'Einabus, Huwwara
Main Points: The expropriation of Palestinian farm land for the use of Israeli settlers and the Israeli army, and the harassment and violence of the settlers of Yitzhar are the real problems of the Palestinians in these two places.
Huwarra: It is the month of Ramadan and we are told that the mayor is unable to meet with us. We spoke with a very personable young man, A., who is responsible for public relations in the municipality.
The problems with the settlers in Yitzhar are ever-present and on-going. Farmers with plots of land close to Yitzhar cannot get to their land to work it or harvest their olives, which are taken by the settlers. Now the plots of land along the fence around Yitzhar have been declared a closed military area. The Huwarra city council has been given no reason for this move.
The largest and most aggressive land expropriation is new. 500 dunam of Palestinian land, outside of Yitzhar, belonging to Huwarra and Awarta, has been expropriated by the Civil Administration
for the building of a new road for settlers and the army to use to by-pass Huwarra. The road will go from Za’atra (Tapuach Junction) to the DCO headquarters outside Huwarra. The Palestinian villages along the route of the new road will have no access to it. The existing road, which now serves the settlers, the army and the Palestinians, will have underpasses when the new road is built. A. showed us a simulation of the new road on the computer. The width of the road will be 200 meters, with the asphalt and the margins on each side. There will be a large traffic circle where the checkpoint between Huwarra and Nablus is now situated. The work on the road has not yet begun. Looking at the simulation I thought it would be nice if the Israeli government would finally build a road like that in the Galilee for all the Israeli citizens. Of course the Palestinian owners of the expropriated land have received no compensation.
Huwarra receives its water from Mekorot, and should receive 16 bar (a unit of pressure) per day, which is written in the agreement with Mekorot. The people have seen a worker from Mekorot, whom they are sure is a settler, come to the water meter every day and turn it down to 6 bar. We asked if this person did it on his own initiative or if he was doing it on instructions. A. did not know the answer, but at night someone from the Huwarra council goes and turns the meter up to 16. It’s an on-going game of cat and mouse.
The electricity for the town they get from a Palestinian company in Nablus, which gets it from Israel. There are areas in the town that have an adequate supply of electricity, and other areas (35% of the town) were the flow is insufficient even for lighting.
We asked how A. saw a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He expressed the hope that the United Nations would finally demand that Israel implement the resolutions that have been waiting for so many years. “Let us live,” he said. “Give us our land so we can live. Why should some people have all that they need, and others have no rights?”
Einabus: We spoke with a man who has been the secretary and head of the village Council for 14 years. Einabus is a small village, population 2900, next to Huwarra. We went there after reading about the incident between them and the settlers of Yitzhar as reported by B’tselem. In the incident two villagers were working on a bulldozer, on land belonging to the village, to improve a path for the farmers to get to their plots. 30 settlers (from Yitzhar) carrying poles, surrounded the bulldozer, threw rocks at it, broke the windshield and attacked the two men. The two men tried to escape to the village. They were seen and about 50 men from the village came to help them. A fight broke out. The settlers called the army which came and fired rubber-coated bullets and tear gas at the villagers who escaped to the village. The two men and other wounded villagers were taken to the hospital in Nablus. The settlers then vandalized the bulldozer even more by slashing the tires and pulling wires from the motor. We asked what has happened since the B’tselem report. The owner of the bulldozer took it to be repaired which will cost 20,000 shekels. A complaint and demand for compensation has been filed with the DCO, but the villagers don’t have a lot of hope.
“Yitzhar,” the Council head said, “makes trouble for all the villages in the area – everyday a different village. In Urif a young man was killed. Only on Shabbat do we have quiet. All the settlers should go back to the ’67 borders and leave the Palestinians to live their lives. We don’t have any other bad problems – water and electricity are OK. The only real problem is with the Israeli settlers.”