Sinjil: "They’re working up there inside our area, and we are told it is a closed military zone”
“They’re working up there inside our area, and we are told it is a closed military zone” says ‘Ayad Ja’afri
10,000 dunams of farmland belonging to Sinjil, declared as closed military zone, are caged behind a dirt dyke since October 7, 2023.
A stranger might not pay much attention to the dirt dyke that has popped up on the main way to Sinjil’s farmland. But Palestinians know very well what risks take those who skip over the dyke and dares to enter the area in order to tend his field, as M.Z. did when attacked by the settlers from Nahal Shilo who settled there. They attacked him with knives and punctured the tires of his tractor so he had to call and ask for help and rescue of his friends. Let them see this, not dare to be heroes. This is the method. Armed soldiers from the army base adjacent to the outpost have begun to accompany the thugs to make their joint hand be on the up and up.
This land around maqam Abu Al ‘Uf, built on a low mountaintop, is divided into tended fields we knew well from our previous visits. We were often invited for tea and breakfast then, and heard about the villagers’ coping with the prohibitions the military government imposed on Area C Palestinian farmers, like prohibiting them from digging a water hole or placing an irrigation pipe. In spite of the difficulty that such prohibitions impose, the farmers are resourceful and their fields well-tended and filled with all the goodness and beauty, fruit trees and various vegetables, beauty spots that remind one how wonderful this could here for everyone: them and us.
When we came to visit our friend ‘Ayad Ja’afri this time, he like all landowners was bothered by the question what happens there now.
We came in to take photos and bring as much information as we could to the Palestinians, and here is the destruction and ruin we found there:
The situation on the ground shows that the settlers had the freedom to fill their hearts’ desire, take over all the Palestinian-owned fields that are excluded by simply declaring them “closed military zone”.
In every one of our previous visits there (7.9.22, 22.2.23) we reported settlers’ violent attempts to take over the land and attempts or actual injury of Palestinians: this time the takeover has been completed. We can only hope that the settlers be evicted and lands return to their generations-long rightful owners.
As we finished our visit, we were hosted by ‘Ayad at his uncle’s yard, when settler Michael Shamla from the outpost ‘Nahal Shilo’ appeared, held on to the fence rudely violating our host’s right and ours to privacy, filmed us through the fence and swore: “Stupid…”
In the evening we received the report that stones were thrown at ‘Ayad’s house by the youth thugs who do Michael’s bidding while living in his farm at ‘Nahal Shilo’.
Location Description
Sinjil
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Singil
A town with a Maqam
The origin of the town's name is Raymond IV of Saint-Gilles, nicknamed the Count of Toulouse who established a Crusader fortress there in 1198. There is evidence of a settlement in the place as early as the Early Bronze Age.
On the mountain across from the town of Singil, east of Ramallah, the agricultural lands of its ten thousand residents spread out – The beautiful built-up terraces were renovated during the quiet period of the Corona pandemic. Each person and his fields on the way to the hilltop, location of the holy site, Maqam Abu Al ‘Uf, one the prophet Mohammad’s companions. Singil lands amount to 18 thousand dunams. Of these, 9,500 dunams are area C - where the Civil Administration forbids digging a water hole, laying pipes or building a shed to protect against the heat of the day or rain.
Maqam Abu Al ‘Uf stands in the heart of Singil's agricultural lands, on a hill from which the entire town is overlooked. It is an ancient and beautiful place that contains all the elements of Palestinian life in the past, which they embrace with longing. But they are afraid to repair and clean the site with a double fear of the settlers and the civil administration, since the site is in area C, the settlers are trying to appropriate the Muslim site to the Jewish narrative and transfer it to their control. They come and litter site with ship excrement or set up tables for a parties there.
Everything is beautiful, but there is a thorn in it: the Israeli occupation! In January 1978, a group of settlers settled near the village lands, under the guise of an archaeological dig camp in the nearby Tel Shiloh. Today Singil and its lands are surrounded by the huge settlements: Shiloh, Eli, Ma'ale Levona and their outposts: Giv’at Har’el, Giv’at Ha-Ro’eh (which the government approved to become a settlements) that more and more of the lands of Singil are annexed by one trick or another to the settlements. Another addition is the violent outpost called "Nahal Shiloh" from which a settler to attacks the Palestinian farmers, attempts to destroy terraces and send his herds to the Palestinian fields. Adjacent to the outpost is an Israeli army.
Of the 10,000 residents who live in the town, 400 people work in Israel and depend on work permits. They leave at three in the morning through four exits manned by soldiers from the nearby army camp who are held up by ID checks. 12,000 residents left over the years to other countries, mainly to the United States.
As part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, over the years there have been dozens of incidents of mutual violence between the residents of the village and Jewish residents of the area and the IDF forces. Including a settlers’ pogrom in May 2023.
Immediately after the horrific massacre carried out by the Hamas organization in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, all the village entrances were blocked with stones and piles of dirt. There is no going out and no coming except for one checkpoint in the direction of Ramallah where a military guard allows one out of ten applicants to leave.
Updated October 2023
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