<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Gaza Olive harvest begins in the Beit Hanoun buffer zone while strawberry picker in Beit Lahiya is shot by Israeli Snipers | International Solidarity&nbsp;Movement]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<div class="postmetadata"><span class="date">Posted on: October 9, 2010</span> | <span class="sharethis"><span class="st_sharethis"><span class="stButton" style="text-decoration:none;color:#000000;display:inline-block;cursor:pointer;"><span class="chicklets sharethis">ShareThis</span></span></span> </span></div>
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<p><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">“This  tree is blessed for us  and our grandfathers and ancestors have taken  care of this tree for  generations.  I grew up with an olive tree in our  back yard and it  represents the peaceful life we had always lived on  these lands. Now our  olive groves are bulldozed and farm workers are  shot at so we are here  in solidarity with farmers whose lives are made  impossible by the  Israeli siege and occupation.”</span></span></p>
<p>This is how much it meant to  Mohammed el Massry, a 20 year old  student in Al Azhar University to  enter a high risk area to help  farmers begin the olive harvest and help  maintain land that used to be  the breadbasket of the Palestinian  economy. In what turned out to be a  beautiful day’s climbing, picking  and bagging of black and green  olives, Mohammed joined other members of  the Beit Hanoun ‘Local  Initiative’ group accompanied by 4 International  Solidarity Movement  activists to help farmer Abzel Al Baseony begin the  Olive harvest 300  metres from the Erez border wall with Israel.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-14855" href="http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/14854/dsc_0378/"><img loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-14855" title="DSC_0378" src="https://i0.wp.com/palsolidarity.org/multimedia/2010/10/DSC_0378-400x265.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="265" /></a></span></span></p>
<p>Beginning  early on Tuesday morning, farm workers, Palestinian and  international  activists marched with flags, buckets, step ladders and  hessian bags  ready for a morning’s work picking olives, accompanied by  the cameras of  Arabic and international media. Around the unilaterally  imposed Israeli  buffer zone – a 300 metre wide belt of land along the  Israeli border,  farm workers have been picked off by snipers and  shelling as a matter of  course, often over a kilometer beyond the  designated area. A month ago  near to where we were picking the olives  Grandfather Ibrahim Abu Sayed,  his 17 year-old grandson and friend were  mutilated and killed by Israeli  tank shelling despite being twice as  far from the border as we were.</p>
<p>Khalil  Nasir, coordinator of the Local Initiative group sees farmers  as the  first line of resistance:  “We’re here today to offer some  support for  the farmers who have continued the resistance to the  occupation everyday  of their lives, not letting go of these lands so  near to the Israeli  wall. Last month three farm-workers were directly  shelled, when all they  were doing were tending to their sheep and  animals. We thank them for  the life they left behind and we want to  give farmers along the border  whatever support we can.”</p>
<p>Shootings of farmers and destruction  of their land are not  exceptions – the dangers of farming in the  bufferzone were  comprehensively documented in the recent United Nations  and World Food  Programme report: “Between the Fence and a Hard Place”.  It concluded  that the violence used to restrict Palestinians from  accessing their  land covers areas up to 1500m from the border fence,  meaning that over  35% of Gaza’s most agricultural land is in a high risk  area causing  severe losses of food production and livelihoods.</p>
<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-14856" href="http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/14854/dsc_0466/"><img loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-14856" title="DSC_0466" src="https://i1.wp.com/palsolidarity.org/multimedia/2010/10/DSC_0466-265x400.jpg" alt="" width="265" height="400" /></a></p>
<p>This  does not stop farmers and their families from continuing to  plant and  harvest there, their livelihoods and resistance far too  important to  prevent them from working their own land.  Nor are the  regular  demonstrations ceasing despite being confronted by frequent  live gunfire  and many of the demonstrators were pleased to show direct  solidarity by  picking the olives.</p>
<p>“We have been shot at near here before on  peaceful demonstrations”,  said 22 year old student Anwar Alaaneen. “I’m  here in solidarity with  the farmers in Beit Hanoun who are always under  threat from shooting  and shelling when their land is so close to the  Israeli fence. The  international community should allow us the right to  farm our own land,  instead of allowing Israel to continue to commit  these crimes.” she  added.</p>
<p>Unbeknown to the olive pickers,  nearby in the North of Gaza in Beit  Lahiya a farm worker in the Siafa  area 27 year old Zeyad Mohammed  Tambora now and then worked for a farmer  in Siafa area, had just  finished picking strawberries when suddenly  with no warning his right  foot was hit by a bullet. He was carried back  by his 2 cousins from the  farmland at about 300 meter from the fence and  they escorted him to a  waiting car on a donkey cart. Arriving at  hospital Tuesday at about  10.00 AM Zeyad then underwent surgery to stop  the bleeding. The bones  in his foot are smashed and according to doctors  he might have problems  to walk for the rest of his life and he is not  expected to be walking  for a few months.<br />
Whether its for strawberry  picking, olive picking or wheat gathering,  incidents like this happen on  a daily basis in this region. Two days  before and last week, two more  workers were slightly injured by firing  from the border.</p>
<p>The  farmer whose olives we were picking laments the history behind  the  continuous attacks on their land and the destruction of their life   before. “There used to be many trees in this area, they bulldozed them   and although we have lost so much we have continued to farm it”, said   Abzel Al Baseony the farmer whose olives we were picking. “Everyone is   afraid coming here to farm. They take photos of us from the control   towers so they know who we are yet they still just shoot whenever they   want at whatever they want. I’ve been here since 1984 and my father   farmed this land before me. We will keep  farming.”</p>
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<p><span class="date">Updated on October 9, 2010</span><br />
<span class="cat">Posted under: <a title="View all posts in Press Releases" rel="category tag" href="http://palsolidarity.org/category/releases/">Press Releases</a></span></p>
<p><a href="http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/14854/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InternationalSolidarityMovementPalestine+%28International+Solidarity+Movement+Palestine%29">Gaza Olive harvest begins in the Beit Hanoun buffer zone while strawberry picker in Beit Lahiya is shot by Israeli Snipers | International Solidarity Movement</a>.</p>
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