Hannah Brock sends her fourth report from the West Bank where she is working as an international observer. In her own words. Ed
One of the joys of being an ‘EA’ is being welcomed in peoples’ homes. We do this to show our solidarity and presence, but also so that we are closely connected with the communities around Bethlehem, so that when new developments occur, we will be notified immediately.
Over recent weeks, through these local contacts, we have been hearing more and more about the activities of a group called Women in Green: Women for Israel.
Right-wing movement
Women in Green describe are described on their website as ‘a right-wing grassroots movement devoted to the ideal of Greater Israel’. One of their publicity leaflets is entitled ‘Transfer of Arabs is the only solution for peace’.
Ripping up fields of trees
Their website also states that Women in Green is behind the ‘struggle for”¦building and planting in the hills.’ These hills are not in Israel, but in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Visiting Palestinian villages around Bethlehem recently, we have seen the impacts of this struggle: Women in Green have been responsible for ripping up fields of trees (mostly olive trees) belonging to Palestinian farmers on their privately owned land – and planting their own crops. They mostly come at night, and we have heard reports that when are challenged have been both verbally and physically abusive to the Palestinian owners of the land.
Cruel cycle
Recently, Women in Green have been active in the villages of Khallat ah Fahem and Khallet Sakariya. When the farmers of Khallet ah Fahem took the case to Israel’s High Court, the court ruled that Women in Green had acted illegally, and ordered the Israeli military to uproot what Women in Green had planted, so that the Palestinian farmers could reclaim their land.
They did so, and in the middle of the night the Women in Green activists came again and uprooted the newly planted the Palestinian farmers’ crops. It is a cruel cycle that is damaging both emotionally and financially to the Palestinian owners of the land.
Funded by US organisation
Women in Green are funded by the Central Fund for Israel, a U.S. based not-for-profit organisation.
This means that they have the resources to plant trees on Palestinian land again and again; this is mostly not the case for the Palestinian farmers, who have a limited income, and have budgeted to plant one crop each year.
Many of the Women in Green activists live in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, a cluster of Israeli towns in the West Bank that includes the settlement of Efrat. Efrat is one of settlements close to the Palestinian village of Khallet Sakariya.
On a visit to Khallet Sakariya last week, we were sitting on the porch of Abu Osama’s house, when two Israelis who live in Efrat walked by. Abu Osama asked them in for a cup of tea. Later he said to them, “we are having a lot of trouble with the Women in Green from Efrat”. The man patted him on the knee sympathetically and said “So we hear”.
As we were driving away from the Khallet Sakariya that day, we passed a group of around 50 Israeli young men, walking from one settlement to the other. Many of them were armed.
Israeli settlements, such as Efrat, are illegal under international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that in occupied territories (such as the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967) “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Currently there are c. 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Annexation by the use or threat of force is prohibited under international law, as set forth in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter.
Women in Green members are by no means typical of the Israeli settlers in the West Bank, many of whom are known as ‘economic settlers’, who come because the financial incentives offered by the Israeli government make it more financially viable to live in settlements in the West Bank, than in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, for example.
Harassment and humiliation of Palestinians cannot be justifiable says Archbishop
I’m having some days off at the moment, and have visited the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount, and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. It is an extremely powerful and moving tribute to one of the darkest moments in human history.
It reminded me of the sermon Rowan Williams gave on Easter Sunday, in which he said: ‘A visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, will convince you why the state of Israel exists and must go on existing.’
He went on: ‘A visit to any border checkpoint will convince you that the daily harassment and humiliation of Palestinians of all ages and backgrounds cannot be a justifiable or even sustainable price to pay for security’. See my second newsletter to read about these checkpoints.
