Beit Ummar, March 31, 2011 (WAFA) – Mohammad Asalibi, a 67 year-old Palestinian from Beit Ummar, a town north of Hebron, packed his farming equipments and food supply and headed to his land; which is planted with grapes, peach and pear trees and located next to “Karmi Tsur” settlement, to find more than 30 settlers erecting a fence in his lands.
Asalibi told WAFA his story saying, “I entered my grove and argued with them and stopped them from getting further”.
The next day Asalibi found more than 40 settlers in his land who also started erecting a fence. He argued with them and filed a complaint against them to Israeli Police, Who stopped the settlers from completing setting the fence.
Days later, the settlers set the fence by force and stole two Acres from Asalibi’s land, however he cut it, entered and plowed it with his donkey.
He said “I kept struggling until they had enough of me and I was arrested in “Kiryat Arba” settlement . they bargained for my land offering a big amount of money. I told them this is my land and I will not sell it or leave it. I own this land and I have a Turkish Tabou to prove that, this land belongs to me and my family”.
The settlers used all kinds of pressure and temptations to take his land but finally gave up and let him go in four days. He cut the fence again and plowed his land but the settlement’s official tried to kick him out, again.
Asalibi clarified “I told him that this is not your parents’ land. He started hitting my mule and unleashed his dog to attack me, so I hit the dog, defending myself, but the settler went crazy. He threatened to shoot me if I hit the dog again and called Israeli army; more than 30 vehicles arrived in no time. After that, one soldier took my identity card and locked me in one of their military cars. I tried to get out of the car and tie the mule to a tree so my children would come later and take it to the house”.
That day, Asalibi was dragged to ‘Kiryat Arba’ again and he was forced to sign a paper that obliges him not to work in his land in exchange of not allowing settlers to expand in it.
The old man kept an eye on his land from far and caught the settlers moving the fence further inside. He felt so fierce about it, so a group of Palestinian young men joined him and cut the fence with him from all four sides but the army interfered and many were shot.
Six months later, after filing an suit against the settlers, Israeli court ruled in favor of Mohammad Asalibi, however, settlers refused to remove the fence and put it back…he cut it again.
They didn’t leave him alone and unleashed their vicious dogs at him each time he tried to farm his land. They uprooted grape, pear and figs trees in his land and Israeli police decided to financially compensate him, however it never happened.
Settlers stole part of his land which became part of their settlement and prohibited him from reaching the other side of his land.
Mohammad Asalibi painfully said “for four years I was banned from my own land. They razed it and set stone walls adding it to the 600 acres which they seized of Beit Ummar’s land”.
He didn’t only lose his land near ‘Karmi Tsur’ settlement but also 88 acres of his land near ‘Bat Ayin’ settlement, in Abu Al-Reesh valley, in Beit Ummar.
He added, “my only source of living is my land which is one of the richest lands in Hebron. I was assaulted and humiliated by settlers and I witnessed the death of my precious trees”.
Asalibi filed 11 complaints to Israeli court in ‘Gush Etzion’ near Hebron, “but these complaints didn’t stop the settlers who kept burning and uprooting my trees and the court is still procrastinating in making decisions regarding these attacks”.
The tragedy of Mohammad Asalibi and his struggle against Israeli occupation and settlers isn’t different from the struggle of the 53 year-old, Mohammad Adi whose family owns 150 acres threatened to be seized, with three thousand acres owned by several families from Beit Ummar town, near ‘Bat Ayin’ settlement. Adi was shocked to receive a military order from Israeli army, prohibiting him and others from farming their lands, declaring them to be a military closed area.
The people of Beit Ummar refused Israeli army’s order and filed a suit against it, and used legal documents to prove their ownership of the land. They challenged it and kept farming their lands fighting all obstacles put forth by Israeli occupation.
Adi described settlers’ greed in the area to be extremely dangerous because of “Bat Ayin” settlers who left the area without a fence to be able to expand in Palestinian lands whenever they want under Israeli army protection and supervision”.
Aside from Adi and Asalibi’s stories of struggle with Jewish settlers, “Kfar Etzion” settlers had drowned tens of Beit Ummar lands with waste water more than once, which inflicted financial losses upon the town’s farmers.
Spokesman of the National Committee against the Wall and Settlement, Mohammad Awwad, said that “the town of Beit Ummar formed support committees which include foreigners, who witnessed settlers’ assaults against farmers, lands and trees, to help Palestinian farmers. Even Those foreigners, who are in solidarity with us, also helped to ease attacks against Palestinians, considering that they belong to international human rights organizations and own video cameras that expose settlers’ attacks to the whole world”.
These committees organized events to help Palestinian farmers in harvesting their crops and plowing their lands.
Abdul Hadi Hantash, a researcher with the land defense committee, pointed out that the location of Beit Ummar which is adjacent to Gush Etzion settlements and Separation Wall is putting the lands of Palestinians in constant jeopardy because of settlers’ greed and assaults.”
He added that Israeli Authorities issued many military orders to seize lands near settlements; such as what happened months before in Safa village, to the north of Beit Ummar, near ‘Karmi Tsur’ and ‘Bat Ayin’ settlements, when the people of the town were given 24 hours to object the order and 48 to evacuate the area”.
