[GushShalom] Avnery on the harvest struggle + forwarded report
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Mon Oct 28 19:32:29 IST 2002
GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/
[1] Avnery on the harvest struggle
[2] Report of Israeli Settler Attack on Foreign Volunteers
[Uri Avnery reflects on the harvest struggle - including his own experiences; after that
an alarming report about settler violence against international volunteer olive pickers
which we forward.]
[1] Avnery on the harvest struggle
Naboth had a Vineyard
Uri Avnery, 26.10.02
Had they been there last Saturday at sunset, most Israelis would not have believed
their eyes.
In the middle of Havarah, a small village south of Nablus, 63 Israelis, men and
women, young and old, were standing together with dozens of Palestinian villagers.
Jews and Arabs talked together, drank juice offered by the hosts, exchanged
addresses and phone numbers. The local children were wearing stickers brought by
the guests, showing the flags of Israel and Palestine. Nobody bore arms.
All of them looked happy, and with reason: they had just finished a hard day’s
work at olive picking. They had been together under the trees. They were together
when the settlers opened fire.
All this happened deep inside Palestinian territory, after two years of violent
confrontation. A feast of Israeli-Palestinian fraternization in the middle of the bloody
attacks. A human experience. A political act. A symbolic event.
Since biblical times the olive tree has been the symbol of this country. It has
sustained the peasants for many generations – Canaanites, Israelites, Arabs.
Throughout the year, the peasant works in the grove that has been handed down from
father to son, treats the trees, cleans the ground. During the few weeks of harvest, the
whole family picks the olives – men and women, old people and children. The olives
must be picked in time and brought to the olive press, where the golden liquid is
extracted – olive oil. These are days of rejoicing.
A whole family can live now on ten olive trees. Without them, they cannot exist.
The harsher the occupation becomes, the more it prevents movement and denies
livelihood, the more the villagers become dependent on the olive trees.
Therefore the actions of the settlers are so dastardly. They try to prevent the
harvesting, to steal the fruit or to burn the groves. Their actions remind one of one of
the wickedest deeds described in the Bible, for eternal shame: the story of Naboth’s
vineyard (1 Kings 21.):
“Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of
Ahab king of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard,
that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house, and I will
give thee for it a better vineyard than it, or, if it seems good to thee, I will give thee the
worth of it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should
give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee…” The rest of the story is well known:
Jezebel,
the wife of Ahab, produced false witnesses, Naboth was stoned to
death, Ahab got the vineyard. In the end, the dogs licked the
blood of both Ahab and Jezebel.
But compared to today’s settlers, the wicked Jezebel was a
model of righteousness. The settlers take possession of the
villagers’ olive groves without even offering payment or
alternatives. They just shoot. One Palestinian boy was shot and
killed by them while picking olives, hundreds of others were
driven out.
Almost every Palestinian village has olive groves that border
on some settlement or “outpost”, and that is now controlled by
the settlers. When the owners approach to clean the ground or
pick the olives, the settlers shoot at them “in coordination with the
army”. The simple pretext: when the villagers pick olives near a
settlement, they can see what happens there and threaten it.
A monstrous perversion, indeed: putting a settlement in the
middle of a dense population of Palestinians and forbidding them
to work their land, because it is close to the settlement.
In some cases the settlers were not satisfied with shooting, but
invaded the groves physically, drove away the villagers and stole
the olives they had picked. The prophets of Israel would have
been shocked. Daylight robbery. And the army keeps silent.
The intentions of the settlers are more evil than those of Ahab
and Jezebel. They want to turn the life of the villagers into hell, in
order to force them to leave. That is what’s called “voluntary
transfer”, or, in simple language, ethnic cleansing.
For decent Israelis, the conclusion is clear: they get up to help
the villagers to pick the olives, before they rot on the trees or are
stolen. They form a “human shield” against the settlers. During
the last few weeks, hundreds of Israelis have done just that.
Last Saturday, 260 Israelis answered the calls of the various
peace organizations (Gush Shalom, Ta’ayush, The Women’s
Coalition, a sector of Peace Now and others.) They were divided
between the villages that were in the greatest danger.
My lot was to come to Havarah, a village lying in a valley
between two high mountains. Its olive groves are dispersed on
the steep slopes of the mountains, which are covered with rocks
and stinging bushes. It was quite an effort just to get there. Here
and there somebody fell down and was scratched. But all arrived.
Around dozens of trees, groups of pickers, Israelis and
Palestinians, started to work. The owners of the trees took
advantage of the presence of the Israelis and worked quickly.
Going against accepted practice, they hit the branches with sticks
in order to get the fruit to fall on the green plastic sheets that were
spread on the ground. Bad for the tree, but much quicker. Time
was short.
Everybody was working feverishly, holding the fruit-laden
branches and filling buckets and sacks or gathering from the
ground. Each olive was precious. Sportsmen and sportswomen
climbed into the trees, filling hats and bags.
The groups that reached the top of the mountain found
themselves opposite the settlers of Yitzhar, a well-known nest of
fanatics, dressed in their Sabbath clothes – black trousers, white
shirts – and holding their guns. They threatened the pickers, shot
into the air and at the ground (one of the Israeli pickers was hit by
a clump of earth). The shots echoed between the mountains.
Forty minutes later the soldiers appeared, and, after hugging the
settlers, demanded that the pickers leave the area. They explained
that the settlers were right when they opened fire, because the
pickers were endangering the settlement. The pickers continued
their work obstinately, defended by the Israeli “human shield”.
But gradually they were pushed down the slope, closely followed
by the settlers, with the soldiers in between.
In the other groves, the work continued without interruption.
While it was going on, cigarettes were exchanged, conversations
started, first haltingly, than more vividly, in spite of language
difficulties. Some of the villagers spoke Hebrew and told about
the places in Tel-Aviv where they had worked.
Before darkness fell, the sheets were gathered and folded, people put the heavy,
full sacks on their shoulders or on donkeys, and started the descent from the steep
slopes, from terrace to terrace. The local boys leapt easily, the elderly and the guests
moved more cautiously, holding on to bushes and supporting each other.
Many happy people were there. Those who had faced down the hooligans were
happy because they had not fled. The Israeli pickers were happy because they had
combined a political demonstration with a useful act. The Palestinians were happy
because they had saved at least part of their harvest. They were carrying the heavy
bags on their shoulders. At the foot of the mountain, the sacks were put on donkeys
and ancient cars that looked as if they were about to fall apart at any moment.
In the end, an emotional farewell: hundreds of Palestinians, men, women and
children, waved enthusiastically at the departing Israelis, in the village square, the
alleys and from the windows - a whole village. The happy earnings of a day’s work.
[2] Report of Israeli Settler Attack on Foreign Volunteers
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: Huwaida Arraf <huwaidaa at yahoo.com>
Date sent: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 04:42:57 -0800 (PST)
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT (ISM)
Grassroots International Protection for Palestinians (GIPP)
Sunday, October 27, 2002
For Immediate Release
MASSIVE ISRAELI SETTLER ATTACK ON FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS
IN PALESTINE
Number of Internationals Injured and Hospitalized
[Yanoun, Nablus]
Militant Israeli settlers attacked a group of international volunteers
working with Palestinians to harvest olives in the olive groves near the Palestinian
village of Yanoun.
Immediately after a Palestinian operation in the Israeli settlement
of Ariel in the Israeli- occupied Palestinian Territories that killed two Israeli settlers
and soldiers, a group of about a dozen armed Israeli settlers spotted the workers from
their settlement (which is illegal under the Fourth Geneva Conventions), and descended
upon the international volunteers, kicking, punching and beating them with stones and
rifles butts. The internationals were out in front of the Palestinian workers, trying to
protect them from the settlers. The injuries are as follows: James Deleplain – US
citizen, 74 years of age – repeatedly hit in the face, wound under his left eye and
massive swelling, kicked in the back and both the right and left rib cage, with a
possible broken rib. James had pneumonia two weeks ago and has been coughing
since, therefore the beating, especially in the rib cage has left him in a very weak
state. Mary Hughes-Thompson – US and British citizen, 68 years of age - repeatedly
hit in both arms.Possible broken arms. Speaking to Mary while she was on her way
to the hospital, she stated "I am convinced they were trying to kill me." Robbie Kelly
– Irish citizen, 33 years of age- beaten in the face and body with rifle butts. Swollen
mouth, bruised ribs and 7 stitches in his left ear.
Omer Allon– Israeli citizen, 24 - cuts and gashes in
both legs and bruises all over his body.
Also the internationals' money and passports
were stolen by the attackers, all of whom were of teenage years according to the
volunteers. Palestinians in the area may have also been attacked but we don't have
concrete information yet. Over 100 international volunteers are in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories as part of the International Solidarity Movement's (ISM and GIPP)
Olive Harvest Campaign. For more information about this, please see
www.palsolidarity.org
. Internationals and Israelis have been providing a continual presence in the village of
Injuries are being treated at Lijnat il-Zakaat Hospital/Clinic in Aqraba:
+972-(0)9-259-8550.
For more information:
Sami Hayek: +972-(0)67-758-947
Robbie Kelly: +972-(0) 628-476 ISM office: +972-2-277-4602
---
Transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site
For Hebrew http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum.html
For English http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html
French available at request
At request, a selection of documents is also available in Spanish
Also on the site:
photo's - of action or otherwise informative
the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English
the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
(and a lot more)
http://www.gush-shalom.org
In order to receive our Hebrew-language press releases [mostly WORD documents -
not always same as English]
mailto:gush-shalom-heb-request at mailman.gush-shalom.org
+ NB: write the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
In order to receive weekly a selection of English-language articles, reports and
announcements collected by Adam Keller and Beate Zilversmidt send one blank mail
to: TOI_Billboard-subscribe at topica.com
If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can send a cheque or
cash, wrapped well in an extra piece of paper, to:
Gush Shalom pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033
or ask us for charities in your country which receive donations on behalf of Gush
Shalom
(Please, add your email address where to send our confirmation of receipt.
More official receipts at request only.)
For more about Gush Shalom you are invited to visit our website:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/
-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-
More information about the gush-shalom-intl
mailing list