[News] Rising settler violence against Palestinians in Burqa reignites struggle over land

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-west-bank-settler-violence-burqa-struggle-land>
Rising
settler violence against Palestinians in Burqa reignites struggle over land
By Atef Daglas in Nablus, Occupied Palestine
January 29, 2022
------------------------------

Perched atop the roof of his home in Burqa village north of Nablus in the
occupied <https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/occupation> West Bank stands
Mushir Seif, gazing across the Mount of al-Zuhur at his land, now swallowed
up by the Israeli <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel>
settlement of Homesh.

The land is only 800 meters away from him, and 10 minutes away by foot, yet
for over four decades he’s been denied access to it.

Seif and his 6,000 fellow Burqa residents have not been able to reclaim or
plant anywhere in the 45 dunams (45,000 square metres) of their land that
have been confiscated by Israel since 1978 when Homesh was established.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-uses-settler-violence-tool-take-palestinian-land-btselem>

Israel uses settler violence as 'tool' to take Palestinian land: B'Tselem

Read More »
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-uses-settler-violence-tool-take-palestinian-land-btselem>

With a mixture of sadness and bitterness, Seif told Middle East Eye of the
pain he and his fellow villagers have felt for decades due to the settler
presence on the land - with the tacit support of the Israeli army - and the
persistent feeling of insecurity caused by settler violence.

“It was an ambush by the settlers,” Seif told MEE about one near-fatal
attack that he and other villagers came under last November.

“The army was conspicuously absent and did not come even after the attack,”
he added.

The incident
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinian-farmers-injured-during-settlers-attack-north-occupied-west-bank>
Seif referred to happened on 15 November when a group of Burqa residents
was on their way to visit their stolen land. When they arrived, Homesh
settlers shot at them, assaulted them with sharp objects, and destroyed
Seif’s car. At least six farmers were seriously injured.

The November assault was not an isolated incident. Palestinians in Burqa
fear that settlers are ramping up violence to create a new reality on the
ground and force the government to give them the land.

Attacks increased particularly after the killing
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/west-bank-one-israeli-dies-shooting-near-settlement>
of an Israeli settler by Palestinian gunmen in December near Homesh,
bringing the decade-long fight over land in Burqa back into the spotlight.
Struggle through the generations

The plight of Palestinians in Burqa started in 1978 when Israel confiscated
1,050 dunams from Mounts al-Zuhur and al-Qubaybat in the village to
establish a military base.

The military outpost was soon transformed into what is known as the Homesh
settlement, whose radius of control extends to 4,000 dunams.

In 2005, the Israeli government under Ariel Sharon evacuated settlers from
Homesh, along with settlers in the Gaza Strip and five other settlements
and military bases near Jenin, as part of its unilateral disengagement
plan.

Since then, the army has closed off the area for the Palestinians that
owned the land while settlers continued to come back to maintain their
presence, establishing a makeshift yeshiva, or religious seminary, in
contravention of Israeli law.

[image: .]

>From 1978 up to the present day, the tussle between settlers and the
Palestinians who own the land has been ongoing, a struggle passed down from
grandparents to grandchildren.

Such is the case of the family of Yousef Hajji, known as Abu Saleh, who was
expelled by the army while tilling the land 44 years ago. Abu Saleh passed
away in 2005 aged 91 before he could return to his property.

His son Fathallah, 72, faced a similar situation a few years ago when he
tried to plant trees on the land and was expelled by Israel. Now, the same
fate has befallen his grandson, Nasser, who was wounded in the settler
attack in November.

Standing beside his son, Nasser, as he received treatment for his wounds at
the Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus, Fathallah told MEE that Nasser had
gone with dozens of his fellow villagers to visit and plant the land.

The visit was arranged to comply with a request by the Israeli High Court,
which asked for proof that demonstrates the villagers' inability to access
the land due to settler attacks.

'When we were ambushed, the settlers attacked us from behind and from the
front, and the army was nowhere to be found'

*- Munir Qadus, Yesh Din*

Settlers and the army had testified in front of the court saying farmers do
not ever visit the land and hence cannot lay claim to it.

The attack was not the first of its kind in Burqa, Fathallah said, but it
was the most violent.

About 50 settlers had been lying in wait for them and attacked them with
sharp objects once they approached the land.

Munir Qadus, a field researcher with the Israeli human rights organisation
Yesh Din, was one of those assaulted on the day when his phone was broken
and his glasses were lost.

“We waited for over 15 minutes for the army to arrive to secure the
entrance of the farmers to their lands, despite the security coordination
from the side of the Palestinian Authority (PA),” Qadus told MEE.

“When we were ambushed, the settlers attacked us from behind and from the
front, and the army was nowhere to be found.”

About 50 similar settler attacks were documented in 2020 alone, Qadus said,
which included beatings, attacks on homes, and stone-throwing against
Palestinians passing by in their cars.
Court orders ignored

In 2013, after many lawsuits filed by the farmers, the Israeli High Court
ruled that Homesh was a private Palestinian landholding belonging to its
farmers and that an Israeli presence there was not permissible.

In breach of the court order, settlers maintained a de facto outpost on the
lands.

Burqa residents have been able to enter their lands at times since 2018,
but only fleetingly and without planting anything.

On the rare occasion that they could plant certain trees on the lands
through aid and charitable organisations, settlers would promptly uproot
them and fill the water-wells with rocks.

[image: Son]
Settlers in Homesh pictured in November, the same month a group of
Palestinians were ambushed and assaulted (Provided/Munir Qadus)

Jehad Salah, former head of the Burqa Village Council, told MEE that the
only reasonable explanation for the settlers’ continuing presence in Homesh
is the implicit approval of the army and government.

Qadus accuses the government and the army of negligence in implementing the
law, asserting that neither the settlers nor the army abides by the court
order, which is the highest legal body in Israel.

“They think that all of the land is Israeli land,” Qadus said.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-settlers-attack-olive-harvest-most-dangerous-years>

Israel: Settler attacks on Palestinian olive harvest 'most dangerous in
years'

Read More »
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-settlers-attack-olive-harvest-most-dangerous-years>

Settler attacks on Palestinians across the occupied West Bank have seen an
“alarming” rise in 2021, UN human rights experts said in a statement
<https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27792&LangID=E>
last year.

“We are witnessing the highest recorded levels of violence in recent years
and more severe incidents,” the statement said.

According to UN figures
<https://www.ochaopt.org/poc/21-december-2021-10-january-2022>, 370 settler
attacks led to damage to property in 2021 and a further 126 assaults caused
casualties.

At the same time, settlement building has tripled from the previous year,
with the approval of the construction of 4,000 new units, according
to Khalil al-Tafkaji, a Palestinian expert on settlement and director of
the map unit at the Centre for Arab Studies in Jerusalem.

Both authorised and unauthorised Israeli settlements on occupied
Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law.
'We will not leave the mountain'

Following the shooting near Homesh that left one settler dead and two
wounded on 16 December, settlers unleashed a wave of attacks
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-west-bank-settler-attacks-injured-scores>
that have affected most of the village’s residents.

Dozens of houses have been assaulted and their windows and doors broken,
threatening the lives of many villagers. Gravestones were not spared the
onslaught and many of them were vandalised and defaced.

Saddam Salah, an anti-settlement activist in Burqa who regularly documents
the violations on his camera, says at least 30 houses in Burqa were
attacked in the three weeks after the December shooting. Settlers also used
live bullets while attacking Palestinian homes, he said.

The situation has been exacerbated by the army’s crackdown on the village.

Military checkpoints have been erected around Burqa and its entrances have
been blocked, leaving some neighbourhoods completely sectioned off and
isolated.

A resurgence of popular resistance has emerged in Burqa in recent weeks and
there have been protests against the deplorable conditions perpetrated by
the army and the settlers.

[image: Protests]
Palestinians in Burqa are rising up against the attacks and incursions by
the army and the settlers (MEE/Atef Daglas)

At least eight Palestinians have been injured by live bullets in
demonstrations
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinians-west-bank-wounded-israeli-fire-during-protests>
against the Israeli assaults, and hundreds more by rubber-coated steel
bullets and tear gas.

Despite the soaring tensions in Homesh, the settlers continue their calls
to “climb the mountain [of Homesh],” refusing to give up their position,
citing religious reasons.

But the people of Burqa, the rightful owners of the land, promise that they
will not remain silent.

With their oft-repeated slogan, “we will not leave the mountain,” they have
created a counter popular resistance movement, alongside nearby villages of
Beita
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-beita-became-model-resistance>
and Kufr Qaddum, promising to protect their land and push back against
turning Homesh into an Israeli settlement once more.
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