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December 05 - 04, 2024 |
December 04 - 01, 2024 |
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi
figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.
Al Jazeera - December 3, 2024 - By Al Jazeera Staff
<<-Rooted in this land until death': A Palestinian family's olive
harvest
How one family endured a violent harvest season amid settler attacks and
army raids on their occupied West Bank village.
Umm Safa, Occupied West Bank - Six-year-old Nasser Tanatra is scared of
the rock-strewn hilltop where he used to play and pick flowers near his
family home. The boisterous child, the youngest of seven siblings, used
to dash to the top of Jabal al-Ras with his 10-year-old sister Urood to
gather wild sage and zaatar. But in mid-September, about 20 Israeli
settlers, protected by soldiers, erected tents and began living on the
hilltop, about 50 metres (164ft) from the family's two-storey home. Ever
since, they have attacked and harassed the Tanatras and their neighbours
in the Palestinian village of Umm Safa. At night the settlers fire
bullets into the air and release aggressive dogs to roam outside
villagers' homes. From above, they flash bright lights onto the houses,
blare music and sing loudly. But the worst incident for the Tanatras
occurred soon after the new settlers arrived.
The family was watching the evening news when soldiers launched tear gas
and settlers shot live bullets towards their home. Although nobody was
injured, during the more than hour-long attack, a terrified Nasser
slipped away from his family in panic and darted outside. He then ran
under gunfire to his grandmother's house 100 metres (328ft) away. He has
been traumatised ever since. He says, "'Mama, I am scared to leave the
house. I am scared to sleep. I am not hungry. I am scared to go outside.
I am scared to go to school,'" explained Nasser’s mother, Manal Tanatra,
40, with a frown, as she helped a neighbour gather olives in late
October. "This isn't a life. It isn't. Our house, our land, we are
surrounded and strangled and attacked, and even to harvest our olives is
a danger." The annual olive harvest season in October and November is a
time when Umm Safa's families come together to pick olives from the same
trees their ancestors cultivated. But the arrival of the outpost and the
increasing settler violence have made harvesting an activity fraught
with danger, and the villagers can never be sure how a day in the groves
will unfold. In past seasons, Nasser accompanied Manal to the groves to
play. Since the attack, he has barely left home. Umm Safa, a village of
several hundred people about 12km (7.5 miles) north of Ramallah, sits on
a hillside above terraces of olive trees. Since Israel's war on Gaza
started in October 2023, the villagers, like other Palestinians across
Area C - the 60 percent of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli
military control - have endured escalating restrictions from the Israeli
military and attacks from settlers. In normal times, the Tanatra family
home is alive with the conversations and laughter of Nasser and his six
older sisters, aged between 10 and 20. The family would play games
together or, on special occasions, grill chicken or kebab outside. These
days, the house is quieter. The two eldest daughters, students at nearby
Birzeit University, often stay on campus, due in part to the dangers on
the roads from settlers and newly erected checkpoints where villagers
describe being detained and even hit by soldiers. Manal's husband Saher
used to work as a construction labourer in Israel and made about 6,000
shekels ($1,650) a month. The 50-year-old would go to work and return
home each day for the sunset prayer. After the war started, Saher, like
other Palestinian labourers from the occupied West Bank, had his permit
to enter and work inside Israel revoked. He now hustles to make ends
meet, braving road closures, settler attacks and military checkpoints to
provide for the family of nine as a taxi driver in Ramallah. He earns
far less than he used to. "The work is very light in the taxi," said
Saher. "Each day, I might get only 50 shekels ($14). But 50 shekels a
day is better than nothing." These days, he is lucky to return home at
all, and often stays in Birzeit with his oldest children due to the
precarious conditions. When he does make it home, he parks his taxi a
distance away from the house and the outpost above them to try to keep
it safe. After it gets dark, nobody in the family - or the village -
dares to step outside, fearful that soldiers may carry out arrest raids
or that the settlers may attack. "During the day, we are strong, we are
together," said Manal as she took a break from olive picking. "But in
the night, we are all hidden in our homes, messaging each other,
sleepless, fearful and worried about the violence that is waiting for us
outside." Located between the illegal Israeli settlements of Halamish
and Ateret, the people of Umm Safa have endured stone-throwing and land
grabs by settlers for years.
Then, after the 32-year-old Israeli settler Zvi Bar Yosef established
his first outpost, Zvi's Farm, in the area in 2019, attacks against
Palestinians escalated, often instigated by settlers grazing their herds
on land belonging to the villages of Jibiya, Kobar, and Umm Safa.
Villagers in the area report being assaulted by Bar Yosef and other
settlers, at various times having teeth knocked out or being tied up,
according to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. In 2020, Naji Tanatra,
a distant cousin of Saher's, survived a skull fracture from being
attacked by several settlers after he tried to drive Bar Yosef's
livestock from private Palestinian groves in Umm Safa. Bar Yosef's
encroachment on Umm Safa escalated in the summer of 2023 when he set up
a new outpost as a grazing area near olive groves just below the
village’s main street. After meeting resistance from villagers, dozens
of settlers from the nearby settlements and outposts stormed through the
village, setting homes and cars on fire. In July 2023, Israeli forces in
separate incidents killed two villagers, Muhammad Bayed, 16, and Abd al-Jawad
Dar Saleh, 24, amid demonstrations against the settler takeover of
village land. The pressure intensified in the past year after the
Israeli military erected further checkpoints nearby and blocked the two
main village entrances with iron gates and mounds of dirt, leaving only
a single, circuitous route through adjacent villages for cars to enter
and leave. Then, beginning in September, Bar Yosef – internationally
sanctioned this year for inflicting violence on Palestinians and
preventing them from accessing their land - established the outpost on
Jabal al-Ras. It includes two tents and a barn for his sheep and goats.
Bulldozers operated by settlers spent weeks creating a road for the
outpost before the settlers moved in. The outpost also affects the
children who attend the local school, near the Tanatra home. Marwan
Sabah, head of the Umm Safa village council, described how settlers
shout and stare at children as they make their way to and from school.
In October, according to Sabah, settlers shot at schoolchildren who were
taking a break from class one morning, after which the school sent the
children home. Bar Yosef did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for
comment. Settler outposts take different forms. Some have mobile homes,
others tents. Shepherding outposts, like the ones run by Bar Yosef, are
a recent tactic that enables settlers to take as much land as possible
with only a small number of people. Although illegal under Israeli and
international law, outposts are in practice provided with
round-the-clock military security. They are widely understood to be part
of a larger effort by settlers and – through demolitions, land policies
and financial and security support of settlers - the state to drive
Palestinians out of lands in Area C and create contiguity between the
settlements, rendering any future Palestinian state in the occupied West
Bank impossible. On a sunny day in late October, a week after Manal
helped her neighbour pick olives, she and her daughter, 18-year-old
Nagham, a physical therapy student, harvested olives on their family
land. Manal's sister-in-law, Abla, 37, and her mother-in-law, Kifah, 61,
worked on a terrace above them. At noon, Abla and Kifah climbed down to
share a lunch of fresh vegetables, labneh, olives, bread and homemade
olive oil with Manal and Nagham under the shade of a tree. The four
women were harvesting the 15 dunams (1.5 hectares) and 150 olive trees
that have been in the family since Saher's great-grandfather came to Umm
Safa. He was violently expelled from his village of Tantura during the
Nakba, or catastrophe, in 1948 when Zionist troops forced at least
750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands. "Though Umm Safa is a
small area, it's filled with horror," said Abla. "Filled with horror.
You have the settlements of Ateret, Halamish; Jabal Al-Ras is now a
horrifying military zone. "Everything is enclosed around us, and no one
can come to the rescue no matter what happens." Since the outpost was
established, Manal and her children nervously check the windows at
night, watching for signs of the next attack. Often, they are the ones
being watched. When I come to the house, [the settlers] watch me," said
Manal. "When I leave the house, they watch me. When we get in the car,
we just look forward and drive straight - straight! And pray to God to
keep us safe." In recent months, in addition to the shooting, settlers
have stolen and killed livestock; thrown rocks at homes; destroyed water
pipes, solar panels, fences and olive trees; and torched cars. Saher
once had to rush to move his taxi before settlers could set it on fire.
On the evening of December 1, settlers attacked villagers as they laid
down a water line. They fired live bullets while soldiers with the
Israeli army fired tear gas at people. Meanwhile, military arrest raids
are "continuous" according to Sabah, the village council head. He says
they are designed to intimidate. "The purpose is to accept the new
reality of settlers," he explained, adding that two villagers are
currently imprisoned. People in the village now take turns to keep watch
at night, letting others know about any incursions via WhatsApp. Manal
and Saher sometimes hear whimpers and cries from the rooms of their
youngest children. The barking of the settlers' dogs often keeps them
awake at night but when they do sleep, they have nightmares about the
settlers attacking. "Don't worry, Nasser," Manal tells her son as she
cradles him in her arms. "Baba and I are here to protect you. They won't
come back. You are safe." "In front of the settlers, I try not to show
fear," Manal said. "But at home, at night, when I hold my children - I
am afraid."
'They never stop'
Sabah has spent this olive harvest season in the fields, on one phone
call after another, coordinating movements among nervous villagers. He
says the harvest season is a cherished custom - "part of our love and
passion for the land". "We used to stay up late until the evening while
we were harvesting the olives together," Sabah explained. "But now, we
live in a state of fear and terror." This year, Sabah says men go to
harvest in tense groups while women and children have mostly stayed away
from the fields. The yearlong closure by the Israeli military of the two
main village entrances has largely forced people to go to their olive
groves by foot or by donkey, making harvesting more difficult and
dangerous. According to Sabah, army restrictions and settler harassment
prevented some families from reaching their groves and completing their
harvest - an economic lifeline for many who rely on the income from
selling olive oil. But the women in the Tanatra household and others
from the wider family were determined to proceed with their harvest,
despite the intimidation and attacks. One morning, Manal and Nagham
wound effortlessly through the thick, thorny brush to reach their olive
trees in the valley below. Kifah and Abla worked in the fields as did
Manal's other daughters, school permitting, while Saher took time off
from driving the taxi. Abla described how one day when they were making
their way to their groves, settlers surrounded them with their dogs.
Just the previous day, she explained, a settler on a tractor shot live
bullets in their direction as they picked olives. "We live in fear, not
knowing what will happen," she said. Another day, a settler entered the
Tanatra family home with his dog. He fled when Saher returned from the
fields. "We never leave any of the children alone in the house," Manal
explained. In the early evenings before the sun sets, villagers return
from the groves. On the main street of Umm Safa, they anxiously gather
to discuss the latest army restrictions or settler incursions.
One evening, with a battery-powered, rake-like harvesting machine over
one shoulder, 50-year-old Hassan Tanatra, a cousin of Saher's, arrived
on the main street. "Two settlers stopped us on the street threatening
us if we went to the harvest," Hassan shared, upset. "Every day. Every
day! They never stop."
Season marked by violence
Israeli settler violence has increased in the occupied West Bank since
the war in Gaza started, with more than 1,400 recorded incidents, more
than 1,200 Palestinians forced from their homes and the expansion of
illegal outposts and roads. Since October 1, the United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented at
least 250 settler incidents directly related to the olive harvest,
compared with about 90 incidents recorded during the 2023 harvest. In
this recent period, at least 57 Palestinians were injured by Israeli
settlers and 11 by Israeli forces while more than 2,800 olive trees and
saplings were damaged or destroyed. Throughout the olive harvest season,
Palestinians have been prohibited by the Israeli military from accessing
private Palestinian land located within declared settlement boundaries,
as well as along the settler roads that cut through Palestinian villages
like Umm Safa. Soldiers also often prevented Palestinians from
harvesting olive groves across other land in Area C.
Even in locations where the Israeli military has given permission for
families to harvest on specific days near declared settlement
boundaries, there have been accounts of soldiers preventing harvesters
from reaching their land, including by shooting tear gas and sound
grenades, or settlers attacking Palestinians. On October 17, in the
village of Faqqua near Jenin, Hanan Abu Salami, 59, was shot in the back
and killed by an Israeli soldier while picking olives with her son after
the family had received permission to harvest near the West Bank
separation barrier. Local village councils, together with Palestinian,
Israeli and international activists, subsequently coordinated solidarity
harvests at various hotspots, including along the settler road passing
through Umm Safa. "The attacks on the harvest this year, in cooperation
between the army and Israeli settler militias, make it very clear that
Israel is trying to shape a new status quo under which Palestinians’
access to their land will become even more limited than the catastrophe
it’s been before," said Jonathan Pollack, an Israeli activist and co-organiser
of the Faz'a solidarity harvest campaign, which accompanied several
dozen harvests this year. "We are joined together to keep this land
Palestinian as it is by legal deed and by right," said Mohammad Fayed, a
volunteer who came to Umm Safa from Ramallah for a solidarity harvest on
October 23. "We will support these people in any way we can and make
sure the olive harvest is completed." "The settlers intend to displace
the people of Umm Safa," said Sabah at the solidarity harvest. "This is
a message that we will remain steadfast and we will harvest our olives.
We are rooted in this land until death."
'Today is beautiful'
On the morning of October 31, Manal rose early to prepare fresh bread
with zaatar in the oven outside. It was the tenth and last day of their
harvest.
Manal and Saher anticipated Nasser finally joining them as they
completed the family harvest. "We want to finish it together," she said.
A month and a half after the attack on their home, Nasser was starting
to seem like his usual bubbly self again, running around and being the
centre of attention. After not leaving the house for weeks, he had begun
to venture outside and, after refusing, agreed to join his family in the
groves. Before breakfast, Nasser boasted with a giggle about how he
would climb the olive trees like the Spiderman on his T-shirt. But his
worries still seeped through. "I hope the settlers don't come and attack
us again," he said. "Last night I heard their dogs, and it was scary."
After breakfast, Manal, Saher, two of their daughters and their son
climbed down the hill towards their land. Saher carried a harvesting
machine, and Nasser's high-pitched jabbering punctuated the early
morning sounds of chirping Palestine sunbirds and olive trees swaying in
the breeze. Abla and her husband, Omar, Saher's brother, who were
finishing their own harvest, worked just a few terrace levels above them
with their young children. From her sifting station on the ground, Manal
gave instructions. Azeeza, 15, placed the tarps below the trees so Saher
could dislodge olives with the machine. Kifah gingerly picked up loose
olives, while Manal sifted olives using a metal wire container to
transfer to a bucket for Nagham to carry up the hill to pour into large
sacks. Nasser pried a few olives loose with a plastic rake before his
attention drifted to chasing his six-year-old cousin Ahmed around the
trees. For lunch, the extended family gathered to eat maqluba, the
classic Palestinian dish of rice, chicken, and vegetables flipped upside
down from a pot onto a large plate. As they sat together eating,
chatting and laughing, the family for a moment was at ease. Despite the
threats, the Tanatras completed their harvest - collecting about 100kg
(220lbs) of olives. Manal remarked "how proud" she was of Nasser for
overcoming his fears to join his family in the harvest.
"Nothing this year feels normal," she said as her son darted past. "But
today is beautiful." >>
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA>>
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/12/3/rooted-in-this-land-until-death-a-palestinian-familys-olive-harvest
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Women's
Liberation Front 2019/cryfreedom.net 2024