October 2019, Um Safa: Settler threatens and attacks Palestinians on their land

The Tanatrah family grows about 250 olive trees on a 20-dunam [1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters] plot of land they own. The trees are about 70 to 100 years old and every one yields some 50 kilograms of olives a year. The family sells some of the olives and some of the olive oil they extract, and keeps the rest for personal consumption.

A settler has taken up residence about a kilometer south of the family’s land, where he tends to a herd of about 80 cows. Whenever family members go to their olive grove, he threatens or assaults them and tries to drive them away. Meanwhile, the cattle roam freely in the grove, damaging trees, breaking branches and eating olives. The military is perfectly aware of the settler’s presence and actions, yet has taken no action to protect the family.

Family members told B'Tselem how, on several separate occasions, when they came to the grove to have lunch, check on the trees or pick olives, the settler assaulted them and tried to drive them away. In one such instance, soldiers arrived on the scene but took no action.

Ayman Tanatrah, 44, a father of five, shared with B'Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad that he does not believe his family has any means to change the situation:

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We haven’t filed a complaint with anyone because it’s a waste of time, we know what will happen. If the military and the police wanted to prevent attacks by settlers, they could have done that a long time ago. The whole point is to frustrate us, to make us give up and leave our land.