Don't say we did not know #472
Our bus - a bus of leftist peace activists who had come
to the West Bank to help with the olive harvest - stopped at the
entrance to the olive groves of the Palestinian village, Burin, between
the settlements Bracha and Yizhar. As we got off the bus, IDF jeeps
arrived and soldiers - with masks on their faces – prohibited us from
entering the olive groves. The harvest had been co-ordinated with the
DCL (District Co-ordination & Liaison of the Civil Administration of
the IDF). The harvest organisers phoned the DCL. They were told to
wait until officers had checked the matter. Meanwhile, the (civilian)
security co-ordinator of the nearby Yizhar settlement turned up. I was
surprised to see a religious Jew driving on Shabbat. Meanwhile he and
other settlers expelled Palestinians who were harvesting near the
settlement's fence - even though they had been given permission by the
army. Land robbery is apparently permitted on Shabbat... We talked to
the soldiers about that, but apparently they were not in the least
bothered.
The
army probably assumes that leftist activists coming to assist
Palestinians with the harvest pose a military threat to the State and to
a settlement a kilometre away. Indeed after some officers arrived, it
seemed that we (Israeli citizens!) were indeed a threat to Israeli
citizens: the IDF proclaimed the area a closed military zone and
commanded us to leave. We were afraid that if we insisted on staying,
it would cause problems for the Palestinian farmers, so we left.
We
had come to help the Palestinians of Burin who are regularly attacked
by settlers from Yizhar and the Givat Ronen outpost. We must emphasise
that the Palestinian farmers are attacked in their village and their own
fields. So, in many places in the West Bank, settlers are taking over
land from Palestinians when those Palestinians cannot hold out against
the regular, repeated attacks. Usually the IDF does not interfere. On
that Saturday, 31st October, 2015, the IDF helped the settlers by driving us out, preventing us from helping or being a non-violent human shield for those victims of the settlers, the Palestinians.
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