Serving in the Garden

One of the most dangerous places we serve in Masafer Yatta, our location in the West Bank, is what is called the Garden. It is not a garden in the typical sense but rather a massive platform of stone, rock walls, shrubs, struggling olive plants, cacti and dirt. 

The view, however, is incredible. One can see a panorama of sloped grazing farm land, the local village and an illegal Israeli settlement. The family who owns the garden has worked the land for decades and holds a 100 year-old deed for it. Twice a day, he takes his goats and sheep out to graze, 6:30 to 10 AM and 4:30 to 7 PM. Two of us accompany him because he is harassed daily by Israeli settlers, soldiers, military or some combination thereof.

The point of the harassment is to push him off his land. It would be easy to give up after decades of persecution but this man and his family do not. They are practitioners of “samud,” steadfastness. Generations before them have resisted, therefore, they resist, always nonviolently. 

The farmer keeps going out into the garden to feed the sheep and goats, knowingly facing harassment. Each day before we serve in the garden, the farmer treats us to cups of warm sweet tea and perhaps a treat. Then we follow the animals and him to the garden, maintaining a short distance. 

We are to be the buffer between the harassers and the farmer. At some point, settlers, police or military approach us and ask for passports. They photograph them or take them even though that is forbidden by the United States government. They research our backgrounds to see if we are Palestinian sympathizers or members of organizations Israel considers terrorist. The irony of a nonviolent peace organization ever being considered a terrorist organization is not lost on me.

The conclusion of these interactions can result in a wide-range of possibilities from simple harassment to deportation. I had been enjoying the landscape and photographing the view when a settler told border patrol I was filming the illegal guard post on the farmer’s land. Border patrol took my phone, looked through the photos and discovered I had only shot panoramas and photos of my friend. They returned my phone and my passport and warned me not to photograph the empty guard post because it is classified.

Despite these disturbing interactions, we have the satisfaction of protecting the farmer who is able to do his job. In addition, we can look over the landscape, and enjoy the natural beauty of the West Bank and build relationships.

Why do Palestinians resist and persist under such stressful circumstances? Faith, history, love of land and samud. I see it in the farmer’s body as he contentedly crouches on a rock, sipping a coffee, smoking a cigarette, watching his sheep and goats graze.

This is his legacy.

Taking Land

24 Dec 2015/ Meta Peace Team, Scott/ Burin

Colonial assault is visible in Burin.  Since last year I can see 3 new houses expanding the "out posts" which are illegal (under Israeli law) expansions of illegal (under international law) colonial settlements.  It is a process where a few radicals squat on land they do not own, build a house knowing that if they call the occupying army and say they are being threatened the army will arrest any Palestinian who dares to say it is their land.

on the hill in the middle of the picture you can see an outpost. The hill on the right has the highest house in Burin

 A closer view of the house on the right.  It is empty.  The settlers came down and attacked it so much the family abandoned it.

In this picture you can see the last house going out the road of Burin.  It too is empty, the settlers came down with torches and the family was afraid they would get burned up some time so the left their house.

The new houses on the hill impacted a friend of mine.  She has olives high in the hill. This year when she went up there were new houses next to her olives. The soldiers would let here in for 2 days to pick olives, but she is not well and even if she was she could not pick all her olives in 2 days.  Internationals who went up with her were forced by the occupying army to sit down by the gate into the olive orchard and watch.  They were not even allowed to accompany while she worked.  Mean while the woman and children from the new illegal houses yelled "bad things" at her.

Permission to Farm My Land

November 16, 2015 | Meta Peace Team, Phoenix Jones | Occupied Burin

Land stolen by Israeli Settlers, that once Palestinians used for orchards, farming and livestock.  Now whenever Palestinians want to harvest or tend to their orchards (what is remaining after Israeli army had uprooted trees and Settlers have purposely burned down acres of trees) , on their land , they must receive a permit from the Occupying Israeli government.

Tree burned by Israeli Settlers

Settlement homes in Occupied Burin 

Settlement atop of hill in occupied Burin

Yesterday, Scott and I accompanied a family for Olive Harvest.  The family requested that we accompany them because of fear the Israeli settlers would come down from the settlement that sits on stolen land to terrorize, abuse or murder them. We also assisted the family in harvesting olives.  The permit that the family received from the Israeli government only gave them permission to harvest from the morning until 12noon, if the family continued to harvest after the time allotted the Israeli army, police, or border patrol would come to forcefully/violently remove them from their land.  During an olive harvest all of the olives can be used for something from canning, pressing for oil or making soap, but under occupation Palestinians often do not have the “luxury” to harvest and separate all that is there.   The family’s movements were so precise, only harvesting from the bountiful, rich trees and leaving behind any olives that were not plump. As we were harvesting I saw each of them at different points glance up the mountain to the settlements.  Upon reaching the last row of trees some had been scorched and beyond that, others had been burned to the ground.  I also noticed while harvesting olives that the trees were in dire need of pruning.  Prior to Occupation, Palestinians were able to tend to their land as needed, the occupation has placed unrealistic time restraints on Palestinians, that no farmer could adhere to in maintaining a healthy orchard.   Israelis that have stolen the land atop of that mountain, just beyond the orchard, were responsible for damaging and burning those trees, robbing that family of so much more than Olive trees that have been in their family for generations.

Our liberation is bound together, and your solidarity is mandatory!

A busy day in and around Hebron

Any day for an activist in the West Bank can include a surprise or two. Our day in the Hebron area was full of unscheduled action. We had just spent the night with the Christian Peacemaker Team deep in the old city. We arose early to go on check point watch with CPT. This is a daily pre-breakfast task for CPT. Critical check points are monitored to log the number of school children passing and to observe the treatment of others. One MPTer decided to take pictures and chose to continue even after a soldier said “No”. The police arrived later. Police have more authority over internationals. After manipulating the memory card out of the camera and passing it off (a move the soldier unfortunately observed), the camera was handed to the policeman. It could have gotten messy at that point but up rolled a car with TIPH representatives. TIPH, Temporary International Presence in Hebron, is a creation of the Oslo Accord. They observe and file reports – no more, no less. But the Israelis want good TIPH reports. It is our guess that their arrival prompted the police commander to get out of the vehicle and take charge. The camera was immediately returned and MPTers moved out of the way. The soldier and policeman were upset at being overruled. MPTers were relieved.

This is the check point we observed. The soldier is asking us not to take pictures. School children have to pass through the little white building for metal detection and such. These four men are being checked as they complain that they were just checked at another check point to get into this area (True according CPT staff.)

Then a call came alerting us to a home demolition south of Hebron, in Baqa Valley. A quick trip to the CPT house to repack, a taxi and soon we were at another scene. Somewhere in there breakfast got forgotten.

By the time we arrived in Baqa'a the Israeli army had already destroyed a well and a house built next to it, both of which belonging to a local Palestinian family. Baqa Valley located in a mountainous area south of Hebron. It's separated from the notorious Jewish settlement of Qiryat Arba only by a road. The village suffers serious water shortages and locals have been accused of "stealing" water from the settlement in order to meet their basic water needs. Naturally it's arguable if one can steal their own water but that's the pretext under which the Israeli army destroys wells and irrigation pipes belonging to Palestinians in Area C. We were told that one more well in the village was to be destroyed on the following day for the same reasons. This particular family had their well and house destroyed for the first time in 2009. The reason was actually the usual one: lack of permit to built. Their water did come from pipes from a neighboring village. After 2009 the owner rebuilt both his well and home and acquired all the necessary documents proving that the land is his. It was to no avail though, the bulldozers returned.

When MPTers arrived the bulldozers were leveling the ground. The Israeli army was working along with Qiryat Arba settlers to place stones on the property to minimize the chance of rebuilding. We were told by children from the family whose home was demolished that the bulldozer has been at work since 6 am. That's when the family had been awoken from their sleep and given 5 minutes to leave.

The only hint for the existence of the house and the well at this site hours later was the water flowing now all over the place. An MPTer asked a boy from the family why he wouldn't change his pants that were wet. He replied he was beaten by an Israeli soldier earlier during the day and now he had no house to take a spare pair of pants from. His parents were at his uncle's house at the time and were sparing themselves the sight of the bulldozers at work.

We had planned to visit the village of At Tuwani on this day so after watching the home demolition clean up, taking pictures, and talking with the family and other internationals, we decided to go to At Tuwani from this new location. MPT has a history of visiting At Tuwani. You can learn more about this village by reading our old blogs.

The following report gives some good details: http://mptinpalestine.blogspot.com/2009/07/mpt-in-tuba-assist-children-witness.html

This report talks about the Bedouins in Tuba, a village very near to At Tuwani. http://mptinpalestine.blogspot.com/2008/05/bedouin-land-fragile-desert-ecology-and.html And in 2009 MPTers visited again. http://mptinpalestine.blogspot.com/2009/11/cactus-watering-protest-at-at-tuwani.html

Children from nearby villages are still accompanied by internationals and the military as they walk between the Israeli settlement and Israeli outpost on their way to and from school. This is necessary because the settlers have a history of attacking kids on their way to school. We were reminded of President Obama’s recent speech where he commented that Israeli parents should not have to worry about their children when they send them to school. He made no mention of Palestinian kids on their way to school.

The settlement of Ma'On is on the hill. New construction is visible to the left. We are not able to see the Israeli outpost hidden in the trees to the right. International volunteers are not allowed to escort the children, this is considered as a "provocation" by the settlers and the Israeli army. So they only observe from afar trying to make sure the children are escorted safely from various observation points on the hills around the area. The army comes twice daily to provide escort as the children walk to and from school, often late and without completing the whole route. That day they came after the international volunteers had contacted the local DCO, only half an hour late. The children actually rejoiced at the sight of the approaching jeep, they could finally goo home now. Sometimes the soldiers actually provide protection when trouble starts .... sometimes.
Another informal taxi ride and a group cab got us back to Hebron for the another evening with CPT

Yitzhar Settlers as Neighbors

MPT’s fall team took the short walk to the houses at the upper edge of Huwwara. The Palestinians in this area live only about 400 yards for the edge of Yitzhar. We were fortunate to meet Muhammad, a Palestinian with American citizenship and his brother. Muhammad spends part of the year in New York where he and two of sons run an electronics business. Part of his family spends the entire year in this fabulous house. Muhammad said, “Yitzhar is built on the highest point in the West Bank. I believe my house is the highest Palestinian house in the West Bank. But this proximity can be problematic." The family readily talked to us, they have had troubles with settlers throughout the years and are used to being an object of attention for journalists and human right activists alike. We were told that they had had no problems with the settlement till the year of 2008. As a matter of fact up to just ten years ago the family used to have a picnic at Salman al-Farsi’s reserve, an important site for Muslims that is located on land controlled by Yitzhar. But more recently radical settlers came to live there and visiting the reserve became impossible. The first clashes between the settlers and the local Palestinians that took place close to Muhammad’s house happened in May 2008. About 15 teenaged settlers came down the hill and were engaged in a stone fight with Palestinians. Soldiers stood aside as observers and did not interfere, we were told. The settlers claimed that the attack was in response to Palestinians from Huwwara having thrown stones at a settler’s car earlier that day. Twenty days after this incident the windows of the family’s house were broken by 13 Yitzhar settlers. Olive trees above their house were damaged too. Soldiers were reported to have taken no action one more time.

The American's house is on the far left. His brother's immediatly to the right of it. The MPT house is down the hill approximately in the center of this photo.

On February 3, 2011, Muhammad’s wife and daughter were watching TV in the evening when they had their windows all broken again. Muhammad was in Nablus during that time, he heard about the attack and headed straight home. At the Huwwara checkpoint he showed his American passport to the soldiers and two military vehicles followed him home. They arrived to find out that it was not only his house and family who got attacked. Six Molotov cocktails had been thrown into his brother’s house located right next door. Most of the bottles were thrown on the first floor that was burned as a result. One of them hit the window frame of the second floor of the house where the children and their mother were sleeping at that time. Luckily it didn’t go through the window. The wife reports that the settlers were gone by the time her husband and the soldiers arrived and the soldiers refused to believe settlers had anything to do with the incident at first. Eventually though the family did receive significant protection from the army. Soldiers guarded the home for a number of days. Neighbors suggest that Muhammad’s American citizenship was the cause for that.

During a talk with Muhammad’s wife she shared that at the present time she leaves the house on very rare occasions and worries that another settler attack could take place when there’s nobody home. She does not fear them though and keeps on hoping that their house might be a safe enough place one day for her whole family to be united in it again.

Burned trees can be seen above Muhammad's house.

Yitzhar - in the news !

Climbing up the road behind our Huwwara home we located a village park with a Ferris Wheel and a swimming pool. The houses in this area are the highest in town and the closest to Yitzhar.

We were told that “of all the settlements in the West Bank Yitzhar is the worst.” We’ve heard that said before about other settlements. It sometimes seems that the worst settlement is the one nearest the village where the speaker lives. Yitzhar did make the news recently. The Israeli government closed their high school because they were teaching violence. It is an incredible story. It can be found at http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/ministry-closes-yitzhar-school-over-violent-attacks-1.3932



This is the view above the park. You can just see the edge of some Yitzhar buildings and some of the burned olive trees. "They destroy trees and harass us. They want to claim even more of the land." we were told.







We were up there hoping to meet with an American family who lives in nearby. Good fortune was with us. We ended up sitting in a fabulous house speaking with two Palestinian Americans from New York and Ohio. (Homes in this area have been attacked by settlers. That story will appear in a day or two when we are able to complete the interviews.) The home on the left in the following picture is where we met the American family.

Our landmark mosque with two minarets is visible in from this spot as are the large Huwwara plains and the army base at the far end.

As we shared stories and food one of the men spoke about Palestinians who are still able to travel to Israel to work. There are some but the number is so much lower than before the construction of the barrier fence/wall. “Many used to go. We worked together. I would go to eat with the Jews and they came to my house. We were friends.” said one man. He went on to share that the opportunities to meet and relate with Israelis is greatly decreased. The only Israelis nearby are the settlers of Yitzhar. In the early days even they were ok. “We used to drive up the hill near Yitzhar to picnic. There is a Muslim holy place there. You can see the ocean from there. Going there now is impossible.”

The barrier fence/wall was constructed to decrease the number of suicide bombers, to make it difficult for Palestinians to travel into Israel. The barrier has come at a tremendous cost. The loss of contact makes it harder for these neighbors to be in positive relationships. It is costly financially. Much land is loss. Travel is more difficult for everyone. Maintaining and protecting this hated structure keeps the military busy. The barrier fence/wall is a strategy to end these attacks but Robert Pape, co-author of “Cutting the Fuse” has a different idea. In a nut shell studies show that suicide bombing decreases to almost zero when a foreign occupying army ends the occupation. Read more details at http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2010/10/04/how-end-suicide-bombings-new-book-argues-problem-not-islam-lengthy-military-occup

END THE OCCUPATION ? Now that seems like a strategy worthy of consideration.

Olive harvesting as experienced through our eyes this season; part I : Burin

“If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears.”

― Mahmoud Darwish

As the olive harvesting season nears completion our team felt there were a lot of things worth sharing from our days immersed in the olive picking. We didn't happen to witness any of the violent settler attacks that took place this year. They happened but not where we were picking. Were we in the wrong place or were we the reason it did not become a problem area. Who knows? Sometimes the less dramatic stories need to be shared and it’s precisely those that we’ll try to relate in this blog entry as seen through our eyes.

Burin – amidst the settlements

The olive harvest this year started in early October and timed perfectly with our team’s arrival in Huwwara. Neighboring Burin was the first village where both picking and our work as team started.

Because of its location between mountains topped by two Israeli settlements Yizhar(with the Yitzar outpost) and Bracha, Burin falls completely into Area C of the West Bank and is under full Israeli control. Ytzhar is at the forefront of the so called "price tag" policy or campaign which calls for attacks against Palestinians in retaliation for actions of the Israeli government against West Bank settlements (for more information please visit: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/yitzhar-extremists-all-settlers-must-fight-construction-freeze-1.287512)

Yitzhar settlement

Those who own olive grove land must receive “prior coordination” from the Israeli Civil Administration (a part of the military administration) in order to be able to tend to their land. Many Palestinians cannot prove land ownership as customary traditions saw land being passed down from one generation to the next without the necessity for formal land registration. Others refuse to apply for “permission”, or if it is given, will only pick on days without it. We accompanied some families who had chosen to pick without permission from the Israeli army. The first day we picked a hundred meters away from Bracha. We saw the olive trees bordering the settlement that had been set on fire earlier in June this year along with about 1500 other trees were reported to have been burned in a single settler’s attack. The total number of trees reported to be destroyed in Burin this year goes up to 4000 and this number seems to be only going up every year. (http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=3412). (NOTE: We are unable to verify the accuracy of this data. 4000 seems extremely high given the data in the UN report of our previous blog.)

The second day we accompanied another family who chose to harvest without permission from the army. Despite our visibility from and proximity to the settlement of Yitzar, we could not help but be awed by the fact that these were obviously days devoid of fear. Farmers sang songs and joked around with internationals under the strong sun. This seemed as much of an act of resistance as picking without permission.

After a couple of days of picking with different families in Burin, we started to see familiar faces and in turn villagers also started recognizing us. While waiting at the village’s center for our work assignmetn, we were the object of unexpected gestures of kindness. A man selling flowers once approached us and merely handed a flower without saying a word, then went back to his morning duties. The small falafel shop sent a kid carrying some tasty sandwich for our second breakfast of the day. It felt good to be connected to these incredibly nice people and receiving these small but deeply appreciated tokens.

Hebron: A city divided

Hebron, a city of about 150,000 in the south of the West Bank, is a city unlike all others in Palestine; it is the only city where illegal Israeli settlements are actually located in the city itself. About 20% of the city is designated as “H2,” which means it is under the control of the Israeli Army. The rest is controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians cannot drive cars in H2, but Israelis can, and certain roads are closed even for walking to all but Israelis. Settlers have been in Hebron for 40 years, and they have created a particularly hostile environment, especially for Palestinians living near the settlements.

Settlement placed directly in Palestinian community of Tel Rumedia.

Until recently, settler violence and incidents were particularly violent and vicious. Former MPT team members, as recently as November 2007, report being called names and spit on by settlers. However, B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, has distributed video cameras to some Palestinian families (visit: http://www.btselem.org/english/Video/Shooting_Back_Index.asp), and after some incidents caught on tape appeared on Israeli TV and sparked much conversation and controversy, settlers seem to have become more wary of how they act when internationals and/or video cameras are present.. Even so, just last Wednesday, members of the German parliament were threatened and attacked by settlers while touring Hebron. Locals say they saw large stones being thrown at the caravan, though MPT could find no reports of this in the media (see http://www.thelocal.de/11369/20080417/ and http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976056.html).

Wire barriers hung up to protect Palestinian merchants and shoppers

hold debris thrown by settlers living above the market.

On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights, Eric and Walt slept in Qurtuba School, a school for about 120 girls located directly across the street from a settlement apartment building and school. In August 2007, the school was burned by a large mob of settlers during a holiday celebration, but the building was refurbished and reopened in November. In March of this year, during another holiday, another group of settlers came to the school looking to damage or burn it, but internationals staying there were able to call police who came and dispersed the gathering before any damage was done. The principal was hesitant to add taller walls and make the building feel more “like a prison,” but taller walls were added after the continued threats. Also, because of the school’s proximity to the settlement, Internationals daily monitor the children going to and from school to prevent attacks by settler children. Even so, according to the principal, 8 girls from the school were attacked last week alone. The principal voiced her concern about the girls ability to concentrate with this uncontrolled hostility from settler children.

Qurtuba School

MPT team members accompany children home from school.

There are many horrific stories that could be told about the situation in Hebron that the team has witnessed and heard during their stay:
-- a local Palestinian activist detained and searched for no reason by a group of soldiers, only to be released 20 minutes after MPT members arrived and began to observe and video the scene.
-- a settler child chasing Palestinian children walking past “The Occupied House,” a home owned by Palestinians that was being built when settlers illegally moved in one night and have been staying since.
-- Palestinian boys and men are often stopped at multiple random checkpoints, merely causing another hassle for their movement in the area.

Soldiers surround and detain Palestinian without cause.

Soldiers go through the bag of a boy on his way to school.

Sunday morning, after their first night in the school, Walt and Eric met with the principal in her office to check in. (Qurtuba school runs Sunday – Thursday. In Palestine, Friday is the day of rest, but this school recently decided to also take Saturday off because of attacks by settler children. Settler children do not attend school on Saturdays, and so they are free to take up other pursuits.) A girl of maybe 8 came to the office and shared a story in Arabic with the principal and then began to cry. The principal explained to MPT team members that the girl wanted to go home to be with her mother because the girl’s 13- and 14-year-old brothers had been taken away by police the night before after some settler girls had told soldiers the boys had been throwing stones at them.

Later that night, Walt, Eric, seven other Internationals, and three Palestinian organizers were invited to the family’s house to talk with them and the two boys, who had since returned. Their story, as told by the younger boy, was that the boys were collecting wood for a fire when the settler girls came up. The boys ran away and soon were detained by soldiers and then taken from one checkpoint to a second checkpoint where they were detained for an hour until the police arrived.

The two boys were then taken to the police station (which is located in a local settlement) where they were handcuffed and blindfolded from midnight until 6AM, at which time they were transferred to a jail in the northern part of the West Bank. In the morning, the father went to the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), trying to get his sons released. In the afternoon, a call was made to return the boys to Hebron where the family then had to sign a paper promising to pay 1500 Israeli Shekels (about $430 US Dollars, or a month’s wage for the boys’ father) for their release. The boys had to return to the police station the next morning for questioning even though no formal charges or a complaint had been filed. According to locals, the large fee is assessed in an attempt to drive families out of the area (even to the point of bankrupting them), thus making way for settler expansion.

Boys detained without charges (with parents).

Even amidst all the horrors, on Friday night Walt and Eric were able to witness 6 Palestinian boys playing soccer on a street corner near a checkpoint, in sight of a settlement, where a soldier stood by and kicked the ball back to the boys if it came his way. One must take solace in the small things that make one believe that peace, even amidst the current situation, is still possible.