In Nabi Saleh, which has been demonstrating for several weeks against a move by settlers from the nearby Halamish settlement to take over a a spring and other privately-owned Palestinian agricultural land, several dozen residents, along with Israeli and international solidarity activists, again marched from the village towards the land being annexed by the right-wing settlers. They were confronted by Israeli forces, who used tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets to deter the crowd. The army then invaded the village, using a jeep-mounted tear-gas launcher that shoots 30 canisters of gas at a time, into the built-up area of the village, affecting everyone in their homes. A young man was taken to the hospital with a moderate injury when he was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet.

In Ni’lin, several dozen residents continued their weekly protest against the construction of the Annexation Barrier through their agricultural lands. Participants marched from the edge of the village into the olive groves, approaching the combined fence-wall. They were forced back by the Israeli military, who used large amounts of tear gas, including firing the tear gas at houses, affecting people not participating in the demonstration.

Hundreds of residents in Asira Al-Qyblia marched against land confiscation towards Ytzhar settlement, home to some of the most violent settlers in the entire Occupied Territories who have repeatedly destroyed trees belonging to Asira Al-Qyblia residents, and attacked the village and others in the surrounding Nablus District. The march was fired on by the Israeli military with tear gas and sound grenades, though no one was seriously injured.

In Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, 80 Jewish demonstrators, many dressed in costumes for the coming Purim holiday, joined over 100 Palestinians near the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah to protest the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes and the implantation of right-wing Jewish settlers. A festive demonstration, with chants, drumming, and songs, was held for over an hour as Israeli police and military border police sealed off the street to demonstrators.

Though this demonstration ended without confrontation or violence, it came in the wake of a riot Wednesday night, when dozens of settlers entered the partially occupied Al-Kurd family home to begin preparation for the celebration of Purim, a Jewish holiday held Sunday, February 28, which traditionally includes drinking large amounts of alcohol, making it one of the most dreaded Jewish holidays for Palestinians, who often come under attack by intoxicated settlers on this day.
Sure enough, the settlers in Sheikh Jarrah began attacking the Palestinian residents of the same home. Israeli soldiers arrived and attempted to restrain the crowd but were unsuccessful and soon turned on the growing Palestinian, international, and anti-occupation Jews in the crowd, clubbing and pepper spraying them. Several were injured before the Israeli police escorted the settlers out of the area. One Palestinian man was arrested early in the evening; none of the settlers were detained.

Lawyers with Rabbis for Human Rights, who also supported and participated in the re-planting Saffa campaign investigated the issue and found that the Israeli government claimed it had declared the land “state land” in the 1970’s, and the Palestinian owners, who have documentation dating back to the Ottoman period showing ownership of this land, did not respond when they were informed of the confiscation 30+ years ago. The land now belongs to 4 brothers from the ‘Adi family. Their older relatives clearly state that they had never been told the land was intended to be confiscated, and had been working on it without problems ever since. The Israeli military is required to give notice to farmers if their land is to be taken and given a chance to respond in Israeli courts. While the order to uproot the trees now is based on the “fact” that the land was declared Israeli state land over 30 years ago, without proper notification at that time the confiscation is not valid.

The land, which is located on the hillside next to the built-up Palestinian area in Saffa, was seriously damaged by 2 fires started by settlers last summer. More than one hundred trees were planted in the area 2 weeks ago to replace what was damaged due to the fire. It is these trees, bought with funding by private donors, Rabbis for Human Rights, and Gush Shalom, that the Israeli military is now threatening to uproot. Clearly, the Israeli military, after ignoring Palestinian use of what they deemed Israeli state land for over 30 years, are now trying to punish the farmers of Beit Ommar and Saffa for their work in this area for the past 9 months.

Additionally, by “re-declaring” this area as Israeli state land, the Israeli military seems to be setting the stage for the eventual theft of the entire agricultural land between Saffa/Beit Ommar and the right-wing settlement Bat ‘Ayn, which has been trying to expand onto this land for years. Indeed, the only land now between what has been declared “Israeli” and Bat ‘Ayn itself is the land of Abu Jabber Soleiby, who has come under frequent attack and the victim of property destruction by settlers of Bat ‘Ayn for years. Bat ‘Ayn has also been fighting in Israeli civilian courts to take this land, but has thus far been unsuccessful. However, due to their increased violence beginning in April, 2009, the Israeli military has been declaring the entire valley a closed military zone, preventing farmers from adequately accessing the land. Prolonged declarations of ‘closed military zones’ are often precursors to confiscations, a fact the settlers of Bat ‘Ayn surely know and which they hope to capitalize on in order to expand.

Israeli soldiers, who are in charge of “security” for the area, were nearby in both Bat ‘Ayn and in Saffa. Their solution to the settler violence: prevent the Palestinians in Saffa from entering or leaving the area freely. No one was seriously injured in the incident today.

In Al-Ma’asara a large group of Palestinians, along with international and Israeli solidarity activists again marched from the center of the village to the edge of town, where they were stopped by the Israeli military. The military vowed to end the demonstrations in Al-Ma’asara in 2010, which began in early 2007. In recent weeks they have intensified their presence and began using “crowd-dispersal” weapons, which had not been used since the very early days of the demonstrations, when they were held on the site of the Annexation Barrier construction. This week, sound grenades were thrown into the crowd, forcing the demonstrators to move back. They were then pursued into the village a few dozen meters, before the Israeli soldiers finally left.

Over 300 people marched from West Jerusalem to Sheikh Jarrah again this week. On the way through the Jewish sections of the city, they were met with a wide range of response, from honks and cheers, to people aiming imaginary guns at them and shooting. In Sheikh Jarrah the police were more withdrawn, content to blocking off the street rather than the incredible violence and mass arrests that have met the demonstrations in recent weeks.

The Israeli military confirmed there was a “confrontation” and that the settler guard shot a Palestinian. They said they were investigating, though the settler was not arrested.

This comes one week after settlers from Bat ‘Ayn shot at residents of Saffa, on the other side of the settlement, though no one in that incident was injured.

The Palestine Solidarity Project, along with Israeli activists, still plans to accompany farmers from Beit Ommar as they replant trees in an area that was destroyed by Bat ‘Ayn settlers and will not be deterred.

Today at approximately 12 noon, settlers from the Karmei Tsur settlement between the Palestinian villages of Beit Ommar and Halhul, blocked Route 60, the main highway between Jerusalem and Hebron, used by settlers as well as Palestinians. They began attacking Palestinian cars on the road, jumping in front of them and forcing them to stop before damaging the vehicles and in at least 5 cases, opening the car doors and beating the Palestinians inside. Shortly afterward, scores of Israeli military and civilian police arrived to escort over 100 Jewish settlers down the highway in a march/jog. The entrance of Beit Ommar was completely closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic, trapping the residents of Beit Ommar, Saffa, and Sourif inside (a total of nearly 30,000 people). Route 60 was blocked for more than an hour between Halhul and Beit Ommar. One group of settlers marched down the street carrying an Israeli flag, followed by a truck with a sound system blasting music interspersed with insults against arabs. After the truck, another group of more than 50 individuals between the ages of 15-50, many in sports shorts, were jogging down the street as the Israeli military and police cheered them on (while ignoring complaints against the settlers for attacking the Palestinian civilians earlier). In reportedly the most bizarre site, several settlers were seen jogging with running shorts and their M-16 rifles slung across their backs.
This was clearly an overt assertion both of the settlers’ claim to remain in the West Bank (Karmei Tsur is a settlement that most believe would have to be dismantled in any “two-state solution”), as well as the Israeli military’s complete support for their unlawful behavior and presence.

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Note from PSP

We bring this story to our website not to condone or condemn the actions of the Palestinian who lightly wounded 2 Israeli settlers, or what he “deserved” but to point out the total lack of control or will to control the settler population by the Israeli military. The Palestinian population of the West Bank has no other recourse but the Israeli military involving incidents with Israeli settlers, though time and again the Israeli military has demonstrated and stated explicitely their inability to control the Israeli population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. While the Israeli soldiers not only will not be punished, but in fact will be lauded for shooting the Palestinian man involved, they stand by and watch as Israeli “civilians” run over him with their car. The disparity between treatment of Palestinians involved in a crime and Israelis involved in a crime in the same geographical area under the law only represents one thing: Apartheid.

After walking a few hundred metres the PSP activists decided to stop again. The activists were not sure whether Abu Jabbar and his family were being detained since it had been approximately 30 minutes since they had walked away from Abu Jabbar and his family. After a gap of 15 minutes the same three Israeli soldiers from before approached the place where the group was waiting and asked them to leave from that place. At this point the activists asked the soldiers if Abu Jabbar was being allowed to leave from Saffa to which the soldiers replied in the affirmative. A PSP activist took down the name of one of the Israeli soldiers but was unsuccessful in getting any identification number. While the group was leaving from the second place they were finally joined by Abu Jabbar and his family. But the group of activists was stopped again by another army unit arriving from the Saffa valley. Another round of interrogation followed during which the activists were made to state their name and country of origin in front of a video camera held by an Israeli soldier. At the end the group of PSP activists and Abu Jabber’s family successfully left Saffa having picked a good amount of grapes.

Just over three weeks ago, settlers set fire to roughly 160 dunnums of land, including hundreds of valuable fruit and olive trees. Combined with the cutting of over 125 trees in June, and an earlier fire, in the last 2 months settlers from Bat ’Ayin settlement have destroyed nearly all of the land that provides income for 125 extended family members of Abu Jabber, Hamad, and Abdullah Soleiby. Dozens of Israeli and international solidarity activists have been arrested since May while attempting to accompany the farmers in Saffa against brutal settler attacks. Two weeks ago, 3 teen-agers were reportedly arrested by Israeli police for ’disturbing the peace’ though police said only 1 settler was arrested after threatening a police officer.

International and Israeli accompaniment of farmers in Saffa has been necessary to prevent violent attacks by settlers on the elderly farmers of the Soleiby family. When attempting to farm in the valley on their own, farmers have come under attack on several occasions in the past 4 months, including an attack in April that left 81 year old Abdullah Soleiby with a cracked skull.