Sinjil and surroundings - Road 60 is empty, Palestinians are blocked in their attacked localities
The weather says spring, sun shines in a blue sky, and I went out as a member of the Yesh Din team to take testimonies in Sinjil, that underwent a pogrom on Sunday, January 19th.
Reaching the Hizma checkpoint, we were amazed to see an empty road. I immediately returned to my capacity as a MachsomWatch observer – there are only a few Israeli-license-plated cars. The Palestinian plates had to be sought like a needle in a haystack.
We are not naïve. We understood right away that the Gaza Strip ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners brought out the devil in “our leadership”, The settlers are having a field day – no heavy traffic, empty roads. The Palestinians – are sitting at home by force. A friend told us that his wife spent the night in her car at the Qalandiya Checkpoint. Can you imagine what would happen if the cars were sat in by our Israeli brethren without an obvious reason.
At the blockades later, the Palestinians looked like the most patient of peoples – or simply experienced… – waiting quietly without even honking. A male and female soldier and a jeep “save the homeland”. We turned our heads right and left. Everything is blocked, and there is a new outpost on every hilltop, we are busy annexing the West Bank – Halleluya.
We were warmly welcomed in Sinjil by S., his wife and daughter, people hard up who are trying their utmost to swim over the water in a house that is no home, where the hill pogromists had visited and night and partly set on fire. The father, an unhealthy man who has trouble speaking told his story, and we listened – heartbroken. Life has not smiled on these good, innocent people. Why burn the little there is?…
We also visited their neighbors. A similar story, but from a stronger family, cute children and fruits and a cucumber served. The result of the night rampage of the wanton teenage “hill youths” is similar.
We passed on to the more well-off part of the town. These are large “American”-style houses. The violence is the same, but their withstanding powers are different.
We left in the late afternoon, as people come back from their day’s work. From a far we discovered Turmus Aya blocked to Road 60. We planned a retreat to Jerusalem “through the moon, near Mars, escaping the Sun…” Luckily the soldiers decided they have had enough harassing the Turmus Aya inhabitants and passed on to harass Sinjil – and we were “glad”… It was shameful to look each other in the eye. The road was empty and we drove fast to our warm showers – Yes, we have water. We are not Gaza…
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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