Description

The plot of Fawzi Abed-Haj, 60, was at the epicenter of violent clashes last week.
Photo by Moti Milrod

Making use of an controversial army order that forces settlers off of land they have seized illegally, a 60-year-old Palestinian last week was able to return to his family's field for threshing season. The next tussle over the plot, however, may not go so smoothly.

By Chaim Levinson for Haaretz


Early on a cold morning last Friday, Mahmoud Abed-Haj stood at the edge of his village of Jalud in Samaria and observed the nearby Esh Kodesh outpost. After three days of clashes with the settlers, he was tense. At 10:30 A.M. he saw a tractor driving down from the outpost, and was seized with fear. Only two days earlier, he and his father Fawzi had threshed a field, and it looked as though the tractor, driven by settlers, was on its way to destroy it.

He called for help, and a car made the rounds of the village to alert the adult men among the village's 500 residents to be on alert. The tractor, however, stopped when it reached the edge of the settler's plot, the invisible boundary between the Palestinian and Jewish areas, and Abed-Haj was able, briefly, to relax.

He had reason to be anxious. The plot of Fawzi Abed-Haj, 60, was at the epicenter of violent clashes last week, spurred last Tuesday after the elder Abed-Haj returned to thresh his 100-year-old family plot following a year and a half of legal battles.

Almost immediately, a clash with settlers ensured. Border Policemen were called to the scene, and they thrashed several settlers with abandon, going to so far as to use a cudgel to beat a handcuffed one. They also fired tear gas at the Palestinians.

Act Two in the bloody saga came the following day. A group of settlers descended from the nearby outpost of Ahia, which sits 150 meters from Jalud, and started to riot: They smashed windows and they wounded two Palestinian villagers, one of whom, 4-year-old Farah Mohammed Farah, sustained a head injury. Farah has since been walking around the village wearing a large white bandage on his head, embarrassed by the attention. The next day, seven Jewish girls from the extreme right went on a "hike" in Jalud. Border Policemen detained them before another clash could begin.

Fawzi Abed-Haj won the right to return to his family's field thanks to the army's use of a controversial order preventing settlers from seizing Palestinian land. Israeli rightists are infuriated by the order, and chances are it will be struck down following the Jan. 22 elections. The order originated with the Civil Administration and grants the army the right, in cases of invasion of privately-owned Palestinian land in the West Bank, to remove the interloper even if the landowner has not filed an official complaint.

This is a legal innovation. Without such protection, the landowner's only option is to turn to the court in order to remove the interloper.

Last march Haaretz printed an angry exchange of letters between the head of the Civil Administration, Brig. Gen. Motti Elmoz, and the former legal adviser of the Judea and Samaria region, today the Deputy Military Advocate General, Col. Eli Bar On. Elmoz claimed that he did not have the legal wherewithal to weigh in on land conflicts, and therefore had no intention of implementing the order any further. Bar On accused him of shirking responsibility and called his approach illogical.

Both sides are being bolstered by a different, important legal body. On the side of the military prosecution stands the High Court of Justice. In march, former Court President Dorit Beinisch, with the support of Justices Edna Arbel and Miriam Naor, ruled that the order "provides tools" to the army commander to fulfill his duty and to protect the residents of the region. Elmoz's viewpoint, on the other hand, was supported by the report by former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, who wrote that the order was "draconian" and recommended it be abolished.

As a result of the legal dispute, the Civil Administration has significantly clipped the use of the injunction. Even when it was utilized, the administration held off from implementing it. The case of Abed-Haj is an exception. In 2011 he turned to the High Court of Justice, through attorney Kamer Mashraqi Assad of Rabbis for Human Rights, and asked that the army be instructed to help him cultivate his land. In response the state declared the space a closed military area, issuing an order that blocked settlers from entering. Last week, when threshing season began, the army allowed Abed-Haj to enter the field.

The settlers, for their part, are fighting a battle against the order that blocks them from the land. The battle strategist is Orit Struk, who currently holds the number 10 slot on the Habayit Hayehudi slate. Struk has a personal investment in the issue. The plot just next to Abed-Haj's was cultivated by her son Zvi, who since October has been serving as 30-month prison term for deliberate serious assault and the kidnapping of a boy from Jalud.

In an interview with the Arutz Sheva radio station, Struk said that immediately after the election she and her cronies, along with other Likud MKs, will demand that the government adopt Justice Levy's report.

"The Levy Committee ruled that decisions involving land conflicts will be made only in court and not by the authorities," said Struk. "To date, the report has not been adopted, with the strange argument that this is a transitional government. We're convinced that immediately after the election the report will be adopted by a huge majority. But to come now and to carry out such a brutal move, and to let the Arabs to enter fields that were sown by the hands of settlers, is shocking. It's a procedure that will disappear in another month and a half. Such a wildly underhanded move should not be carried out before the election."

The next time settlers take over a plot of land, it's unclear how easy it will be disperse them. But Abed-Haj is hopeful.

"Do you see my field? My grandfather planted those olive trees," he said. "After that there were battles here between the British and the Ottomans during World War I. After that there were the Jordanians and the Israelis. But my father was here too. I worked in the field, my son works in the field and my grandson will work here. I'm optimistic."

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Email from Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Rabbis for Human Rights

I didn't know myself how moved I was going to be last Wednesday to see Palestinian tractors from Jalud plowing their lands with the protection of the Israeli security forces. It only happened when I stood there and realized that I had first been in this place in 2005. On that day I came with farmers from adjacent Kusara, who were apparently renting some of the lands directly underneath the "Aish Kodesh" outpost belonging to Fawzi Ibrahim from Jalud. Since that time, the settlers of Aish Kodesh have continuously expanded their "red lines," beyond which Palestinians attempted to access their lands at their own peril. Thanks to Palestinian refusal to give up hope, and RHR's amazing OccupiedTerritories legal team, old wrongs have been righted. That is something worth being emotional over.

Aish Kodesh means "Holy fire." The settlers here are certainly full of fire, but I think that it is "Aish Zarah," a "Foreign Fire" that God neither commands nor desires (Leviticus 10:1-2). I have no doubt that these settlers truly believe that they are serving God. But, as someone who strongly dislikes stereotypes, and knows that not all settlers are the same, Aish Kodesh is one of the best places to find the stereotype of a religious, fanatic and often violent settler. Just as in the Biblical story of Nadav and Avihu, the settler's possibly genuine but tragic belief that they are doing God's Will has destructive consequences.

Back to 2005, I saw the farmers from Jalud peacefully plowing many of the same lands we plowed last week. However, the farmers of Kusara had apparently crossed the invisible "red line." We had barely begun plowing, when settlers swarmed down the hill and attacked. The Israeli security forces were protecting us, but suddenly turned against us. Throwing stun grenades at our feet, they said we must leave, though promising that they would arrange another day for the Palestinian farmers to return. That day never happened.

From year to year the "red lines" were expanded. A few years ago I was accompanying a senior army officer who was also threatened by a settler who descended from Aish Kodesh. I see this settler from time to time, as he apparently has a "Land Development Company." In 2010, a settler from Aish Kodesh planted a vineyard just where stun grenades had been thrown at our feet.

Two months ago, RHR's legal team got the Legal Advisor for the Occupied Territories to recognize Fawzi's ownership of the land upon which the vineyard was planted, and an order keeping Israelis out was issued. Fawzi can't repossess the vineyard yet, but there was no question regarding the rest of his land. That land was also closed to Israelis. The only problem was that Fawzi needed army protection to actually return to his lands. However, the army put him off time after time. Fawzi had invested NIS10,000 in seeds to plant wheat, was and the investment would have been lost if he didn't sow the wheat soon. Monday night the army cancelled again, and our lawyers got on the phone. The army agreed that the work would go ahead as planned the next day.

Click here for a fuller description and pictures, but the bottom line is that things didn't go so well. Security forces battled settlers with tear gas and stun grenades, and arrested some of them. However, they were no match for the determined settlers (mostly women with their babies and small children), who sat down in the fields while others attacked. All the while they vented their anger at the Israeli forces for treating fellow Jews this way. We also discovered that olive trees we had planted the previous week in nearby Kusara had been uprooted the previous evening, and that an elderly family living on the outskirts of Kusara was terrorized. On Tuesday, a man travelling from Jalud to Kusara was pulled out of his car and beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalized.

On Wednesday the army was better organized and Fawzi managed to plow and sow, despite the best efforts of the settlers. In the morning, the Palestinians had also discovered several iron bars planted during the night, apparently to puncture tractor tires. All day long the settlers played cat and mouse with the security forces, and at one point tried to set the fires alight with burning tires. You can see in the pictures the "islands" where the settler women again sat down with children in tow and forced the tractors to go around them. In this youtube video you can see one of the Border Police officers (Yousef) arguing about where we were standing (On a public road outside the closed area, where other officers had told us to stand), even as settlers block tractors and others roll burning tires into the field.

Click here to see pictures from Wednesday

As we prepared to leave, it began to sink in that Aish Kodesh's unchecked reign of terror and relentless expansion had been stopped and reversed. Ultimately, our work will determine to what degree there will be isolated settlements and outposts in the ShiloValley surrounded by Palestinians exercising their rights to their lands, and to what degree it will be the Palestinians accessing isolated patches of their lands surrounded by the lands taken over by settlers.

I said "Thank you" to many of the security forces. Quite a few seemed to share our good feeling. One, however, did not. When I wished him a good day, he said, "I wish you a terrible day." I had also spoken with him and a friend of his the previous day, as they angrily said I was no rabbi, that I was helping the enemy, that all Arabs are terrorists, that all of the Land of Israel is ours, etc. I tried on both days to acknowledge his anger. Although I am not naïve, I asked whether oppressing people or doing justly was most likely to break the cycle of enmity. I also offered to go over Jewish sources with him regarding the rights of non-Jews in the Land of Israel, and spoke of all of the work RHR does for the human rights of Jewish Israelis. Yousef cut off our conversation, so I will never know whether I might have actually broken through. Sadly, that border police officer will probably continue to think that helping Palestinians is traitorous.

Many of you know that whenever we are accused of "Aiding the enemy" or being "Provocateurs," I answer from last week's Torah portion, the first chapters of the Book of Exodus. (I had hoped to post this before Shabbat, but wasn't able to finish writing.). Pharaoh, like many before and after him throughout history, sees Moses and Aaron as provocateurs because they give the "Happy natives" strange ideas about rights. Over the next few weeks, we will also see that things get worse for the Israelites before they get better. Likewise, we all know that the uprootings and beatings of the last few days may be nothing compared to what lies ahead. Settlers will do everything in their power to get those lands back.

Some of the good feeling was further dampened when settlers rampaged in the village that night, sending one four year old boy to the hospital with head wounds. You can get an even better look at this boy on Israel's Channel 10 News (Starting at 9:32, and you see him most clearly at 10:31. You don't need to understand Arabic to understand the look on his face and the terror in his voice when he asked "Who did this to you?" and he answers "Il Yahoud"-the Jews.)

On Shabbat Israelis again attacked Kusara. In retalitation, Palestinians from Kusara attempted to enter the settler vineyard on Fawzi's land, and began breaking down the fence to the settlement itself. There is no doubt that, after years of intimidation, tree destruction, an arson attack on a Kusara mosque, etc., the entire area is in danger of going up in flames. We call on both Israelis and Palestinians to eschew violence.

However, none of the above can take away our satisfaction realizing that some 120 inaccessible dunam have been sowed, and a modicum of justice achieved.

Finally, the extensive press coverage on this (See some of the links at the very bottom, after the "P.S.") has focused on the skirmishes between settlers, security forces and Palestinians. The settlers helped make this into a great story - Tree uprootings, violence, price tag, and blocking tractors. How often do we see security forces shooting tear gas and stun grenades at settlers? At one point I said to some of the Palestinians, "Ninety nine point nine percent of the time it is the other way around. Today, the army is battling the settlers.

However, this is missing the real point. When we tell the Exodus story to children they particularly focus on plagues and miracles. As we get older, we understand that this is also a story about hope against all odds, God's Providence, the triumph of justice, and liberation. Perhaps we even ask whether the Egyptians had to suffer so, although they were the oppressors. Some of us take heed of the midrash from Shir HaShirim Rabah that when the angels were singing after the miracle at the sea, God demands that they cease, "The works of my hands are drowning in the sea, and you are singing praises?"

The real story from last week isn't the battles that went on, or the terrible settlers that blocked and beat and sat on the ground with their babies and burned tires.. There should be no great pleasure in the fact that settlers were tear gassed, and in some cases beaten or arrested.

The real story here is that of partnership between RHR and determined Palestinians, who refused to give up hope that justice could be achieved. When the agadah asks what God has been busy with since the miracle at the sea (The answer is that God has been making matches), we are being taught that, with a bit of faith and determination, small miracles can happen.

I am incredibly proud of RHR's legal team that worked with our Palestinian partners to bring this about. Thank you to the Ta'ayush volunteers who usually do not work in this region. I was initially alone in the field on Tuesday, but you answered the call. I also note that these events took place as the Warschawski family was sitting shiva for Yehudit z"l a tireless worker for justice and reconciliation, and the daughter of one of RHR's founders, Rabbi Max Warschawski z"l, I am sure that Yehudit is smiling.

B'Vrakha,

Arik