Olive Harvest with Volunteers a day after the Pogrom in the Village
There is no Sabbath celebration such as that of setting a Palestinian village on fire with its inhabitants…
It reminds me of the Ukrainian Hmelnitzky stories my grandmother used to tell me, about how Jews would hide in their
homes, seal their windows with planks and tremble with fear of the pogroms the brutes would hold on their
own holiday. Now the colonists resemble those very brutes. Come a Sabbath or holiday, they put on a white
holiday shirt and run off to the nearest Palestinian village, tassels and side-curls waving, and brutalize them.
Yesterday it was the peaceful village Jalud. The brutes came from the colonist outpost Ahiya (or another nearby).
They came down on the Sabbath and burnt cars and people, murdered innocent sheep and poisoned one of the wells
of the village. “Observe the Sabbath” is a holy tradition (taking care not to light their homes, of course).
The next day, we came on a volunteer-loaded bus to Jalud village to help with the olive harvest. There were Israelis,
Americans, French and even two people from China. They all said one thing as they stood with the Palestinians around
the olive trees: We are with you. More than the actual harvest, we came to express our revulsion of the pogrom, and our solidarity
with you, our Palestinian brethren. We came in the name of humanity, of the love of our fellow man, to put an end to the
cruelty of this criminal messianism.
In the shadow of the cruel event, as the olives dropped onto the nylon sheets, a great fraternity was born among people who had
been complete strangers just a few hours back. They smiled at each other, spoke with each other, hands met, friendship and hope for
a better future lit up the faces of the olive harvesters and the hosts, and when it was time to get back to Israel, it was very difficult to part.
The children of the village stood along the village sidewalks and wished to shake our hands, waving us goodbye with a broad smile as we left.
Location Description
Jalud
See all reports for this place-
Jalud
A Palestinian village, about 15 km south of Nablus: to the south are the settlements of Shiloh, Shvut-Rachel, and another settlement. Ge'ulat _Zion, is about to be built on its lands. The violent outposts of Esh Kodesh, Kida, Yeshuv Hda'at, Ahaya, and Adei Ad. Some outposts were established on Jalud lands, and are about to receive kosher. The village is planning to fight for its land.
85% of the village's lands are in area C, and its residents are anxious that they may be taken from them. In fact, throughout the years of occupation, thousands of dunams of agricultural land were expropriated from Jalud and the surrounding villages for military and settlement purposes. These are lands that were cultivated for generations by Palestinians and were taken from them without the possibility of resistance.
Since the death of the 16-year-old boy from the hills, Ahuvia Sendak, in December 2020, during a police chase near the settlement of Kochav Hashar, there has been a significant increase in the number of violent attacks by settlers, which have already become routine all over the West Bank. The attacks include breaking into the village mainly at night, setting fire to vehicles, smashing windows and windshields, demolishing construction sites and stealing equipment, shooting with live fire, blocking roads, and more. In recent years, IDF soldiers have been backing and sponsoring these riots. -
Jalud A Palestinian village, about 15 km south of Nablus: to the south are the settlements of Shiloh, Shvut-Rachel, and another settlement. Ge'ulat _Zion, is about to be built on its lands. The violent outposts of Esh Kodesh, Kida, Yeshav Ya'at, Ahaya, and Adei Ad. Some outposts were established on Jalud lands, and are about to receive kosher. The village is planning to fight for its land. 85% of the village's lands are in area C, and its residents are anxious that they may be taken from them. In fact, throughout the years of occupation, thousands of dunams of agricultural land were expropriated from Jalud and the surrounding villages for military and settlement purposes. These are lands that were cultivated for generations by Palestinians and were taken from them without the possibility of resistance. Since the death of the 16-year-old boy from the hills, Ahuvia Sendak, in December 2020, during a police chase near the settlement of Kochav Hashar, there has been a significant increase in the number of violent attacks by settlers, which have already become routine all over the West Bank. The attacks include breaking into the village mainly at night, setting fire to vehicles, smashing windows and windshields, demolishing construction sites and stealing equipment, shooting with live fire, blocking roads, and more. In recent years, IDF soldiers have been backing and sponsoring these riots.
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