Almonds pose massive security threat to the State of Israel

This is a little long but please bear with me as again it is a story that needs to be told.

On Sunday and Monday we joined a farmer and his family from the village of Kufr Qalil as they tried to harvest almonds from their land. The land is very close to an illegal Israeli settlement. The Israelis took away some of the farmer’s land to construct a road to the settlement, so his land is now split into 2 sections, some falling below the road and the rest falling above it. The family are scared to visit their land because the settlers from the settlement attack or harass them and they also have problems gaining access to the land. They ask for internationals to accompany them because in the past the presence of internationals have helped them gain access to their land and proven to help limit, and decrease the severity of, attacks. I presume this is because if internationals witness anything people outside are likely to hear about it (and if I’m really cynical perhaps people will also be more likely to listen to what is said).

At 7am we met the family and split into 2 groups, one to work above the road and another below it. I went with the group heading below the road which consisted of myself, another woman from IWPS, a male international, and a 20 year old female, a boy of 16 and 2 children, all from the farmer’s family.

As we crossed the settler road to get to the fields, a settler was driving past. When he saw us he stopped the car and began making phone calls on his mobile. The Palestinians were obviously scared and asked us to walk in front of them. We carried on walking down the road and the car drove slowly behind. We entered the fields and as we were about to start work a settler with an M16 (a huge gun) then entered the fields and said that the family did not have permission to be in the fields below the road and we would have to leave.

However the family did have this so called ‘permission’. In 2006 the Israeli High Court ruled that Palestinians should be able to access their land freely at any time, they do not need to obtain permission and the army is duty bound to protect them from settlers. These rulings are rarely followed however and farmers are constantly turned away from their land because they have not applied for ‘permission’ from the Israeli authorities. The family we were with today had however obtained this permission. They had spoken to the DCO (the office which coordinates the Israeli army’s activities within a particular district), which said they would be able to go to their fields. Having spoken to a farmer the DCO is then required to liaise with all security forces in the area to ensure that the farmer has adequate protection while his work is carried out.

So for 10 minutes we stood with an armed settler, whose presence was illegal, as he told the family they would have to leave their own land as they had no permission to be there, even though legally they did not need permission. Then 2 soldiers arrived. I assumed they were there to fulfil their duty and protect the Palestinians but they only spoke Hebrew and only spoke with the settler. They then proceeded to tell us through a variety of threatening gestures that we must leave the land.

We called the DCO who passed us from person to person within the office but confirmed nothing and expressed no concern that the settlers and soldiers were preventing the Palestinians reaching their land. Then 2 men in uniforms arrived (pictured right with the armed settler), they wore badges that simply said ‘Security’. One had an M16, the other a video camera. They too approached us and said we would have to leave. When we asked who they were they would not answer.

The soldiers then left us to go and speak to the group who were harvesting on the fields above the road. (Leaving a group of Palestinians surrounded by armed settlers is clearly in breach of the High Court ruling that states they are duty bound to protect Palestinians from settlers trying to attack them or interfere with their work)

Once the soldiers had left the 2 ‘security’ men soon became aggressive. They seemed particularly keen to antagonise the 16 year old boy, trying to push him from his fields. They then tried to take the family’s donkey but I threw myself on top of it to stop them (it appears that land, lives and freedom are not enough for the Israelis, they want the donkeys too).

After 10 minutes the soldiers returned and were soon joined by 2 Israeli policemen who also told us we were not allowed to be below the road. When I asked one of the settlers why it mattered that we were in the fields below the road I was told that ‘it matters’. That was all we heard by way of explanation all day.

Finally a representative from the DCO arrived and when I asked if the family had permission to be there he said yes, so I asked if we could begin work and he said yes, so I asked if he would ask the settlers to leave so that we could start work he shrugged his shoulders and remained sat in his car.

Eventually the family decided they did not want trouble and they did not want to be attacked while they worked so we would just go to the fields above the road. They confirmed with the DCO and the Israeli policeman that they wanted to work in the fields below the road the following day and they were assured this would be possible.

The following day…

When we arrived at the road the next day there was already a minibus full of settlers (pictured left) and an army jeep waiting for us. As soon as we approached, the settlers charged from the minibus towards us but the soldiers prevented them reaching us. All of the settlers were teenage boys who seemed to be following orders from a man in his fifties who was driving the minibus. Some of them carried large sticks and the Palestinians (who this time included the 20 year old woman, the 16 year old boy and 3 small children) were clearly very scared.

When we explained to the soldiers that we had permission to be in the fields they said they knew nothing about it and we would have to wait until they had spoken to their commander. The settlers watched and waited for 20 minutes before getting back into the minibus and driving towards us, stopping directly in front of us. The grown man then turned on very loud music and along with the boys, jumped out of the minibus and began ‘dancing’ around us and jumping on top of the bus. While there was no violence in their actions, the behaviour was extremely intimidating and the young Palestinian children were really frightened. We looked to the soldiers to stop this intimidation but instead of ending the performance they began laughing, turned the music in their jeep up and began taking pictures with their mobile phones. I felt that now familiar feeling of disbelief once again.

After 5 minutes the settlers left and the army said they had checked with the DCO and we could work on the fields above and below the road. So at last, the family could pick their almonds.

We did not pick many however before the soldiers returned 30 minutes later and said the DCO had changed its mind and that if we didn’t move to the fields above the road we would be arrested. When the internationals protested they were told that if they didn’t leave, the soldiers would take the Palestinians away. Knowing that being ‘taken away’ could result in detention for several months if not longer (regardless of age), we left the fields immediately. When leaving we gave the soldiers a copy of the High Court order but they said, as most perpetrators of oppression do, that they were just taking orders from above. (The picture on the left shows heavily armed soldiers forcing children to leave their fields)

We crossed the road and began working in the fields above. After half an hour the same soldiers returned and said that the whole area had been declared a closed military zone. The soldiers produced a document which was in Hebrew so we could not understand it, but it contained an aerial photograph which basically showed the area we were standing in with a huge red circle drawn around it. A closed military zone means that nobody can enter the designated area and anybody who does will be arrested immediately. It is normally reserved for full scale military operations in big cities.

One of the clauses of the High Court order we had shown the soldiers is that Palestinians cannot have free access to their land if a closed military zone has been declared. So rather than just letting this poor family pick their almonds, the soldiers had gone to their commander and organised for a closed military zone to be declared in some empty fields in the middle of nowhere, where there was no threat whatsoever to the security of state of Israel.

Minutes later 3 policemen arrived and the soldiers gave them the papers and left. The policemen then began shouting that we had 5 minutes to leave the area or we would all be arrested. So again we gathered up our things and began to leave. While waiting for the other group who were higher up in the fields, we contacted the head of the police who allowed us to wait in the fields until his arrival. After 10 minutes he arrived along with the same DCO representative as the day before.

The policeman then explained that in order to be able to work in the fields the farmer must speak with the DCO. When we told the policeman that the representative standing in front of us had confirmed with the farmer and ourselves the day before that the farmer could come the next day, the representative denied having ever spoken to any of us. He then told the farmer that if he wanted to visit his fields he would have to visit the DCO office and present papers that proved he owned the land. Once he had done this the DCO would then issue him with specific dates on which he would be ‘allowed’ to visit his fields. Under threat of arrest we left.

The farmer visited the DCO later that day with the papers proving he owned the land but they were not accepted. The family have been unable to return to their land since and it is unlikely that if they are ever granted ‘permission’ the almonds will still be in a harvestable condition.

The whole incident was a complete violation of the 2006 Israeli High Court ruling, yet there seems nothing we can do about it. It is so hard to comprehend that there are people so intent on preventing others living. Picking almonds may not seem like an important issue to us, but it means everything if you have already lost so much. In a place where poverty and unemployment are so high, land provides a lifeline. It also gives people a purpose and a sense of worth in a place where every policy seems motivated by a desire to crush the human spirit. Israel carries out most of its activities under the pretence that they are necessary in order to ensure the security of the Israeli state. Yet this incident is one of numerous examples that illustrates that these policies have nothing to do with security; how can 3 children, a 16 year old boy and a 20 year old girl picking almonds in a field pose a threat to the state of Israel? These policies intend solely to make life so difficult for Palestinians that they are driven to despair and give up their land.

The longer I stay here the greater the anger and the disbelief becomes. I am only seeing a tiny part of it, but what is going on here is unimaginable cruelty and oppression. The Israeli soldier who read a copy of the ruling that we gave to him said ‘I don’t care about all this human rights and sh*t’. This seems to be an appropriate motto for the Israeli state.