Israeli soldiers began firing tear-gas canisters and stun grenades after awoken Saffa residents had gathered around dawn, lightly injuring a number of Palestinians. Members of the Beit Ommar National Committee and Palestine Solidarity Project arrived in Saffa shortly after and recorded the incident.

The more radical of Israel’s 500,000 settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories adhere to the “price tag” policy, in which settlers seek revenge by attacking Palestinians for every outpost that is demolished. This latest attack came after the Israeli army demolished two illegal structures in Bay Ayin settlement.

The residents of Saffa have been subject to regular harassment and attack from Bat Ayn’s ideological settlers. In recent months settlers have attacked farmers, set fire to olive groves and chopped down crops. The Palestine Solidarity Project planted over 1000 olive trees recently to replace those repeatedly burnt, uprooted and destroyed by the settlers.

video

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.

In attendance was Beit Ommar Mayor Nasri Sabarneh, Beit Ommar municipality council members, along with representatives of the Soleiby family whom own affected land in the Saffa area and members of Palestine Solidarity Project. Minister Da’iq, said he had been closely following and working on land issues in Beit Ommar as minister and fully supported the resistance against the settlements. He also promised PA assistance in replanting trees, though he gave no timeline and the Soleiby brothers remain skeptical, citing years of requests for PA intervention on their behalf with no result. After a short presentation summarizing the chain of settler attacks on Saffa in the recent past, culminating in the 150 dunnum of land set fire to on July 12th, the minster was given a brief tour of the aforementioned land in Saffa by the Mayor and Soleiby brothers. Hamad Soleiby explained that he had attempted to reach the destroyed trees earlier in the day, as there was still uncertainty over the extent of trees lost, but feared attack from Bat Ayn settlers whom were steadily approaching.

International activists accompanied farmers the following day, July 22, 2009, in order to gain access to the affected land, document and get a clear estimate of the damage done. The assessment was grim, as over 300 fruit trees had been destroyed, including grape vines, plum, fig and grape trees. The documentation was cut short as three jeeps of soldiers arrived thirty minutes after the group arrived.

In the early hours of Monday, June 22, 2009, settlers from the Bat ‘Ain settlement set fire and cut down more than 125 grapevines and fruit trees belonging to Hamad Soleiby. Israeli soldiers said they saw a fire in the Palestinian agricultural fields some time during the night and went to put it out, though they did nothing to collect the evidence; kerosene canisters and matches were still there the next morning when activists from the Palestine Solidarity Project accompanied the farmer’s family to survey the damage.

One week before, Israeli solidarity activists caught on tape settlers from Bat ‘Ain saying the activists should “come back next week and see”, that they would set fire to the entire area. What was not burned was systematically cut with an electric saw. The 125 trees represented a huge proportion of Hamad’s income; in one night settlers nearly destroyed his and his family’s livelihood.

When activists joined Hamad’s brother to document the destruction on Monday, Israeli soldiers and police soon turned out in force, bringing three jeeps and an armored personnel carrier full of soldiers. Hamad’s brother, Abu Jabber, approached the commander, pleading with him to come down and see for himself what the settlers had done. Instead, the soldiers informed the group that it was a closed military zone, and everyone except Abu Jabber and one Israeli activist had to leave. Abu Jabber and the Israeli activist, from the joint organization Ta’ayush, were escorted to the police station inside the settlement to make a formal complaint. However, considering the past two weeks when settlers were allowed into the area with impunity while Israeli and international solidarity activists were attacked and arrested, there is very little faith that the Israeli soldiers and police, based inside the settlement, can be relied on to protect the Palestinians’ rights and land.

Also overnight, ironically, while settlers went unimpeded into Palestinian lands and destroyed a huge tract of agricultural area without any intervention by Israeli police or military, Israeli soldiers invaded several homes in Saffa and arrested 8 people, as well as one person in Beit Ommar. The reasons are unknown.