|
 |
||||
|
|
|||||
| Olive Harvest Update on Kufr Qalil By Clara On October 3, the Israeli army illegally prevented a family, accompanied by international volunteers, from picking their olives on land near the Huwwara checkpoint close to the Bracha settlement. After many phone calls by the international activists from ISM and IWPS, as well as the Red Cross and the Israeli organization Rabbis for Human Rights, Israel's District Coordinating Office (DCO) confirmed the right of the farmers to pick in the area and apologized. In the next few days families from Kafr Qalil, accompanied by Israeli and international volunteers, were able to pick their olives without interruption. However, on Saturday, October 7, the army forced a family accompanied by two IWPS volunteers to stop working on their land at noon. At about 12:30 p.m. a Hummer vehicle drove from Huwwara checkpoint up the hill, stopping about 300 meters away from where a family was picking. Soldiers got out and aggressively ordered the father to come down to them. The father and I climbed down the steep hill, while the rest of the family hurried to pack up their things. They had planned to leave about half an hour later anyway, after finishing harvesting olives from the two trees they were working on, as it is difficult to work under the midday sun when fasting, and so did not want to risk a confrontation. The soldiers told the farmer that, according to the law, he should have left at 12 p.m. and now had to leave immediately. When I tried to argue that the High Court decision gives the farmers the right to work on their land without restriction, the soldiers told me they didn't care and that their 12 p.m. rule is what the army decided, so it is the law! As the soldiers refused to discuss the matter with me further and threatened the farmer if he and his family do not leave immediately, I called Zachariah , the fieldworker for Rabbis for Human Rights, and asked him to intervene on our behalf with the DCO. The DCO confirmed that the farmers had the right to work as long as they wanted and promised to contact the soldiers on the ground. However, the soldiers continued to threaten the farmer, claiming it was the DCO who had told them the farmers had to leave at noon. We rejoined the family and started to go home, forced to leave harvest equipment and some of the day's harvest under the trees, where it could have been stolen. After speaking to Zachariah again, who reassured the farmer that the DCO would clarify things with the soldiers, the farmer thought it would be good to approach the soldiers again to make sure he and his family would be able to pick as long as they needed to the next day. The rest of the family continued their way home through the olive groves, while I and another volunteer accompanied the farmer to the Hummer that was now parked at the bottom of the hill. When we reached them they were still not willing to talk to us, threatening the farmer again and demanding his ID and our passports, and detaining us for a couple of minutes before telling us to leave the area. Again, calls were made to the DCO to ensure the soldiers would at least not repeat the same behaviour the next day. In the name of security, an up-to-then tiring but happy day of a whole family picking olives together ended hastily, in fear, anger and humiliation. How the family picking only five hours, rather then five and a half hours, served the security of the state of Israel or even merely that of the settlers living near by will stay the Hummer crew's secret. On the following day picking continued without interruption. International Women's Peace Service (IWPS) Hares, Salfit Website: http://www.iwps-pal.org
|