Sinjil – The settler Michael Shemla’s flock grazing in the territory of the Maqam

Place:

Sinjil

Turmus Aya

Tags:

Confiscation of sites of religious significance for Palestinian tradition (maqams)

Settlers, Settlements

Observers:

Nurit Popper, Karin Lindner, Shoshi Anbar, Irit Segoli (report and photos) Driver: Mustafa, Tal Haran (translate)

Feb-22-2023

Morning

Sinjil - the herd belongs to the settler Michael Shemla

Photo:

Irit Segoli

Sinjil - Maqam Abu Al ‘Uf

Photo:

Irit Segoli

Sinjil - Michael Shmla's car blocks the path

Photo:

Irit Segoli

September 7, 2022. Car with license plate number 48862001 driven by Michael Shemla does not vacate the narrow track and forces the Sinjil municipality driver to dangerously back up down the hill.

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 info-icon 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

Turmus Aya

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Turmus Aya is a beautiful and well-kept Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bira governorate, located in the Shiloh Valley, about 22 km north of Ramallah. Near Highway 60 at an altitude of about 732 m. In 2016, 4,781 residents lived in the town. After the 2nd intifada in 2001, hundreds immigrated to the US, but they come in the summer to visit their families and live in the nice houses they built.

Israel expropriated 752 dunams of the town's land for the establishment of the Shiloh settlement, in 1978, and another 372 dunams for the establishment of the Shebot Rachel settlement in 1992. According to the Oslo Agreement, the built-up area of TAos Aya was classified as area B. This area constitutes 64.7% of the town's land, and the rest, 35.3%, is area C.

Starting in 2015, the town's residents often suffer from harassment from the settlers of the Adi Ad outpost, which include the uprooting and cutting of olive trees, the burning of wheat fields and the spraying of anti-Netzka inscriptions.

On June 21, 2023, dozens of young people from outposts and surrounding settlements carried out a pogrom in broad daylight after the funeral of the victims of the attack that occurred two days earlier at the gas station in the settlement of Eli. The attack took place after the Israel Defense Forces' invasion of Jenin and the killing of innocents in the process - an invasion that took place after a previous event... and so on, deep into the non-stop blood equation that is always presented in Israel as terror attacks without context. They set fire to about 60 cars and about 30 houses with their occupants and threw stones, fire grenades and even shot from guns.The IDF soldiers watched the attack but didn't intervene. A villager was killed by soldier fire. Only 3 settlers were arrested after a few days, but charges have not yet been filed against them.