Tag Archives: Occupation

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My visit to Palestine and why the wall will fall

Israeli separation barrier at Abu Dis, June 2004 (en wikipedia where it was uploaded as own work)

Israeli separation barrier at Abu Dis, June 2004 (en wikipedia where it was uploaded as own work)

I just came back from a short trip to Palestine and Israel. It felt good going home to Ramallah where I grew up and lived the first (and best) 17 years of my life. I also visited my extended family in Ramleh who stayed after 1948. The last time I was back was in 2003 in the midst of the 2nd intifada to see my grandmother for the last time. Things have changed since then. There are now fewer checkpoints but more security surrounding them. There is of course the eight meter separation wall built around towns and villages, cutting through streets, neighbourhoods and olive groves. Settlements surrounding Palestinian towns and villages are dotted all around the West Bank in full view. There are roads only used by settlers to reach their settlements and bypass Palestinian towns and villages. Palestinian homes now get water once or twice a week – I was very surprised that people run out of water and have to pay money to buy it.
Going back home brought back memories of the occupation while growing up in the 1970’s and 1980’s in Ramallah – the army Jeeps streaming through the streets, announcing curfews through the speakers, bloody demonstrations, smell of burning tyres, young boys dragged into the army Jeeps and the bizarre behaviour (that’s what I used to think anyway) by the soldiers when they see the Palestinian flag being raised at demonstrations (The good news that after 25 years the Palestinian flag is now flying on every building, street lights, inside cars and people’s homes. We now have progress. At least the demonstrations achieved something!)
Despite the insecurity, life with family and friends and living in a close community was beautiful. I was fortunate to have loyal and loving family, friends and neighbours. Everyone looked out for each other and despite the hardship of the surrounding occupation, we were relatively happy despite the international news that portrayed otherwise. My big family – my parents and 5 children – lived together in a small 2br apartment, five siblings slept in one small room on a double bed, and we ate and shared from the same plate on a small table in the kitchen that we also used to study on. We didn’t have the comforts of everything but we were happy and made sure we looked out for each other.
As a young girl I was not aware of why we had demonstrations and curfews all the time. My family made sure we didn’t talk about politics and I grew up illiterate about the Israel/Palestine conflict (except my grandmothers 1948 stories of course). My parents wanted us to know that Israelis were normal just like us and made sure that we visited my dad’s many Jewish friends in West Jerusalem and my mum made them Palestinian food (stuffed chicken with rice mince and pine nuts – very yummy – kobbe, tabouli, stuffed zucchini and eggplant) every time they came to Ramallah to visit on Saturdays. I knew the soldiers were the same as my dad’s friends but back then could never reconcile how they could be the same guys beating young boys and taking them away in their Jeeps.
My family packed up and left in 1986 to Australia due to the constant occupation and lack of future opportunities for five bright and talented children. It took me some time to adjust to a quiet and at times “boring” life without the constant curfews and demonstrations. My curiosity to understand what is happening in Palestine started then and I devoured books that explained the conflict. The books I read were more political and historical in nature of course.
But a chance encounter with an Israeli woman in 1996 at a personal development course in Sydney changed the way I thought about the political conflict. Batsheva heard me speak and asked me where I came from, I said “Palestine”. She stared at me for a while. I realised that she was Israeli because of her accent. I was concerned that she was going to scream or swear at me. But then she came close to me and said “I am sorry for what my people did to your people”. The long hug and cathartic cries followed. I could not let go of her. She became my second mum and we became good friends. Inviting her over my place for a taste of Palestinian food was a sign that she became family.
The experience made a difference in how I viewed the conflict. Political and historical narratives are dwarfed when people see each other as human beings. I was still young then to understand the importance of this chance encounter. Batsheva was on my mind last week as I was going through the streets of Bethlehem surrounded by the separation wall; as I was going through Kalandia checkpoint waiting my turn to get through the turnstiles to be scanned and asked why I was going to Jerusalem; as I saw the settlements surrounding Palestinian towns and wondering whether its inhabitants were just like Batsheva.
Batsheva is not your average person but she is like every other human being. We all have the capacity to open our hearts to see and hear each other’s narrative and source of suffering. Once we do, the separation wall will surely fall and the checkpoints will melt and disappear. That’s when Israel and Palestine will deserve to be called the “Holy Land”. Maybe then we will let go of labels, flags, checkpoints and borders. Who needs them when their neighbour is just like Batsheva?

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Palestinian murderers of Damascus.

Minefield warning sign in the Golan
Minefield warning sign in the Golan

Minefield warning sign in the Golan

Sami Jamil Jadallah, 11 June 2011

 

After 40 years, Bashar Assad wakes up and discover there is an Occupied Golan Heights and decided to get his side kicks to send Palestinians refugees to confront the Israeli army when his own Syrian army is too coward to even come close to the borders but too brave to kill and murder Syrian civilians.

As such the Palestinians leadership in Damascus being agents, tools and stooges of the Syrian regime, with prompting from the Syrian authorities, decided to take off some of the heat and shift the headlines from the killing fields of Syria and shift the attention and focus to the Occupied Golan Heights and of course organize a march toward the Israeli borders knowing well the Israeli army will be only too happy to shoot at anything specially if that thing is an Arab.

Ahmed Jibril, a member of the PLO, a thug through and through, the head of the Palestinian organization “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine/General Command decides to accommodate his masters in Damascus and arrange buses and ambulances, of course, and dispatch young energetic and innocent Palestinians to face the Israeli soldiers for the first time.

Of course, Israeli army was only too ready to shoot at any thing that moved, since the rules of engagements for the Israeli army is to shoot to kill any Palestinians who comes close to the fence. Not so sure the rewards for such a killing but an American Jewish organization always volunteers the delivery of free pizza to Israeli soldiers after field operation.

At the end of the day, 28 dead and scores are injured and every one goes home. The Israeli soldiers goes back to their bases to enjoy beers and pizza compliment of the American Jewish organization and the Palestinians take their dead back to “Yarmouk Refugee Camps” where these old aged thugs and “freedom fighters” decided to polish their rusted faces with fiery speeches speaking of Bashar Assad and his commitment to the liberation of Palestine and how Syria’s Assad is the only country with “steadfastness” against the Israeli Zionists and is the leader of “resistance and objection”. Of course forgetting that this Syrian leadership is the one, instead of sending its tanks to defend its borders with Israel decided to deploy its army and tank forces against its own people.

When angry parents of these dead and innocent victims decided not to give these criminal thugs a forum at their children funeral to make “brownie points” for the Syrian regime, Ahmed Jibril and his armed gangs decided to open fire and shoot killing 14 innocent people who were there to attend the funeral and to denounce these old spent revolutionary thugs of the PLO.

Mahmoud Abbas as the head of the PLO and since Ahmed Jibril and his “General Command” are members of the PLO, Abbas decided to call for an investigation into the shooting, just like all the investigations he called for and no one ever hear any thing about any more.

Well, the story should tell us what kind of people and organizations make up the PLO, criminal thugs, thieves and crooks and more thugs, not to mentioned failed “liberators” and behind the people leadership. The story of Yarmouk refugee camps is repeated all over the refugee camps in Lebanon, where PLO thugs run an armed protection mafia. Keeping in mind, more Palestinians died fighting each other in Lebanon and Syria than those who died fighting Israel.

This is not the first time, certainly will not be the last time, that members of the PLO open fires against Palestinians. Yasser Arafat did it many times while he was the King of Beirut were Fatah engaged in fights against other Palestinian factions, even Fatah opened fire against its own factions.

This practice and well established traditions continued when the PLO returned to manage the Jewish Occupation, and what we saw in Gaza before and after the take over by Hamas is but another example. Having lost the election. As a favor to Israel Fatah decided to put an end to Hamas. Fatah Gaza leadership decided to import tens of thousands of guns, and heavy machine guns from Egypt of course with the tacit approval of Israel and the US and brought millions of dollars in cash, compliment of US taxpayers. Well Hamas cut that idea short with Fatah leaders escaping to Israel and Egypt.

During PLO tenures in Lebanon, thousands died in inter-factional fights, and key PLO commanders who ran away from the battlefield with Israel became generals and field marshals of Arafat multiple security forces.

The story continued with the arrival of Arafat and his “liberation army” to manage the Jewish Occupation, establishing dozens of security agencies, each with its own prisons, with its own “intelligence services” and with an open check to arrest, detained, jail, torture even commit murder with no one asking a question. This is how Arafat managed his part of the agreement in Oslo.

There was a never open and public hearing on these cases of death and torture, there was never an open and public hearings on the tens of billions looted by officials of the PLO, there was never an open and public hearings on the hundreds of millions squandered by these returning liberators. More troublesome is the fact that the PLO leadership never opened or organized a public commission to look into the murder of thousands in Tal-Zaater, and the thousands who died in the massacre of Sabra and Shatilla and the story goes on and on. So Mahmoud Abbas ordering an investigation is nothing but another hot air balloon flying over besieged Damascus.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah is an international legal and business consultant and is the founder and director of Palestine Agency and Palestine Documentation Center www.palestineagency.com and founder and owner of several business in technology and services. Sami also runs an online website (Jefferson Corner). His articles are also featured on PalestineNote and Veterans Today.

Articles on RamallahOnline by Sami Jamil Jadallah

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The World Water Day Art Exhibit Photos

Nick Marouf, RamallahOnline, 23 March 2011

On March 22, Palestine celebrated World Water Day.  A full day programs on water use, availability, occupational constraints was enjoyed with Dabkeh folk music and dance between the lectures.

A variety of booths were setup to highlight the importance of water,along with details on various project achievements and accomplishments. A series of photos by local artists and school children were displayed to raise awareness of water issues.

Palestinians are utilizing 11%  of the available water resources, while the rest 89% is utilized by the Israelis. Generally, more than 95% from the available water supply comes from groundwater.

 

A Special screening of the film “Our Water – Their Water” was held after the official Water Day Ceremony. “Our Water – Their Water” is a 50 minute film that was produced by Imageo, a French film company, in conjunction with the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD). Prime Minister Salam Fayyad joined Minister Shaddad Attili of the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA)  in the special screening of the movie.

 

 

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Mahmoud Abbas should throw the keys of the “Occupation” at the White House.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah, 21 Feb 2011

The message from President Obama and Secretary Clinton to Mahmoud Abbas and Ramallah leadership is very clear. Mahmoud Abbas message to the US should also be equally clear. Mahmoud Abbas should travel to New York address the UN General Assembly and Security Council and announce the disbanding of the PLO/PA and declaring Oslo Accord as “null and void”, and throw the keys of the Occupation at the White House. The US casting its standard “Veto” at the UN Security Council should not come as a big surprise to the Ramallah leadership and other Arab countries long advocates and supporters of the US sponsored “no-peace” process. There is no peace, there is no process there is only Occupation and the ever present US “Veto”. For God sake disband the PLO/PA as enablers of the Occupation and as the legal and contractual party with the Israeli Occupation.

Oslo as envisioned by both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership has nothing to do with ending the Jewish Occupation that began in 67, let alone the return of the refugees. Oslo in simple and plain language is a security and civil administration contract between the PLO on the one hand and the Israeli Occupation on the other hand and paid for by donor countries. While Israel kept its occupation, in fact expanding it and solidifying it hold on the Occupied Territories through its settlement policies, Oslo enabled Israel to shift the financial burdens, all of it, to the PLO. Of course the PLO leadership was only too happy to do just that as a way to revive the financial fortunes of the leadership and the PLO. As such the PLO/PA became beggars and looters at the same time serving the Jewish Occupation.

The US, Europe and some countries in the Middle East were too happy to cooperate in this mission and were too happy to relieve Israel of its financial and legal obligations as an “occupying power” and fund the operations of the Palestinian Authority. As such funding the Palestinian Authority is enabling the Jewish Occupation and allows it to continue, as Israel’s wants it and the US sees it.

If one is to make a simple calculation of the average annual costs of running the civil affairs of the Occupied Territories including health, education, roads and infrastructures, civil servants etc, the figures should not be less than $1.5 billions a year. As such and since Oslo, donor countries, the PLO/PA all were able to save Israel some $ 27 billion, which Israel put to good use.

Safety and security for Israel, its military and settlers occupation is of paramount importance to the US, the EU and certainly to the PLO/PA as the” civil and security” contractor for the Jewish Occupation. That is why the US with the help of Mubarak/Suleiman were too keen on generously funding the Palestinian Security Forces to the tune of several hundred millions a year and to fund the training of a “presidential security forces” to protect the Ramallah regime not different from Hafiz Assad “Saraya Eddifa’a/ Defense Brigades” and Saddam Husain’s Republican Guards.

Contrary to the marketed belief, that the Palestinian Security Forces as the source of law and order, the main objective and almost exclusive purpose of the Palestinian Security Forces is to act as an “auxiliary” security forces to the Israeli Defense Forces and the armed Jewish settlers running all over the place. That is why whenever the IDF wants to run a major operation of targeted killings or house demolition; it gives notice to the command of the Palestinian Security Forces with command to simply disappear from the scene. Once the IDF complete the operation, the Palestinian Security Forces re-appear just like a rainbow. Over the years, the US pledged billions to the Palestinian Security Forces and to Abbas’s own “Presidential Guards”. Not for the love of the Palestinians who die almost on a daily basis at the hands of the IDF and armed Jewish Settlers but for the love of Israel and its occupation.

The US threats to cut of and withhold funding from the PLO/PA after the US “Veto” is meant as a political and financial blackmail of the Ramallah leadership since funding is its “life line” and without funding the Ramallah leadership loses all its local support as “employer” in support of the Occupation. That is why the Ramallah leadership will do all it can to make sure it continues to get the needed fund to meet its legal and contractual commitments to the Jewish Occupation. I will go further and bet that if the PLO/PA stop security cooperation with Israel funding from the US and Europe will stop immediately including funding for “developmental” projects. Keeping in mind American consultants and contractors are the primary beneficiaries of all USAID funded projects.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Born in the Palestinian city of El-Bireh ( presently under Israeli Military Occupation, Armed Jewish thugs and settlers). Immigrated to the US in 62. After graduating from high school in Gary, Indiana was drafted into the US Army ( 66-68) received the Leadership Award from the US 6th Army NCO Academy in Ft. Lewis, Washington. Five of us brothers where in US military service about the same time. Graduated from Indiana University with BA-72, Master of Public Affairs-74 and Juris Doctor-77, and in senior year at IU,was elected Chairman of the Indiana Student Association. Sami Jamil Jadallah is an international legal and business consultant and is the founder and director of Palestine Agency and Palestine Documentation Center www.palestineagency.com and founder and owner of several business in technology and services. Sami also runs an online website (Jefferson Corner)

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Time to bring the Jewish Occupation to an end, now!

Israeli Pirate Flag Silwan - (June 26 2010, Rebecca Fudala)

Sami Jamil Jadallah, 13 Feb 2011

Israeli Pirate Flag Silwan - (June 26 2010, Rebecca Fudala)

Poor Mahmoud Abbas and his Ramallah entourage, they must be feeling down on their luck. Ramallah leadership lost friends and allies left and right. It lost Ehud Olmert and Tizpi Livni who waged war on Gaza killing thousands and leveling Gaza to the ground and it lost peace partners that expanded the settlements at an accelerated rate and continued to build the Apartheid Wall. Ramallah also lost close confident and ally in Bin Ali and lost two close allies and confidants in Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, two men where were key architect to the siege of Gaza standing in the way of Palestinian reconciliations.  Ramallah not only lost close friends and allies it lost most favored destination (rest and recreation) in Sharm El-Sheik. Ramallah must be grieving and accepting condolences.

One thing for sure Ramallah and its endless negotiations with Israel will never ever end the Jewish Occupation of Palestine of 67 and East Jerusalem since Israel never had any intention to leave the territories it occupied in 67 Oslo or no Oslo. On the other hand, Khalid Misha’al can give speeches after speeches till he is blue in the face, calling for “armed resistance” and if the performance of Hamas during the War on Gaza is an indication of the quality of “armed resistance” then the Palestinians are in for a very deep disappointment. That leaves one thing as Cairo and Tunis have shown us, peaceful, persistent demonstration, and general open-ended strike until the Jewish Occupation comes to an end. The people also need to take the US out of the equation since it does not have what it takes to bring an end to the Occupation through negotiations or through UN Security Council. Actually there are no other choices but peaceful non-violent resistance and for the long haul.

NGOs in Occupied Palestine and their “owners” are not expected to lead such efforts for fear of losing funding and generous support from the US and EU. As Cairo and Tunis showed us the people do not need washed out leadership or “intellectuals” or political parties to lead and organize the people into massive civil uprising that will bring Israel’s Occupation back to the front pages of international news similar to the coverage of the “people revolution” at Tahrir Square.

The late Yasser Arafat had such a good chance during the “Second Intifada” to lead the people in a civil peaceful uprising but he too blew it just like he blew his “armed resistance” and he died as he lived, behind the people not ahead of the people.

The Egyptians, the Tunisians, the Romanians, the Hungarians, the Czechoslovakian, the Polish all taught us that no matter how powerful a regime or occupation is, the will of the people, peaceful persistent and non-violent resistance will win the day. President Obama, Joe Biden and others spoke highly of the Egyptian “peaceful/ Selmi” uprising and quest for freedom and democracy, I wonder if they will say the same thing if and when the Palestinians decide to take on the Jewish Occupation in a massive persistent peaceful/Selmi demonstrations and general strike just like the Egyptians did!

By now the Palestinian people should know that not Hamas, not Fatah, not the PLO, not Islamic Jihad, not Qassam rockets or suicide bombing or the US or the UN or the EU will ever deliver freedom and liberation to them. They have to take it and have to earn it not by guns, or “armed resistance” or negotiations but through the will of the people to be free and yes, why not Cairo did it, Tunis did it.

Identity cards are the additional power the people have. Israel uses IDs as a powerful tool for the Occupation totally controlling the lives, fortune and misfortune of the people.  Same thing for Ramallah and Gaza. IDs are an equally powerful tool in the hands of people against the Occupation and against the leadership in Gaza and Ramallah.

One has to imagine the reaction of Tel-Aviv, Ramallah or Gaza if hundreds of thousands if not millions decide to burn their ID in a bone fire that can be seen all over the world and all the way to the White House and Capital Hill. For sure it will create a havoc, total breakdown of the Jewish Occupation and a melt down of its security system, the key to controlling the people under Occupation.  Then the people follow that with a total strike, total shut down of the entire Occupied Territories and with every one in Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, El-Khalil/Hebron, Ramallah, El-Bireh, East Jerusalem, Tulkarim, Gaza, Rafah, Kahn Younis, Bethlehem and Beit Jala all out in their own Tahrir Square and at every Israeli check points demanding an immediate end to the Occupation, not through negotiation but through the people power and will. Time for the people to take charge of their own destiny, leaving the leadership behind and in the dustbins of history and dare Israel to do the shooting.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Born in the Palestinian city of El-Bireh ( presently under Israeli Military Occupation, Armed Jewish thugs and settlers). Immigrated to the US in 62. After graduating from high school in Gary, Indiana was drafted into the US Army ( 66-68) received the Leadership Award from the US 6th Army NCO Academy in Ft. Lewis, Washington. Five of us brothers where in US military service about the same time. Graduated from Indiana University with BA-72, Master of Public Affairs-74 and Juris Doctor-77, and in senior year at IU,was elected Chairman of the Indiana Student Association. Sami Jamil Jadallah is an international legal and business consultant and is the founder and director of Palestine Agency and Palestine Documentation Center www.palestineagency.com and founder and owner of several business in technology and services. Sami also runs an online website (Jefferson Corner)

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It’s the Occupation, Stupid




America’s unrequited love for Israel

Inspired by posts on The Passionate Attachment and America-Hijacked.com, argonium79 has produced a powerful short documentary on the inextricable relationship between Israel’s occupation of Palestine and America’s massive military budget. It’s the Occupation, Stupid features, in order of appearance, Eliot Spitzer, Ben Stein, Irving Kristol, Ron Paul, Michael Scheuer, Richard Curtiss, Eric Margolis, Loretta Alper, Scott Horton, Alison Weir, Glenn Greenwald, Paul Findley, Ilan Pappé, Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush. The narrator’s words are from Maidhc Ó Cathail’s “Ben Stein: America is an underarmed country!” and “Kristol Clear: The Source of America’s Wars.”

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The IDF and Christmas in the Holy Land

View of Church of the Nativity in 1833 (Maxim Nikiforovich Vorobiev (1787–1855))

View of Church of the Nativity in 1833 (Maxim Nikiforovich Vorobiev (1787–1855))

View of Church of the Nativity in 1833 (Maxim Nikiforovich Vorobiev (1787–1855))

Marian Houk, 20 Dec 2010

The IDF has announced its “goodwill gestures that will be implemented for the Christmas holiday … from Sunday, December 19th 2010 until Thursday, January 20th 2011 [i.e., through the Catholic, Orthodox and Armenian celbrations of Christmas]:
* Christian Palestinian residents of the Judea and Samaria [West Bank] Region (regardless of age) will be permitted to cross into Israel for the duration of the entire Christmas celebrations, including lodging.
* 300 Christian Palestinians will be permitted to travel via the Ben Gurion International Airport for the duration of the holiday, subject to security assessment.
* 500 Christian Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip over the age of 35 will be permitted entry into the Judea and Samaria [West Bank]region and into Israel for religious and family gatherings. The permits will be given subject to a security clearance.
* 200 Christian residents of Arab countries will be permitted to enter the Judea and Samaria Region [West Bank] during the holiday.
The IDF will continue to operate in order to ensure that the Christian population in the Judea and Samaria Region [West Bank] can celebrate the Christmas Holiday”.

Though the Christian population in the Holy Land has dwindled from over 20 percent to something like 2 percent now, those quotas given in the IDF “goodwill gestures” listed above are very, very small — if they are even implemented [for the past couple of years, the Gaza quotas were not filled, or, not in an appropriate way] …

Marian Houk PASSIA 2004

In the photo below, taken at a roundtable discussion in Jerusalem in July 2004, Marian Houk is the woman wearing the sort-of-orange-colored eyeglasses. Photo courtesy of PASSIA:

Marian Houk, a writer, reporter, journalist and analyst with long experience at the United Nations — in New York and in Geneva and more — as well as with the Middle East. She has reported on, and for a time also worked for, the United Nations. She is a former President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) at UNHQ/NY (1986), and is currently based in Jerusalem.

Marian Houk is the Editor of UN-Truth news site.

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‘Um, You’ve Got an Olive in Your Hijab’

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Christopher Cottrell

During the olive harvest season in Beit Umreen, a northern village in the Occupied West Bank, many families’ daily routines shift to the vast green hillsides and fields peppered with olive trees.

The delectable fruit and the precious oil it produces represent a staple income source for many rural Palestinians. Grossing around 25 Sheikels per kilo, a family can earn around $900 per day harvesting olives.

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(For me, the sound of olives plopping onto the plastic tarps below reminded of raindrops on a tin roof, but I’m sure others also hear the “ka-ching” of a cash register.)

A tree is relinquished of its fruit by first beating the branches with hardwood sticks. Any leftover olives are then picked out by hand.

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Nestled within dusty branches, the vibrant green and purple olives are easy to spot.

The leaves and sticks are eventually sorted out, leaving just the olives to be poured into a burlap sack.

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After an hour of work, we reclined in the shade of an olive tree and ate pomegranates, falafel and za’atar – a Middle Eastern spice made from thyme, salt and toasted sesame seeds.

My friends’ mother gathered fallen olive tree branches and made a fire for tea. Passing me the first steaming cup, I saw that her hands were worn from many harvests past.

The serenity of our break was interrupted every few minutes by the sound of passing cars, their drivers honking to greet neighbors in adjacent fields.

Anytime a car drove by I instinctively checked the color of the license plate (yellow would have meant Israeli settlers). Especially during the olive harvest season, settlers frequently attack Palestinian farmers, often razing crops in their wake.

International activists often visit the Occupied West Bank during the olive harvest. The extra manpower reduces the amount of time farmers spend exposed in their fields and the mere presence of foreigners is sometimes enough to deter settler attacks.

In the past, even Israeli rabbis have come to the defense of Palestinian farmers. Just last month, Jewish settlers clashed with activists of the Rabbis for Human Rights movement near the southern city of Hebron.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “activists were going to 40 Palestinian villages to protect olive growers and uphold their right to work the land, and harvest. They would act ‘as human shields’ if necessary.”



Christopher Cottrell is an independent American journalist based out of Nablus. Currently working as a part-time volunteer at An-Najah National University working with journalism students. You may also follow Chris at www.chris-cottrell.com.

Olive Harvest

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img_1788

Christopher Cottrell

During the olive harvest season in Beit Umreen, a northern village in the Occupied West Bank, many families’ daily routines shift to the vast green hillsides and fields peppered with olive trees.

The delectable fruit and the precious oil it produces represent a staple income source for many rural Palestinians. Grossing around 25 Sheikels per kilo, a family can earn around $900 per day harvesting olives.

img_1777

(For me, the sound of olives plopping onto the plastic tarps below reminded of raindrops on a tin roof, but I’m sure others also hear the “ka-ching” of a cash register.)

A tree is relinquished of its fruit by first beating the branches with hardwood sticks. Any leftover olives are then picked out by hand.

img_17821

Nestled within dusty branches, the vibrant green and purple olives are easy to spot.

The leaves and sticks are eventually sorted out, leaving just the olives to be poured into a burlap sack.

screen-shot-2010-10-29-at-11-26-33-pm

After an hour of work, we reclined in the shade of an olive tree and ate pomegranates, falafel and za’atar – a Middle Eastern spice made from thyme, salt and toasted sesame seeds.

My friends’ mother gathered fallen olive tree branches and made a fire for tea. Passing me the first steaming cup, I saw that her hands were worn from many harvests past.

The serenity of our break was interrupted every few minutes by the sound of passing cars, their drivers honking to greet neighbors in adjacent fields.

Anytime a car drove by I instinctively checked the color of the license plate (yellow would have meant Israeli settlers). Especially during the olive harvest season, settlers frequently attack Palestinian farmers, often razing crops in their wake.

International activists often visit the Occupied West Bank during the olive harvest. The extra manpower reduces the amount of time farmers spend exposed in their fields and the mere presence of foreigners is sometimes enough to deter settler attacks.

In the past, even Israeli rabbis have come to the defense of Palestinian farmers. Just last month, Jewish settlers clashed with activists of the Rabbis for Human Rights movement near the southern city of Hebron.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “activists were going to 40 Palestinian villages to protect olive growers and uphold their right to work the land, and harvest. They would act ‘as human shields’ if necessary.”



Christopher Cottrell is an independent American journalist based out of Nablus.  Currently working as a part-time volunteer at An-Najah National University working with  journalism students. You may also follow Chris  at  www.chris-cottrell.com.

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OCHA Report: 1,000 Palestinians Injured By Israeli Forces in 2010

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory

United Nations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory (OCHA)

During the week, Israeli forces injured 23 Palestinian civilians, for the most part during weekly demonstrations. Since the beginning of 2010, Israeli forces have injured 1002 Palestinians, up nearly 38 percent on the similar period in 2009 (727 injuries).

Twenty Palestinians and one Israeli activist were injured during weekly demonstrations in the Ramallah and Bethlehem governorates. These demonstrations were held in protest at the expansion of the Hallamish settlement on Nabi Saleh land and the construction of the Barrier in the villages of Bil’in and Al Ma’sara. In Nabi Saleh, Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters at demonstrators who were marching towards the village centre, resulting in the injury of 17 people. During the incident, one house was badly damaged and its contents were destroyed by fire. Approximately one-quarter of Palestinian injuries by Israeli forces in 2010 have occurred over the course of clashes that erupted during weekly demonstrations against the Barrier, settlement expansion and access restrictions.

Continue for full report here, or view it embedded below.

Ocha Opt Protection of Civilians 2010-10-29 English