“This is when all of us (about 21 or so internationals and Israelis) gathered together around the Palestinian man to keep him from being arrested since him being arrested would have been much worse than if any of us got in trouble.” ~Neda Mustafa

*Below is a first-hand account by my friend Neda Mustafa of an attempt to help a Palestinian farmer pick his grape leaves in the face of land confiscation, belligerent Israeli settlers and an aggressive Israeli military prescence.  Unfortunately the following story is all too common here in Palestine.  Yet it also shows the power of human solidarity across all borders at work!

This morning I woke up at 5:45 am to head to Beit Ummar to help Palestinian farmers there reap the benefits of their land, (today it was grape leaves).  The reason they need help (and so early in the morning) is because there is a Jewish settlement next to their land now which makes their farmland a ‘closed military zone’.

This means that the farmers who own the land are not allowed on their own land thus making it difficult to reap their harvest.  We went early because the army usually gets there later in the day.   So we arrive and walk down to the farm where there are two Arab families already picking.  We quickly join them and begin picking the grape leaves with them.

Suddenly we hear the sounds of teenage settler boys yelling “Sharmoota” (whore) and “Go home”.  We have Israelis who join us with the picking and they act as the negotiators.   The army arrived very early but did nothing as these boys attempted to throw rocks (lousily as they are obviously not Palestinian boys).

After 20 minutes of picking the soldiers finally made their way towards us.  After another 20 minutes of negotiations they made a deal with us that we could continue picking long enough for the camera crew that was with us to videotape the soldiers kicking the settlers out.  Which they did.  After which they (soldiers) returned telling us to leave. 

As we were leaving the soldiers grabbed one Palestinian farmer who did nothing to provoke this and tried to arrest him. This is when all of us (about 21 or so internationals and Israelis) gathered together around the Palestinian man to keep him from being arrested since him being arrested would have been much worse than if any of us got in trouble.  

We all hugged our arms around each other forming a tight circle around him.  At which point the soldiers tried to pry each person off individually.  In trying to get us away from the farmer the soldiers threw an Israeli boy yards away onto his back repeatedly. When the last 6 were around the man one brutal Russian Israeli soldier decided to hit the rest of us away with his wooden stick. 

I happened to be the first in his way so as I was turning to walk away from the farmer the soldier hit the back of my leg with this stick.  I told him not to hit me since I was leaving.  He then kept pushing and swinging at all the others in the group.   They were still trying to arrest the Palestinian man and so the few that were not pushed out held on to each other on top of him. 

The army commander came to negotiate with the two Israeli’s that were in our group holding on to him.  To no avail.  They kicked out all the people with video cameras and regular cameras after which the soldiers began to use more force.  The Russian Israeli soldier held my head down against the rocks along with the girl next to me. 

It was pointless since I did not fight back but after a minute told him to get off of me since I was not resisting.  He leaned off of me but started pulling the hair of one of the girls with us who I helped by squeezing my hand in between her hair and his fist. 

Another soldier grabbed my arm and forced it across my body.  However they were nowhere close to getting the Palestinian man from under us.  Finally after about 5 minutes like this the woman Bekah in charge of setting this up (an American who has an Israeli ID) was arrested for assaulting a soldier. 

As they were putting her in handcuffs a soldier called her a “fucking bitch” and stepped on her.  She then kicked him back, pushing him down to the ground.  She negotiated with them that she will not fight anymore as long as the Palestinian farmer is released.  They agreed and for once the soldiers stuck to their word. 

After Bekah was in handcuffs they moved on to the Scottish man and German girl with us and arrested them.  They let me, another Israeli and an Italian go since we did not fight back we just wouldn’t allow them near the Palestinian.  We walked back up to the cars relatively unharmed. 

A woman came out of her home and served us coffee.  I asked for the time and it was only 10am.    I am glad that we fought today to keep a Palestinian man out of jail..  God knows that the conditions for him in jail would have been incomparable to the three who got arrested today, two of which will be released before the days end and Bekah who is now being tried for assaulting a soldier.  She will be testified against by the commander himself.  But even her situation is much better than the potential situation of the Palestinian farmer.

**Pictures of the day below: