Mahmoud Salah, farmer, aged 57
I live in the old quarter of al-Khadr. I am married and am the father of eight children. Two of my children are married and live with us, with their wives and five children. We make a living from farming. We own a 43-dunam plot of land situated in an area known as Batan Al-Ma'asi or Har Efrat. Most of the land is planted with olive trees; one dunam has almond trees. I have documents proving my possession of the land.
My plot is situated close to the settlement of Efrat. Only a fence separates the plot from the settlement. The proximity to the settlement has caused many problems for me. The settlers enter my plot, uproot trees, disfigure the land and force me to leave - despite the fact that I have a permit from the Israeli army to enter the plot.
Since the outbreak of the Second Intifada and the closure of the main road from Bethlehem to Hebron, it has been difficult for us to reach our land. During the olive harvest last year, we received permission to come to the plot, and we road on donkeys in order to get there and harvest our olives. On the first day of the harvest, when my wife and children and myself arrived on the plot, approximately ten armed settlers suddenly appeared and demanded we leave the land and not return. When I refused to leave, five settlers who were in civilian dress and appeared to be approximately 20 years old, began to beat me with batons and kick my whole body. As a result of the beating I fell to the ground in terrible pain. Later, they dragged me out of my plot and prevented me from going back in. On the following days I tried to go back to my plot, but the settlers stood there and did not let us enter. As a result, we could not harvest all the trees and lost most of last year's crop.
This year, between March and September, Israel invaded Bethlehem several times, imposed a curfew on the city and blocked all the roads in the area. The result was that we could not reach our land. This month the olive harvest began, and we have about 100 productive trees. I intended to go to the land with my children after October 20, 2002 in order to harvest the olives. However, on Friday, October 18, 2002, 'Abd a-Salam 'Abd a-Salam, who lives close to my plot of land, informed me that in the afternoon he had seen from his window several settlers cutting down my trees. He approached the settler and asked them to stop uprooting the trees but they mocked him, beat him and drove him away. 'Abd a-Salam continued to watch the settlers cutting down all the olive trees except for five.
My children and I walked to the plot, because Palestinian cars are not permitted to travel along the road from Bethlehem to Hebron. We arrived in the afternoon and saw four armed settlers in civilian clothes. They pointed their weapons at us and told us that we were not allowed to enter the land. We replied that we wanted to harvest the olives (we wanted to gather the olive trees that the settlers had cut down and thrown on the ground). The settlers did not allow us to enter and we continued to argue with them until the security officer of the settlement arrived on the spot. He heard what was happening and came to talk to us. When we told him what had happened, he approached the settlers, and some two hours later they allowed us to enter the land for three hours to collect the olives. As I looked at the felled trees I became very upset and set on the ground in despair. My children tried as best as they could to collect the olives during the time they had been allotted. Then we put them in bags and loaded them onto a tractor. The settlers shot at the tractor, trying to make the driver leave the tractor and the load of olives, but the driver managed to move out of their sight.
On Saturday, October 19, 2002, at approximately 7:30 am, I left on foot with my son Hassan, my daughter-in-law and my two daughters to go to our plot of land again. We got as far as the military checkpoint at the entrance to the settlement of Efrat. The soldiers at the checkpoint took our identity cards for inspection, searched us and, after about ninety minutes, let us pass. When we reached our plot of land and tried to enter it, we were prevented by some ten settlers. They tried to scare us and prevent us going any closer. Then they demanded at gunpoint that we stand to one side, and they searched us in an attempt to provoke us. This went on for about two hours. Then the security officer of the settlement arrived and allowed us to enter the land, for just two hours. We entered the land and began to harvest the olives. An hour later the same settlers came back to our land and demanded that we leave straight away. They threatened us with their weapons and drove us off the land. We went home and do not know what to do. We have lost this year's olives, as well as the trees that have been cut down.
Mahmoud Rashid Hamed Salah, age 57, is married and father of 10. He is a farmer and resident of al-Khadr. The Testimony was taken by Suha Zeid at the witness' home, October 20, 2002.