Olive Picking Near Yitzhar
Yesterday IWPS and other activists picked olives with a woman and her four teenage children. Their land is located couple of hundred metres under a hilltop of the ultra orthodox Yitzhar illegal settlement, whose residents are known for their violence.
We picked fast with the farmer family keeping an eye on the slope leading to the settlement.
At some point a daughter spotted four settlers in the distance watching us. I asked her if she was afraid and she replied that for them that is nothing new. The Palestinian boys were telling us that in the early hours of the morning a group of settlers descended to where we were now picking, screaming and shouting and daring the Burin villagers to come up. They did not leave until the Israeli occupation army intervened. We hear that the fights between the Israeli army and settlers are not uncommon, illustrating the level of Yitzhar extremism.
Mid afternoon we learned about an attack on the farmers of the neighbouring Huwwara village located on the by the other side of the mountain,by the Yitzhar settlers.
We rushed to finish the remaining trees, as there were news of the illegal settlers mobilising in order to attack those farming in all locations near Yitzhar.