adi. Villagers from Safa and other nearby villages gathered after mosque loud-speakers issued notification of the violence. Residents threw stones at the settlers to protect themselves and their homes. After arriving on the scene, the Israeli military announced that the village is a closed military zone. Israeli soldiers then sat at checkpoints on the roads that lead to the village and did nothing to stop the settlers' actions. Two weeks ago settlers from Bat Ayin also uprooted tens of olive trees on land located close to the settlement.
Also on 1 May, Israeli bulldozers under the protection of the military leveled around ten dunums of land near the Ale’azer settlement located to the south of the Palestinian village of al-Khader. The site is called Abu Bakeer and is lies in the Bethlehem District. The affected land belongs to the Salah family and was planted with grapes. Ramzi Salah, mayor of al-Khader, said the aim of the destruction is to expand the neighboring settlement.
On 7 May, armed settlers from Bat Ayin settlement prevented farmers from Bait Omar to reach their land and work. Settlers fired into the air when farmers attempted to reach land located in the site of 'Ain al-Baida. The farmers fled after the settlers fired.
On 12 May, settlers from Giv’at Harsina and Kiryat Arba attacked a group of Palestinians and internationals who had gathered in Buwaira, located to the east of Hebron. The demonstrators had gathered to protest land confiscation in the area. Hashem al-Azza, a 45-year-old activist, sustained head injuries after settlers arrived and began throwing stones at the group. The army also reportedly assisted the settlers in attacking the demonstrators.
On 17 May, dozens of settlers in cooperation with extreme Knesset Members from the Israeli National Party convened in the streets of the Old City of Hebron. The gathering took place under the direction of a Knesset member Yakov Katz, of the Ichud Leumi Party. Defense Minister Ehud Barak granted the group permission to visit and tour the city. News sources described the visit as designed to encourage settlement in the Old City and to enhance the existing outpost there. Starting from the morning, the Israeli army closed shops and all streets in the affected area and increased checkpoint activity. In some areas of the city, local Palestinian organizations, internationals, and Arab Knesset members gathered to protest the visit.
On 19 June, army officers from the Israeli Civil Administration issued home demolition orders to five Hebron families. The homes are located in Hejra, situated to the south of the city and two kilometers to the west of the Bait Hagai settlement. The homes are close to Road Number 60, which serves the settlements. Land Defense Committee sources said that these orders were issued to Palestinians who cannot build or expand their own homes because they reside in Area C, for which construction permits are almost impossible to obtain. Meanwhile, settlement and settlement road-building in this area continues. The Committee's Abed al-Hadi Hantash said that since the beginning of this year, around 90 home demolition orders have been given to Palestinians, particularly in the southern hills area where the settlement projects are active.
On 19 May, a female settler from Kiryat Arba ran over a 3-year-old child with her car. The incident occurred on the main road in the al-Ra area, to the west of the settlement. The woman tried to escape but people gathered and prevented her from leaving. The army ultimately came and let her go. The child, Jalela Mus’ab al-Ja’bari, was taken to a Hebron hospital for treatment. Her case was described as medium.
On 24 May, four farmers from Om El-Muqfera and Om Toba villages, to the southeast of Yatta, were injured when approximately 20 settlers attacked them using stones and stakes. The farmers had been shepherding their goats in the land to the west of the settlement. The injured are Ismael Abu Qubaita, Issa Jebreel Makhamreh, Ibraheem ali El-Zain and Ali Mohammed Makhamreh. The men were taken to local medical centers in Yatta for treatment.
On 30 May, settlers from Bat Ayin settlement attacked farmers who came to work the land to the south of the settlement. Jamla Mohammed Husain Adi, 45, and her child Mai Ibraheem Thaljee, 3, were injured when the settlers pushed them to the ground and then tried to force them to leave the land. Internationals were injured in the same event when the settlers threw stones at them. Mohammed Ayyad Awad, an activist in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM?), said that the attacks happened while the army was present and did nothing to stop the settlers. Futhermore, the army declared the area a military zone and forced the farmers and internationals, who came to pick crops alongside the farmers, to leave. The army detained several farmers and Israeli activists for hours.
On 8 June, army bulldozers damaged and leveled 40 dunums of land in the Baq’a area, northeast of Hebron, and damaged seven agricultural pools. The land was being used for grape cultivation and belongs to Yahya Saeed Jaber, Mohammed Nader Jaber, Azmi Abed El-Azeez Jaber, Abedel Wahhab Jaber, Jawad Abed El-Jawwad Rajabi, and Ziyad Hammouda Jaber. The 40 dunums will be confiscated for use by the Kiryat Arba and Giv’at Harsina settlements.
On 13 June, settlers from Kiryat Arba and other settlement outposts renewed their attacks against the residents of Wadi Husain, which lies to the west of the settlement. According to Wadi Husain resident Fahd Ja’bari, the settlers antagonize village residents by throwing stones at their houses and running after children in the main street.
On 17 June, a new wave of settler attacks began in Om al-Khair village in the southern hills. Settlers came from the nearby Karmiel settlement and threw stones at shepherds to force them to leave the land near the settlement. Tareq Salem Hadaleen, 16, was struct by a stone in his head. Israeli soldiers arrived and announced the area a closed military zone and sided with the settlers in keeping the farmers out of the area. In a statement to the AIC, Yasser Hadaleen said that these attacks are aimed at forcing residents to leave their land, especially land located to the east of the Karmeal settlement, to make it easier to confiscate. But in spite of these attacks carried out in cooperation with the army, Hadaleen said that village residents do not plan to leave. He also said that instead of stopping the settlers' attacks, the army arrives and says they don't want problems – and then simply declares the area a closed military zone.
On the afternoon of 19 June, a group of settlers from Beit 'Ain settlement burned a wooded area belonging to families from the villages of Bait Omar and Soreef. Around 120 trees were destroyed in the fire. Mohammed Ayyad Awad, a solidarity movement activist, said that each day his movement is informed of similar aggressions and that tree burning in this area is an ongoing occurrence.
On 20 June, several internationals and residents of Beit Omar were inured when settlers, in cooperation with the army, attacked dozens of farmers and members of solidarity groups who came to help farmers work their land adjacent to Bait Omar. The settlers arrived from the nearby Beit 'Ain settlement and threw stones. For months, settlers from this settlement have been attacking the farmers; the Land Defense Committee has recorded 11 attacks since April, including tree-burning and physical assaults on farmers.
On 21 June, three residents from the Palestinian village of Sosya, southeast of Yatta, were injured when settlers from the nearby Susiya settlement set fire to their tent in the early morning hours while they were asleep. Abed El-Rahman Mohammed Jawaj’a, 22, Yahya Khaled Nawaj’a, 21, and Ibrahim Mohammed Khaleel Nawaj’a, 22, were injured in the attack. In a similar incident two months ago, settlers from the same settlement tried to burn another tent, but a gathering crowd prevented them from doing so. Last December the settlers set fire to two tents belonging to Sara Salamah Nawaj’a and Mohammed Jaber Nawaj’a.
On 22 June, settlers from Bait 'Ain carried out new attacks against the land that lies south of the settlement. This time the settlers cut 200 grape and olive trees belonging to Hammad Jaber Sulaibi and Fahd Jaber Slaibi. In the same attacks, the settlers also burned around ten dunums of land.
On 22 June, in cooperation with the army, settlers from the Bethlehem-area settlements of Juv’ot [Gva'ot?], Navi Danial [Neve Daniel?]and Bettar [Beitar Illit?] leveled around 40 dunums of planted land to the south of the town of Nahhalen. The land belongs to the Fannon, Shakarneh and Al-Shaikh families. The aim of the settler's destruction of the land is to build electricity and water grids that will serve the settlements in the area. Local Council Chairman Mohammed Ghayada reported that this project of building infrastructure for the settlement will lead to the confiscation or isolation of another 3300 dunums of village land. He added that since 1967, his town has lost 15,000 dunums of land to the settlement projects. Most of their land has been confiscated, he said. The village is already surrounded on all sides by settlements, which lie very close to the village's buildings and adversely affect its development.
Nablus and Northern West Bank
On 1 May, settlers from the settlement outpost Gi’ad, east of Qalqilya, attacked 20-year-old farmer Mohammed Ahmed Abu Baker of the village of Jet. The young farmer was working on his land near the outpost when five settlers arrived, beat him, and sprayed material on his face that inflicted burns. He sustained head and back injuries when the soldiers forced him on the ground and beat him using stones. The settlers also damaged his tractor. Mohammed was taken to Darweesh Nazzal Hospital in Nablus.
On 13 May in the district of Jenin, approximately 40 settlers arrived and erected tents on the ruins of the Homish settlement that was dismantled in 2005. The settlers periodically organize protests against the dismantling of the settlement and sometimes engage in attacks against residents of the Selet al-Daher village. On this occasion the settlers threw stones at Palestinian cars on the main road of the village. The army closed the area by checkpoints.
On 21 May, dozens of settlers from Itsehar settlement south of Nablus destroyed ten dunums of land that were slated for wheat cultivation. The land is located in Khallet as-Sewar and is owned by a farmer named Mohammed Reda. Palestinian sources in Nablus say that this is not the first time that this area has been targeted by Itsehar settlers.
On 22 May, the Israeli Authority issued confiscation notices for 300 dunams in El-Qatayen in the Jenin District. The 300 dunums belong to families from the villages of Ya’bad and Tora El-Gharbiyya. The orders instructed the farmers to take what they need from the land within 45 days.
Mohammed Qabaha, a farmer who owns 60 dunums in the affected area, told the AIC that "officers from Civil Administration came to the site and brought the confiscations orders and maps that showed the borders of the land." The land is cultivated with trees and is owned by Mohammed Eid Qabaha, Anees Hasan Qabaha, Mohammed Shareef Zaid, Adnan Ismael Zaid, Husni Zaid, Mohammed Othman Abbadi, Saleh Azeez Zaid, Mohammed Ismael Qabaha, and Awwad Rafeeq Deeb.
Qabaha added that each farmer has documents attesting to their ownership of the land. This confiscation will cause around 13 families to lose their main source of income. The Palestinians suspect that the goal behind this confiscation is to build a new settlement on the site.
On 22 May, settlers from Itsehar settlement burned a field of wheat owned by a family from the village of Boreen in the southern part of the district. Landowner Mohammed Raja said that the settlers burned 20 dunums of land planted with wheat. The land is located on the site of Khallet Iswar. Fire-Brigades came from nearby towns and stopped the fire while Israeli officers from the DCO arrived and documented the aggression.
On the same day, another group of settlers from settlements in the southern Nablus area attacked farmers from Oreef village while they were harvesting their wheat. Physical altercations took place between settlers and farmers when the army came to try to curtail the incident.
On 25 May, 21-year-old Al-Quds University student Hiba Abed El-Haq was waiting at Za'tra checkpoint north of Nablus when settlers threw stones at her, injuring her in the back and face. The settlers descended on the checkpoint in three cars and threw stones at the waiting cars and passengers. The soldiers present at the scene reportedly waited more than thirty minutes before they intervened and stopped the settlers.
On 7 June, dozens of local organizations and farmers met in the town hall of 'Aneen, west of Jenin, to discuss settlers' daily attacks against their land. 'Aneen Mayor Rabah Yaseen said that 11,500 dunums of land, most of it planted, now lies on the other side of the Separation Wall and is therefore difficult for farmers to reach. For several months settlers have been damaging this land and allowing their own goats to feed on the trees. The issue has been brought to the attention of Israeli officials, but nothing has been done to prevent the settlers from harming the land that lies outside the Separation Wall. Residents of the area's agricultural settlements and people from inside Israel continue to bring their cows and goats to the land. Meanwhile the farmers are unable to reach the land to cultivate it because permission is usually granted only during harvest times.
On 8 June, the settlers from Itamar settlement east of Nablus burned 20 dunums of land planted with olive trees. The land is owned by Amjad Sulaiman Qawareeq of the village of Awarta. According to Ghassan Duglas, a spokesman for settlement activity in the northern West Bank, the attacks by settlers in Nablus District have been heavy in the past two weeks, particularly involving settlers from Itsehar and Itamar settlements.
On 26 June, approximately 50 settlers from settlements in the Tulkarem District erected tents on land belonging to Ibrahim Kayed, who is from the village of Kufer Labad, east of Nablus. The settlers also raised the Israeli flag on the land. Kayed said that when he and his sons went to protest, the settlers stoned and beat him and his sons Samer, 30, and Jamal, 20. Both were taken to a local clinic because of injuries to their heads and hands. Sources in Nablus say that it seems the settlers want to build a new outpost on the site, especially given that this is not the first time the settlers have staged a sit-in on this land.
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