I live in the village Far’ata. My husband has worked in Israel for 30 years. He has an entry permit and a work permit, and he works for various people in renovations as an independent contractor.
We own two plots of land on the eastern side of the village. My husband inherited the plots from his father. They are west of the outpost Havat Gilad. One plot is 30 dunams, it’s called a-Satakh and it has over 200 olive trees that are more than 60 years old. The second plot is in the valley, it’s about 45 dunams and there are about 250 olive trees there. My husband and I planted the trees on this plot 30 years ago.
The plots are close to Havat Gilad and require coordination [with the army]. Before they built the outpost Havat Gilad [in 2002] we used to go to our land freely and tend to the trees, sometimes more than once a day. In those days we were able to produce about 320 liters a year from the 30-dunam plot. We also planted wheat between the trees, and onions. Since the outpost was built, the settlers have started to hurt the trees. In the first year, they uprooted 80 trees. Another time, they burned trees. Since then, they have been stealing olives off the trees.
In recent years, the civil administration approves three or four days for us to work on our plots annually. Plowing – one day, and harvesting olives – three days. That isn’t enough. Two years ago, during the olive harvest and after coordinating, settlers came and attacked us while we were working. My son B was injured in the head from a rock thrown at him and was in the hospital for three days. And our neighbor from the neighboring plot was also injured and hospitalized. We used to have a flock of about 20 sheep. Our son M used to herd the sheep on the east side of the village. Settlers attacked the herd and killed the ram. We’ve since sold the sheep.
Before they built the outpost Havat Gilad [in 2002] we used to go to our land freely and tend to the trees, sometimes more than once a day. In those days we were able to produce about 320 liters a year from the 30-dunam plot. We also planted wheat between the trees, and onions. Since the outpost was built, the settlers have started to hurt the trees. In the first year, they uprooted 80 trees. Another time, they burned trees. Since then, they have been stealing olives off the trees.
In recent years, the civil administration approves three or four days for us to work on our plots annually. Plowing – one day, and harvesting olives – three days. That isn’t enough. Two years ago, during the olive harvest and after coordinating, settlers came and attacked us while we were working. My son B was injured in the head from a rock thrown at him and was in the hospital for three days. And our neighbor from the neighboring plot was also injured and hospitalized. We used to have a flock of about 20 sheep. Our son M used to herd the sheep on the east side of the village. Settlers attacked the herd and killed the ram. We’ve since sold the sheep.
Two nights ago, (March 5, 2017) the local council announced over the mosque loudspeaker that they had coordinated with the civil administration to plow the land to the west of the Havat Gilad. My husband also called the head of the council to ask him whether plowing had been coordinated. The council head confirmed that it had been. My husband decided not to go work in Israel and instead go and plow the plots. He arranged with NS, a tractor owner from the village to go and plow the plots.
Yesterday at eight am we went out, my husband and I, and the tractor. The owners of the neighboring plots didn’t go out that day. When we left the village towards the plot, the tractor owner noticed that he didn’t have much fuel, so he returned to the village for fuel and we continued to our plot. On the dirt road leading to our plot, two kilometers west of the plot the army put up a gate two years ago. In the days when plowing and harvesting is coordinated, the army opens the gate. We reached the gate. Ten minutes later, the tractor arrived. Two soldiers stood by the gate. At about nine am, the soldiers opened the gate and we entered.
Usually when farming is coordinated, army and police forces surround the area. This time we didn’t see any other soldiers except the two who opened the gate. The tractor started plowing. My husband and I walked in front of it and moved branches out of the way. After about a half an hour, a gray vehicle arrived with a settler inside. He passed by us without doing anything and entered the settlement.
No more than twenty minutes passed since the vehicle went by when three settlers arrived. Men, fat, their faces weren’t covered, tall with blond beards. At least one of them had sidelocks. I didn’t notice whether they had kippahs. They came over to us inside the plot and began throwing stones. The settlers broke the tractor’s front windshield. They threw stones at me. I was hit in the chest and the leg and fell. My husband tried to help me. When the settlers threw stones at the tractor, the driver started shouting: “Where is the Army? Where are the police?” They threw stones at us until we left the plot. When we were about 100 meters from the gate, over ten more settlers appeared and two soldiers came from the direction of the settlement. My husband shouted to soldiers in Hebrew that settlers had attacked us and asked for help. When my husband approached the soldiers and explained to them in Hebrew what had happened, the settlers came right up to us and attacked my husband in the presence of the soldiers and knocked him down. Two soldiers managed to release my husband from the hands of the settlers.
When my husband and I and the tractor reached to the gate, the two soldiers who had stayed there asked us why we had returned so early. My husband explained what had happened. One of the two soldiers who spoke Arabic grabbed my husband’s hand and said to him: “Come show me the settlers”. When I saw the soldier grab my husband’s hand, I told the soldier: “Don’t take him, what happened to us is enough”. The soldier said to me in Arabic: “He’s with me, he’s my responsibility.”
When my husband left with the soldier, I ran after them. Four soldiers, my husband, the tractor driver and I went over to where the settlers were. We were about 20 meters from them. The soldiers talked to the settlers and translated for us. According to what the Arabic-speaking soldier translated, the settlers claimed they didn’t attack us, but just made us leave the plot. One of the two soldiers who came from Havat Gilad claimed that the settlers were not telling the truth and in fact did attack us. The soldiers told us to go back to the gate and wait there, and the settlers would go back to Havat Gilad. On the way to the gate, we saw the same gray vehicle that passed us when we arrived. The vehicle drove from Havat Gilad towards the gate. The three settlers who attacked us were in the car. They cursed us the whole way to the gate saying words that I am ashamed to repeat. The soldiers didn’t escort us to the gate.
When we got to the gate, we waited for half an hour until an Israeli police car came from the direction of Havat Gilad. A police officer who spoke Arabic told me that if I was hurt by a settler, I should file a complaint with the police. I told him I was willing to file a complaint.
I live in Far’ata. My house is in the village center near the girls’ school, that’s where I live with my family. I’m a tractor driver and I own a tractor and about 12 dunams of land that I inherited from my father near Havat Gilad. There are about 80-70 large olive trees on my land. Now we can only go to the plot after getting a permit. We get one day for plowing and one day for the olive harvest. This year I was able to go to my land for just one day to harvest. Last year settlers sprayed part of my trees and some of them dried up. Obviously, we can’t take care of them, trim them and so on.
Before the outpost was built in 2002, we went there often, having family picnics. Now we can only go twice a year. I suffered from settler violence in the past when I planted wheat and then went to reap. I was attacked, they stabbed the tractor tires and shot me in the leg. At the time, in 2005 the army came and took me by ambulance to Rafidya Hospital in Nablus. I stayed there for three days. I was also attacked in 2008 when I went to my land to plow, they threw stones at me. I ran away and the tractor wasn’t harmed, but I didn’t file a complaint.
On Sunday night March 5, 2017 AS from Far’ata called me and asked me to plow his land the next day, west of Havat Gilad. That same night, the head of the council announced over the loudspeaker that they had coordinated with the Israelis.
The next day – March 6 – I left home around 8:30 am with my tractor and A and his wife. We took the agricultural road leading up to his land. We reached a locked gate on the road, there were two soldiers there. They asked, “Where are you going?” (In Arabic, one of them was Druze). We said we were going to go to our plot to plow. The gate stayed locked and we passed to its right, where we could pass. We also saw another farmer who had gone to plow, RS from the village Immatin. We continued to Abdullah’s land, which is maybe 700 meters from the gate, on a plane. He has 14 dunams of land and is given two days to plow.
I worked for about 20 minutes and then I saw a gray Subaru driven by a fat bearded settler who was maybe 35, he approached us on the dirt path. He looked at us and then proceed towards the mobile homes of Havat Gilad. I kept plowing and Abdullah and his wife cleared branches away. We worked for about seven minutes before the gray vehicle returned with three other settlers. They parked on the path, came out and approached us, they weren’t masked, and I didn’t see any weapons or iron bars. They had bottles and stones. They started throwing stones at us. They hit the front windshield of my tractor and shattered it. They cursed us. I turned the tractor around and started to drive towards the gate shouting: “Soldiers, soldiers” to frighten the settlers who would think that there were soldiers there.
I didn’t see the soldiers at the gate because I was in the valley and the gate is on the hill. They kept throwing stones. I nearly reached the gate and then I heard Abdullah’s wife shout: “They’ve got my husband.” I got off the tractor and told the two soldiers at the gate to come with me. I walked towards A and saw him standing while the settlers beat his hands and back. When I reached A, two soldiers came out between the trees and tried to move the settlers and arrest them, but they didn’t succeed.
An officer arrived and I told him that they had beat up A, and he told the settlers, “They have permission to plow”. The settler replied: “They don’t, Arabs are terrorists”. The settlers left A alone. The officer told us to go back to the gate. The settlers drove behind us in their car and when we got to the gate, I saw that the settler checked his key in the lock to see whether the gate was locked.
The settlers returned to the hill, we waited by the gate and about half an hour later two policemen arrived and asked what had happened. We told them, they photographed the tractor and told me to file a complaint or in Kedumim or Ariel. We didn’t go back to plow and we’re waiting for a new date to be coordinated.