Israeli Soldiers Attack Palestinian Farmers, Kick Them out of Their Lands
The Palestine Chronicle
(October 31, 2020) — Israeli soldiers today attacked Palestinian farmers working on their land in Beit Ummar town, in the south of the West Bank, and forced them to leave their land, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Muhammad Awad, an activist in Beit Ummar, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers fired teargas canisters at farmers harvesting the olive crops in their lands, located next to the illegal Beit Ain settlement, between Hebron (Al-Khalil) and Bethlehem. Israeli soldiers forced them to leave the area after suffocating from inhaling the gas.
One of the landowners, Mohammad Salibi, had an Israeli court order allowing him to fence his land to protect it from attacks by settlers, and yet every time he goes to work on his land he is attacked by either soldiers or settlers or both at the same time in an effort to get him to stay away from that land.
Under international law, Jewish settlements constructed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories constitute a violation of international law and are considered illegal. (Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
#Watch | Israeli settlers cut down 300 olive trees in Jab’a village in central West Bank. The Palestinian farmer had been taking care of his olive crops for over 20 years, but in a blink of an eye, they’re all gone to settlers’ vandalism!
Jewish Settlers Cut Electricity Supply to Palestinians
Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities. (Photo: File)
(October 30, 2020) — Jewish settlers cut off electricity poles in the village of Al-Sawiya in the northern occupied West Bank, Maan News Agency reported.
The Palestinian official in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Douglas, confirmed that the settlers from the Jewish-only illegal settlement of Rahalim were responsible for chopping down a number of wooden electric poles with chainsaws, causing power outages in the area near Nablus.
“A number of settlers from the settlement of Rahalim near the village cut off electricity poles with electric saws and destroyed the water network for citizens in the western region of the village of Al-Sawiyah, which led to the disruption of main services for hundreds of Palestinian citizens in the area,” Douglas said.
He pointed out that “the settlers’ operations and attacks are on a major and continuous escalation, especially in the northern West Bank, since the start of the olive harvest season.”
Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
“Jewish settler violence should not be analyzed separately from the violence meted out by the Israeli army, but seen within the larger context of the violent Zionist ideology that governs Israeli society entirely,” wrote Palestinian author and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud.
“Settler violence has long since become part of Palestinians’ daily life under occupation,” according to the Human Rights Group B’tselem. “Israeli security forces enable these actions, which result in Palestinian casualties — injuries and fatalities — as well as damage to land and property. In some cases, they even serve as an armed escort, or even join in the attacks.”
Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.
(Palestine Chronicle, MEMO, Social Media)
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