Farmers struggle against Israeli occupation

=============================================

Tweet

Follow @PalestinePlus

Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)
Public Relations Department

Israeli Settlers Push Farmers off their land with military support

In the morning, Palestinian farmers in Wadi Suweit, on the main road between the settlements of Ma’on and Suseya in the South Hebron Hills, were forced off their land while they were plowing and preparing their land for cultivation.

When solidarity activists arrived at about 8:30am, the scene was quiet, though there where about four military jeeps observing as the farmers worked. By 9 am, several settlers had arrived along several more Israeli military and police jeeps, totaling 14. The settlers stood on one side of the soldiers screaming and threatening the farmers for an hour.

Eventually, the Israeli soldiers complied with the settlers’ demands and told the Palestinian farmers to leave the field. The farmers moved to the next field and began to cultivate, but the settlers continued to yell at the Palestinians. The soldiers again complied with the settlers’ wishes and forced the Palestinian farmers to evacuate the field, even though the Palestinians owners had received permits from the Israeli court allowing them to work there.

Date : 4/7/2011

Israeli settlers burn 300 olive trees in Aqraba

The agricultural committee affiliated to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) mentioned Monday that residents of the illegal Itamar settlement had burned 300 olive trees in Aqraba village, southeast of Nablus city. A similar incident was alleged to have occurred several months earlier, it said.

The agricultural committee called on Palestinian Authority officials to intervene to stop violations against farmers, "who are exposed every day to operations of sabotage, destruction and displacement."
Date : 11/7/2011 Israeli Occupation Forces attack Wadi Qana Israeli occupation forces invaded on Monday Wadi Qana in the south of Nablus after being declared a “military closed zone” and held a number of citizens from the nearby town of Deir Estia while bulldozing around 450 olive trees and destroying 3 dunums ready to be planted. Wadi Qana has been declared as a closed military zone since the morning with a checkpoint erected to prevent the people from getting to their land. Rezik Abu Mansour, "coordinator of the popular committee against the wall in the area," said that the citizens were allowed to enter their land only after the occupation forces ended its mission. Twenty-five of the uprooted trees belong to Shekh Yousef and another 40 belong to a man called Mokbel SHada Awad, while the 3 dunums of agricultural land that were ready to be planted belong to Rezik Abu Naser.

Date : 12/7/2011

Israeli occupation destroys cisterns and confiscates its pumps in the Jordan valley

Nablus –on Tuesday, Israeli forces destroyed cisterns and confiscated pumps belong to farmers.
The Israeli army has closed the area and started confiscating the pumps in Al Nassareya, Al Aqrabania and Beit Hasan villages in the Jordan valley. According to witnesses, Israeli forces have confiscated at least 3 cisterns and 3 pumps belong to Nabeel Jodeh, Mohamad Wahdan and Najeh Zaid.
This area, which is classified as area “A” according to Oslo accord, is considered to be the most important agricultural area in the region where hundreds of families depend for their living on agriculture.

Date : 15/7/2011

Settlers torch Palestinian land near Nablus

Nablus -Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Yizhar set fire to Palestinian land on Friday near the village of Burin, south of Nablus. "A group of settlers from Yizhar had set fire to dozens of Dunums in that area," a member of Burin’s agricultural committee. Residents of Burin and members from the Palestinian civil defense crew reported that they tried to extinguish the fire but settlers prevented them from reaching the land.

Date : 15\7\2011

Army gas canisters set fire to Palestinian land

Jerusalem - Israeli soldiers fired gas canisters at residents in the town of Qatana, near Jerusalem, on Thursday, causing fires which spread through olive and fig groves. The fire also damaged vineyards and the electricity grid in the area, a spokesman from the town’s police department Ashraf Shamasneh said, noting that the Israeli army did not contact the fire department at any point. Palestinian firefighters were unable to reach all areas affected by the fire, and several homes in the town were damaged. This attack is the second within days in which gas canisters were fired on the residents’ homes and agricultural lands.

Date : 18/7/2011

Settlers Stab Palestinian Farmers

A group of Israeli settlers attacked three Palestinian shepherds near Jerusalem on Monday. The shepherds were tending to their sheep on a hillside near Mikhmas east of Jerusalem when they came under a "brutal" attack by settlers who beat and stabbed them, according to Palestinian police. They were evacuated to hospital where medics said two victims sustained serious wounds, police said. The alleged attack follows a string of violent events in the occupied Palestinian territories. A report by the Palestinian Authority found that settler violence increased "dramatically" in June 2011, documenting 139 attacks in the West Bank and the destruction of over 3,600 olive trees and vineyards. On Friday, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Yizhar set fire to Palestinian land near the village of Burin, south of Nablus, a member of its agricultural committee.

Date : 19\7\2011

IOF destroy an animal shelter in Al Zubaidate village

Ramallah- according to the agricultural committee affiliated to UAWC in Al Zubaidate village, the Israeli forces destroyed an animal shelter owned by Fayez Ahmad Ali Zubaidate.
It is worth mentioning that UAWC has established 10 animal shelters for small farmers in Al Jiftlik and Al Zubaidate villages. The destroyed shelter was established on 23 February 2011 adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Arjoman. Note that this settlement was built on the lands of Al Zubaidate and Tamun villages.
UAWC condemned the indiscriminate destruction carried out by the "Israeli authorities" against the Palestinian people property especially the Palestinian farmers’ property of the Jordan Valley.

Date : 19/7/2011

Palestine : Israeli settlers bulldoze farmlands near Hebron

Israeli settlers uprooted on Tuesday Palestinian farmlands in Sair town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron ; Israeli soldiers were present but did not attempt to stop the settlers.
The Land Research Center in Hebron reported that four bulldozers driven by fundamentalist settlers bulldozed vast areas of farmlands close to the “Asiar” illegal settlement outpost. The settlers came from Asfrat illegal settlement. Resident Mustafa Ash-Shalalda told the Land Research Center that the lands in question are not within the boundaries of the illegal settlement, and that they belong to members of his family. Israeli settlers are carrying out constant attacks against the residents and their lands, in an attempt to force them out of their homes and lands, in order to control more privately-owned Palestinian property.

Date : 22/7/2011

Palestine : Israeli troops uproot Olive orchards near Jerusalem

Israeli army bulldozers uprooted, on Thursday morning, Palestinian olive orchards that belong to residents of Beit Iksa village, in occupied East Jerusalem, in order to build a section of the illegal apartheid Wall, and to allow the expansion of Ramot illegal settlement. The soldiers uprooted dozens of olive trees that belong to members of Hababa, Gheith and Hamayel Palestinian families, who tried to defend their lands.

Date : 23/7/2011

Palestine : Israeli settlers attack shepherd near Nablus

Fundamentalist Israeli settlers attacked on Friday evening a Palestinian farmer near Qasra village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and killed two of his sheep. Dozens of settlers, who lived in the Ein Ad illegal settlement that was evacuated by the army nearly two months ago, came to the former settlement and violently attacked a shepherd identified as Ibrahim Fayez Hasan before killing two of his sheep.