Report on Summer Internship in Israel/Palestine

The International Human Rights Program

Irus Braverman, September 2006

I conducted my summer internship with Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), an NGO that attempts to bring together Jewish spiritual ideals, on the ground activism, and legal advocacy. The director of the organization, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, believes in the immorality of the occupation and struggles to show the Palestinians that a person who wears a Kippa is not necessarily their enemy. Of the different projects conducted by RHR, I was most interested in their agricultural project. Here, RHR activists assist Palestinian farmers residing in the occupied territories that are denied the right to cultivate their lands by boththe brutality of certain Jewish settlers and the passivity of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and police. In recent years settler violence has increased to include the vandalization and uprooting of Palestinian trees and the terrorizing of farmers as they plow and harvest their lands. Mostly, RHR’s assistance is through joining the Palestinian farmers during plowing and harvest seasons, an act of solidarity that intends to force the Israeli military and police to protect the Palestinians from settler violence.

The focus of the struggle between the Palestinians and the Jewish settlers is usually the olive tree. However, this struggle is mostly not environmental in its scope. The olive provides over 40% of the total Palestinian agricultural produce. Because of the strict limitations on the movement of Palestinian people and commodities, the olive’s economic importance has even increased since the break of the second Intifada. The olive tree, and trees in the occupied territories in general, also carry an important legal significance: article 78 of the 1878 Ottoman Land Code establishes that 10 years of cultivation grant the cultivatorwith titleoptions over the cultivated land. Sincethe early 1980s, this article hasserved as the main technique for state acquisitions of land in the OPT and is recently also utilized by Jewish setters in order to claim ownership over “neglected” Palestinian lands that they cultivate. RHR’s protection of the Palestinian farmer’s rightsto cultivateolives and other trees in the West Bank is therefore first and foremost an act of support for the Palestinianstruggle over land.

A combination of the war in Lebanon and particular circumstances in the organizational life of RHR resulted in that RHR did not organize almost any intensive agricultural days during my summer internship. Thesecircumstances ended up for the better, because they provided me with the opportunity of joining Rabbi Ascherman and RHR’s Palestinian coordinator Zakaria for severaldaylong incursions to Palestinian villagesso asto coordinate the nuts and bolts of the various work to be conducted by RHR in the upcoming months. In this capacity, I visited over a dozen Palestinian villages (including Beit Furik, Yanun, Awarta, Akraba,Beita, Turmus Aya, Asawya, Jamain, Urifetc.), spoke withPalestinian farmers and public representatives, and documented their claims against the Jewish settlers and the Israeli administration. During these visits we also negotiatedseveral issues with the farmers. For example, we discussed when the cultivation work should start, which fields would be cultivated, and whether the Palestinians should coordinate the cultivation with the IDF and Israeli police. In some instances the farmers also accompanied us for a visit to the land to which they have been denied accessfor many years.

I also joined several field visits to various areas in the occupied territories for the purpose of gatheringadditional information about outreach possibilities for RHR and in order to learn about the situation on the ground. For example, I joined a field visit organized by “Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights”to four Palestinian villages trapped in the Israeli side of the newly constructed Separation Barrier. The status of the residents of these villages is quite unique in that they have limited access both to their lands on the other side of the border, and to Israel of the green line. Finally, I conducted another daylong field visit, this time with the director of Peace Now’s unit, which monitors the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Another important dimensionof my summer internship in Israel/Palestine was the interviewing process that I conducted with Israeli bureaucrats, IDF officials, and Jewish settlers. In these interviews I investigated the ways in whichIsraeli bureaucracy legitimizes techniques of occupation in the West Bank. In particular, I interviewed the president of the semi-judicial civil administration court in the West Bank, the head of the inspection unit of the civil administration in the West Bankand his deputy, the advocate that heads the legal land departmentin the military prosecution, as well as various lawyers and aerial photo experts. The interviews explore various aspects of Israel’s useof article 78 of the 1858 Ottoman Land Code, which provides a significant background to the work of RHR. Some of the information obtained during the interviewsturned out to be of particular significance to RHR. For example, as the director of the newly established committee on tree compensation, one of my informants provided me with essential details as to how Palestinians can obtain compensation for uprooted olive trees.

Zakaria of RHR with Palestinian farmer from Yanun in his almond grove that could not be cultivated because of settler harassment, August 2006

Visit with “Bimkom for Planning Rights” to Umm Reichan, a Palestinian village caught inside the Israeli side of the Separation Barrier (documenting complaints by Palestinian farmers), August 2006

Bulldozer uprooting Palestinian agriculture for the expansion of a military base near the village of Umm Reichan, August 2006

Standing with Nijem from the Palestinian village Urif, with his vandalized olive grove in the background, Northern West Bank, September 2006

Observing and documenting the burnt olive groves near the PalestinianVillage Urif (myself dressed in yellow shawl)

Documenting and discussing next actions with Palestinian farmers in the village of Turmus Aya (Rabbi Ascherman in far right, myself on his right), September 2006

In the living room of a farmer from the Palestinian village Jamain, documenting and discussing future projects

September 2006 near Nablus, OPT: Standing on a military blockade that prevents Palestinians from machine cultivation of theirolive groves(from left to right: Al Jazeera cameraman, me, Yaakov Manor, RHR activist)

Documenting the uprooting of olive trees for the construction of the Separation Barrier by the IDF (Peace Now daylong visit to the OPT; Kalkilia region, August 2006)

Talking with the person driving the bulldozer that uproots Palestinian olive trees for the Separation Barrier

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