Report XXXII on settler violence
Alternative Information Center October 6 – November 4, 2001
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This month has been marked by settler violence directed at farmers attempting to collect their olive harvest. Many harvests have been lost, and some farmers have even ended up in hospital. The AIC has documented such incidents in olive groves in the northern West Bank, near Ramallah, Nablus and Qalqiliya. Violence in Hebron H2 (under Israeli control) continues unabated, affecting the daily life of Palestinians, including schoolchildren. Schools that are located near the settlement of Beit Hadassah are especially vulnerable to assaults, and children going to and from school are in danger of being attacked. For the first time we also see an incursion into Hebron H1 (the part of Hebron that is under Palestinian control), when a group of settlers decided to shoot at houses in a neighbourhood adjacent to H2. Three new settlements points were established in the first half of October despite calls, both Palestinian and Israeli, to stop settlement expansion.
October 6, 2001: A group of armed settlers from Karnei Shamron, near Qalqiliya, intimidated farmers harvesting their olives. They pointed guns in their faces and shot in the air.
October 6, 2001: Twelve settlers from Shafi Shamrun (near Nablus) set fire to 50 olive trees belonging to Barqa village. Muhammad Awad Bazari, one of the owners, reported seeing the settlers pouring petrol on the ground around the olive trees, then setting fire to them. The other owners are Omar Bazari and Abdallah Bazari. An IDF checkpoint prevented fire fighters from arriving to the spot on time to save anything.
October 7, 2001: A new bypass road connecting Netzanit and Dugit settlements north of Gaza is being built. This road, 5 km in length, cuts through Palestinian agricultural land belonging to the village of Beit Lahia. Part of it also runs through Area A, which is theoretically under total Palestinian jurisdiction. The construction damaged greenhouses, water irrigation systems and wells.
October 7, 2001: The Civil Administration for the Occupied Territories authorized the construction of two new settlement points, near Kedumim (Nablus area) and near Hagai (Hebron area). Protests organized by Peace Now, the Israeli peace organization, attracted media attention to the matter, but the settlements were set up anyway.
October 9, 2001: Settlers attacked schoolchildren in Hebron H2. Nasrin Farid Jadar (13), Fida’ Sayid Jadar (13), Iman Muhammad Abu Sneina (12) and Muhammad Adnan Abu Turki (14) were going home from school when they were assaulted near Beit Hadassah settlement. They were treated in Aliya Hospital. H2 has witnessed many such attacks on schoolchildren by the hands of settlers from the Jewish enclave in the city (see previous Settler Violence Reports).
October 10, 2001: Settlers from Beit Hadassah in Hebron H2 entered some Palestinian houses at noon, when most of the male inhabitants were at work. They shouted abuse at the women and intimidated them, made a mess and left.
October 10, 2001: Bulldozers leveled four dunums (4000 m sq.) of land belonging to the AlKhalayka family. This fertile land, well known for its vineyards, lies near Kiryat Arba settlement.
October 10, 2001: In the afternoon, three settlers opened fire on Palestinian cars near Khawara, injuring Muhammad Hassan Khalayka (75), traveling from Hebron to sell grapes in Nablus, and Wa’il Awad (20), who was driving him there. Mr. Khalayka was seriously injured in the head and is still being treated in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. IDF helicopters transported him there soon after the incident. Khawara village is especially vulnerable to such attacks as it lies near a bypass road often used by settlers.
October 10, 2001: Bulldozers accompanied by armed settlers started working on a new settlement road near Kufr Thulth, establishing a road linked to Naalei Shomron settlement (north east of Ariel settlement). A new settlement point is going to be set up there. Hundreds of Palestinians came to protest against the action. The settlers were driven away, only to return the next day.
October 13, 2001: Nine Palestinians were hospitalized after a truck driven by a settler ran into the taxi they were traveling in. The taxi had stopped at the Sanjil checkpoint north of Ramallah when the truck apparently deliberately crashed into them. Mahmud Abdel Rahman (34), one of the passengers, later died of his injuries.
October 13, 2001: A group settlers damaged eighty olive trees belonging to the Shurekah family of Mizra’ Qibliya, north of Ramallah. The IDF stopped the owners from reaching the area while their year’s harvest was being ruined. To add insult to injury, the settlers (apparently from the nearby Doled settlement) left one solitary tree standing.
October 13, 2001: Israeli engineers measured 100 dunums of land near Asla’ village in the Qalqiliya area. The land belongs to the Mas’ud, Shubita and Abdel Karim families. The activities of engineers usually point to a plan for the establishment of a new settlement.
October 14, 2001: For the second consecutive day settlers attacked farmers from Al Luban Sharkiya (near the Ramallah – Nablus road) who were harvesting their olives. Mahmud Abdul Rahman Khader (70) was hit by a stone on his head and is hospitalized. According to his son Kamel, eight armed settlers came to the field from Alei settlement and started to throw stones at the farmers. They had previously damaged seven trees belonging to Ismail Abdul Rahman, and taken five buckets of picked olives that the farmers had left in the olive grove overnight.
October 21, 2001: Settlers from Brakha, near Nablus, confiscated 3 dunums of Kufr Qalil village. One of the owners, Wa’il Mansur, reported that tractors came and ploughed the land that lied closest to the settlement. This agricultural land is located near a spring.
October 21, 2001: A group of settlers entered AlKayal mosque in Hebron in the night, damaged Koran books, and overturned tables and benches. The Waqf (the Muslim religious authority) complained and obtained a promise from the Civil Administration that the matter would be investigated.
October 23, 2001: Settlers from Beit Hadassah in Hebron H2 hit a five year old boy, Jazan AnNader, with the holster of a gun. Jazan was treated in Aliya Hospital.
October 23, 2001: Atif Ahmad Salama (25) was shot in the thigh as he was walking home to Sayir from Hebron. He was walking along the road at 5 PM when a settler car slowed down as it was driving by, and the driver shot out the window. The car then headed away to nearby Kiryat Arba.
October 24, 2001: Tens of armed settlers entered Takruri Hill in Hebron H1 (under Palestinian jurisdiction). They moved 200 m down the street, shooting at houses at cars. Eight cars were damaged.
November 2, 2001: Settlers from Navi Daniel (Etzion Block) dug a big hole for a sewage reservoir on agricultural land belonging to ElKhader village (south of Bethlehem). Their work was executed under protection of the Israeli army.
November 4, 2001: Five settlers from Ben Ikhayfar attacked farmers during the olive harvest. They threw stones and sticks, injuring Khadija Shehaja Khejuj (75) who is now in Aliya Hospital in Hebron.
November 4, 2001: Thirty settlers, some armed, attacked houses in Yanun (south-east of Nablus). Abdul Latif Yusef, the head of the local council, was seriously beaten, his eye damaged. From his bed in hospital, he let the AIC know that this was not the first act of violence committed by settlers in Yanun (see previous AIC reports).
*** Based in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the AIC is a Palestinian-Israeli organization which disseminates information, research and political analysis on Palestinian and Israeli societies as well as the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, while promoting cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis based on the values of social justice, solidarity and community involvement.