Na'if Mahmoud, farmer, age 68
On Sunday, October 13, 2002, at approximately 8:00 am, I went with my cousin, 'Abd ar-Rahim Ibrahim Ali, 69, and my women cousins - the oldest aged 55 and the youngest aged 25 - to harvest olives in the area of Al-Megharbat, approximately three kilometers to the north of the village of Sinjil. Nearby, approximately three kilometers from the village, there is a settlement called Eli. Another settlement, Shilo, is approximately two kilometers from the village. Approximately 300-400 meters away is a hill on which three caravans have been erected.
When we arrived at my olive grove, we began to harvest the olives. By about 11:15 am, we had managed to collect approximately one hundred kilograms of olives, which we placed in nylon bags. At this point a settler who came from the direction of the caravans approached us. I could not identify him because he was wearing a hat covering most of his face, and wore black glasses. I could only see small parts of his face. He had a beard. He was wearing a dark-colored overall. He was thin, of average height, and held a sharp 30 centimeter knife in his hand. He approached us and came among us, and then began to shout in Arabic: "Get out of here. Who told you to come here. Get out quickly." He shouted and ordered us to leave, while he waved the knife in our faces to scare us. He trampled on my belongings (blankets, cups, a thermos flask and plastic containers for the olives). Later he went up to the bags of lives and began to stab them with his knife. He managed to tear one of the bags. Then one of the women blocked his way and begged him to stop. He drew away from the second bag and raised his leg in a karate movement, trying to hit me. I moved away from him. He approached my cousin to hit him and lifted his leg up to the level of my cousin's head.
At this point, another armed man arrived on the scene and stood approximately 25 meters away on a rock. He was carrying a rifle and wore khaki uniform. He was probably the guard of the settlement. He was light-skinned, of average height and build, and was probably about 25 years old. He spoke good Arabic and began to shout and curse us: "I will kill you if you come here, I will shoot you." Every time the women tried to beg them to stop attacking us, they kept on cursing them crudely: "Bitch, shut up" and other coarse words that I would rather not mention. One of the women put the torn bag inside another bag. We loaded the other two bags onto a donkey we had with us, and were about to flee. Then the two armed men kept on threatening us, and tired to come even closer, particularly the masked man. He said "I've seen him here a lot," referring to the donkey. He tried to cut the donkey's rope so that he would run off, but the women held on to the donkey.
Then they began to drive us away and tore the bags of olives again. The olives scattered over the ground. We couldn't gather them because of the threats. At this point, the man with the file fired a continuous volley of shots toward the ground close to where we were, in order to scare us. No one was hurt. We had to run away and we went along a dirt track toward the village. The masked settler kept chasing us while the guard stayed where he was. The settler chased after us and threatened to kill us with his knife. "If you come here again I'll slaughter you, I'll kill you."
We ran away and left behind the olives, the plastic containers, the water bottle, cups and the tarpaulin we use to collect the olives. The settler chased us about one hundred and fifty meters until we moved away and out of his sight. We kept going back to the village, and when we arrived I heard other farmers telling me that they had also been harassed by two armed men on that day and in the same area - Al-Megharbat. This happened during the early morning. These farmers included Jum'a Jaber Daud, Hussein Farhan Khalil, Zayid Ibrahim Abu Zayid, Faiz Muhand Sabra, and Ibrahim 'Abdallah Ibrahim. They told me that the two armed men had shot at them, scared them and forced them to leave the olives. They did not lose a large quantity of olives like we did, because the settlers harassed them before they had managed to pick many olives. I discussed the matter with the farmers and we decided to file a complaint at the Israeli military command in Bet El.
The next day, Monday October 14, 2002, at about 9:30 am, we went to Bet El. When we arrived, I spoke to the guard and said we wanted to file a complaint. He told the relevant officials. We waited half an hour, and then we were called in for an investigation and to file a complaint. We were taken in one after the other. I went into the interrogation room first. There were three investigators there in civilian clothes. They did not identify themselves, but I remember the chief investigator, because he interrogated me, while the second man wrote down all my comments and the third intervened every so often. The chief investigator was short and plump, with thin hair. He appeared to be about 50-55 years old. I sat on the chair in front of the investigator and told him what happened in Arabic. He listened to my complaint for about half an hour, and then asked me to wait outside the office and called in the second farmer. This process of investigation went on until 1;00 pm. The investigator asked the other farmers to go home, and he asked me to wait so that I could accompany policemen to the site of the incident.
I waited for a short while, and was then asked to accompany them in a police van. I sat in the rear seat. The guard sat next to me, and the investigator sat next to the driver. The car drove toward the site of the incident, and at 2:00 pm we arrived. When we arrived, I was surprised to see that the bags of olives had disappeared. I found remains of broken cups and torn bags. The investigator photographed the place of the incident, and photographed me pointing toward the place where the settlers' caravans are situated, and toward the settlements of Shilo and Eli. He stayed at the site of the incident for twenty minutes, and then asked me to accompany him to the caravans and to wit by them. I refused ? I told him that I was afraid, and I felt that the investigator understood me. He asked me where to drop me off. I told him to drop me off at the safest point for me to get back to my village. He drove me to the road leading to my village, and from there I returned home.
Na'if 'Abd a-Nabi 'Ali Mahmoud, age 68, is married, and a farmer and resident of Sinjil, Ramallah district. The testimony was taken by Iyad Khadad, by telephone, on October 15, 2002.