permaculture

[mIEKAL aND <dtv@mwt.net>]

Palestinians forbidden from picking olives

22 October 2002

The Israeli army today issued a new directive forbidding Palestinians 
from picking olives in the West Bank. October and November are the main 
months for olive harvesting.

The Israeli newspaper Ha'eretz reported that the Israeli army issued 
the prohibition on gathering olive harvests, claiming that Israeli 
troops could not protect pickers from Jewish settlers. Yediot Ahronot, 
another Israeli newspaper, further noted that Israel's army could not 
protect Palestinians because they were fortifying positions in 
Palestinian cities.

According to information gathered by LAW, Israeli forces were 
implementing this order from the early hours today. This morning 
Israeli forces prevented olive pickers from the 'Ayoun al-Haramiyyeh 
area, west of Ramallah from picking olives. The forces took away the ID 
cards of 25 farmers for two hours, and ordered them to return home, 
threatening to shoot them if they returned.

In light of this new directive preventing Palestinians from gathering 
their harvests, LAW asserts the following:

This directive comes in a chain of punishing incidents undertaken, and 
continues to be undertaken by illegal Israeli settlers against 
Palestinians picking their olives. During this month, Israeli settlers 
have carried out a number of attacks on Palestinian farmers and their 
lands, this being Palestine's olive season

On Thursday, October 10, Settlers killed Hani Bani Murra (26), from 
'Aqraba village near Nablus. Due to continuous settler fire, his 
companions were only able to take him to the local health center after 
two hours. He died shortly before reaching the center after severe 
bleeding. It appears that the same settler group was responsible for 
killing Farid Nasasrah (28) on October 17, 2000, when they opened fire 
at a group of Palestinian harvesters.

On Saturday October 12, settlers opened fire on Palestinian olive 
pickers in Beit Forik, near Nablus. When Israeli troops arrived to the 
area they arrested 6 Palestinian farmers and prevented others from 
harvesting their olive trees. Settlers also carried out similar attacks 
on Palestinians farmers in Orif, Kfar Kalil, Deir al-Hatab, and Salem 
in the district of Nablus on the same day. Also on Saturday October 12, 
Israeli settlers set fire to olive groves in Silwad and al-Mizra'a 
al-Sharqiyya, east of Ramallah. The fire destroyed approximately 2000 
olive trees belonging to Palestinian families.

It is clear to LAW that this directive serves to encourage illegal 
Israeli settlers to undertake more race-hate crimes against 
Palestinians and their lands. Moreover, this directive serves as a 
harsh blow to the Palestinian economy, particularly its agricultural 
economy, with olives and olive products, such as oil and soap, forming 
the main means of livelihood for many Palestinians. Already suffering 
for more than two years under severe economic depression and 
destruction. This directive serves as a new attack on the Palestinian 
economy.

Finally, this directive comes after days following Israeli forces at 
checkpoints distributing pamphlets against the Palestinian Authority, 
directly threatening Palestinian farmers, who they described as 
offering assistance to implement enemy operations against Israel, with 
preventing them from harvesting their olives.

LAW notes that if Israel and its military is thus concerned about
protecting the lives of Palestinians against violent illegal Israeli
settlers acting with virtually sheer impunity, it would do well to
heed the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), and the Fourth Hague
Convention (1907), relevant to the practice of settlement in an
Occupied Territory.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that "The
Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own
population into the territory it occupies." Article 29 of the same
Convention states that "The Party to the conflict in whose hands
protected persons [i.e., civilian Palestinians] &is responsible for
the treatment according to them by its agents, irrespective of any
individual responsibility that may be incurred."

Article 27 of the same Convention provides that, "Protected persons
are entitled in all circumstances, to respect for their persons&and
shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or
threats thereof&." This article also provides for the protection of
property of protected persons.

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