West Bank farmers seeking access to their farmland located behind Israel’s illegal Separation Wall are facing intimidation and further access restrictions by Israeli occupation forces.
One eyewitness said:
“When you go to that gate, there is a group of Israeli soldiers and the settlement guards. They keep people’s ID cards when they enter and hand it back to them on their way out.”
Israeli occupation forces blocked these Palestinian farmers from harvesting their olive crop in the West Bank village of Sawya. pic.twitter.com/CMP8ObAY0R
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 13, 2018
Farmers are forced in the system of so-called “prior coordination” ahead of the olive harvest, meaning that they seek approval from the Israeli occupation authorities in order to access their farmland which is surrounded by illegal settlements or which is located behind the illegal Separation Wall.
As a result of restrictions to access, farmers arrive at the Wall’s gates in the early hours of the morning and wait until occupation forces come to open them. The situation is worse when farmers try to return to their homes, the eyewitness told MEMO,
“Farmers wait there at 4 pm to leave, tired after a long walk and a long day working when I was there the army opened the gate for them at 5:30 pm”.
Olive Picking Volunteer Day To Support Palestinian Farmers In West Bank#Olive #Palestinian #Farmers #WestBank #Nablus #Palestine
Ph:Mohammed Turabi/#IMAGESLIVE pic.twitter.com/mzNDGJdHHV— Images Live (@imageslive) October 17, 2018
Salfit is surrounded by one of the largest illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Ariel, which is home to 41,000 settlers. The Palestinian town is home to 74,000 people.
The olive harvest season runs from mid-October to mid-November, some 100,000 families are said to rely on olives and olive oil as main sources of income.
Jewish residents from illegal Israeli settlements cut down nearly 100 olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers east of Ramallah in the West Bank. These illegal settlers are racist land thieves. #BDS #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/zbL9yzHiz0
— Jake Morphonios (@morphonios) October 15, 2018
Earlier this month settlers were filmed stealing olives from Palestinian trees near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
According to Israeli human rights, NGO Yesh Din incidents like these are repeated every year. Last year thousands of kilograms of olive crops were stolen by settlers in the Nablus area, the group said.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
