Beit Imrin - Settlers injure Palestinians
Report based on a telephone conversation with M.
Yesterday, Wednesday, 6.5.20, a group of settlers from Halamish came down to Beit Imrin, the nearby village. On the way, they encountered a shepherd, fell upon him, beat him, stole the flock, and returned the way they came. People working in the area arrived and called the army. The soldiers came and returned the flock. The people called an ambulance which evacuated the shepherd in critical condition, with three fractures in his right leg.
A second incident four days ago, Sunday, 3.5.20. Settlers from Yizhar took over more land near the settlement and began cultivating it. When they could bear it no longer the landowners gathered and confronted the head of the local council and its members demanding they solve the problem. They decided to expel the settlers. More people joined them, and with the council, the head went to the location and chased the settlers away. But the problem is that they don’t have official land registry documents for the plots. They’re helpless. It’s only a matter of time before the settlers return.
Yesterday I called N. He told me that settlers from Givat Ronen come down to them almost daily and throw rocks. Two days ago, when his wife was hanging laundry, one almost hit her leg.
Burqa (Nablus governate)
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Burqa (Nablus govenate) was a throne village, meaning a political and military center in the Ottoman regime and has palaces and ancient buildings. The village owned approximately 18,600 dunams of land, but in 1977 approximately 1,500 dunams were expropriated for the establishment of Homesh sttlements and another 50 dunams for the benefit of Shavei Shomron settlement. In 2005, following the disengagement from Gaza, it was decided to evacuate Homesh, which had 50 settlers and its maintenance was a burden on the army. After the evacuation, the area around the settlement was declared a closed military area and the Palestinians who do not own land there, have since been prevented from accessing and cultivating their land in the area.
About 50% of the residents of the village are farmers and mainly olive growers, 20% are laborers in Israel and 30% are government employees. Those who are not married are not allowed to work in Israel, but some are married and are not allowed for security reasons. Today, the village has about 5,000 residents, many residents have left for Jordan and abroad. The village of Burka was visited by volunteers from Checkpoint Watch following the Survey of the Maqamat they prepared, the popular places of worship that since the occupation the villagers are not allowed visit for various reasons. The Maqamat in the area are: Sheikh Abu Yazid, Al-Qubayba , sheikh who ascended.
After the evacuation, the settlers continued to come to the place from all over the West Bank. Iמ order to declare their ownership of the territory, a yeshiva was established there, and despite being evacuated several times it continued to be inhabited. There were many acts of violence between the residents of the illegal outpost and the village of Burqa.
In July 2023, after the law under which the settlement was evicted was repealed, tthe yeshiva had been moved to the area defined as state land, on the way to its regularization and on August 2, 2023, the High Court of Justice ruled that the Homesh outpost would not be evacuated, after rejecting Palestinian petitions.
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