Silwad, Ramallah District: Settlers attacked farmers out to plow their lands with clubs. Soldiers expelled the farmers
15 December 2024
On Sunday, 15 December 2024, around noon, about 50 farmers from the town of Silwad went out to plow their lands located west of the village using tractors. Two days earlier, settlers set up an outpost on land belonging to one of the farmers, and Civil Administration personnel and soldiers kicked them out of the area and told them to return on 15 December 2024 with their title deeds.
When the farmers reached their lands, about 15 settlers, one of whom was armed, came towards them and began attacking them with clubs. When the farmers tried to repel the settlers, one of the settlers fired his rifle in the air. At that point, military forces arrived and broke up the clashes.
About 40 minutes later, Civil Administration personnel arrived as well and ordered farmers who did not present land ownership documents to leave. Five farmers who did present the documents remained, but the Civil Administration personnel told them they also needed to furnish a military-issued permit to access the area, which they had never needed before. When none of them could present such a permit, the soldiers kicked out four of the farmers and arrested the fifth with no explanation. They also confiscated his tractor.
B.H., 46, a father of five, gave his testimony to B’Tselem field researcher Mohammad Romaneh:
On Sunday, 15 December 2024, around 12:00 A.M., about 50 of us town residents gathered and went to the al-Burj area. We brought the land deeds with us, like the Civil Administration official in charge of the area told us. As soon as we arrived in the al-Burj area, about 15 settlers showed up. One of them was armed with a long rifle and the rest with wooden sticks. They pounced on us and beat us, and the settler who was armed with a rifle also fired live rounds in the air for no reason. We retreated a little.
Five minutes later, three Israeli army vehicles arrived, and the soldiers immediately asked who fired. We told them that the settler was the one who fired, and they demanded we prove it. The settler said we fired, of course. At that point, the settlers stayed where they were, about 10 meters away from us.
About 40 minutes later, a white car with an Israeli license plate drove up and so did another, black, car. When the white car arrived, the Civil Administration officer responsible for the area got out and asked us to show him the tabu - land ownership papers. Anyone who did not have tabu documents was ordered to leave the area.
Only five of us landowners remained. We had the ownership documents from the tabu. The officer asked us if we had permits to access the place, even though we regularly come to these lands and never had to get coordination or obtain any sort of permit. In the end, he made us leave too, claiming we didn’t have permits to be on our own private lands, and told us it was a closed military zone.
The soldiers also arrested one of the farmers, confiscated his tractor, and towed it away without giving any explanation or justification for the arrest or confiscation of the tractor.
- Physical assault
- Verbal confrontations and threats