Testimonies

Hamdallah 'Afaneh, director of the Culture Administration in Nablus

On Thursday, 16 October, around 8:30 in the morning, I went with members of my family to pick olives on a plot of land my brothers and I inherited from our father. We had arranged our arrival with the Israeli authorities. The plot lies in an area called Halat a-Tyour, about one and a half kilometers from the houses of ‘Azmut and a kilometer or so from the Elon Moreh settlement. The plot is ten dunams and has seventy olive trees. My wife and our three children came with me, as well as my brother's wife and her two small children.

Lana 'Afaneh near the family's car. Photo: Salma a-Deba'i , B'Tselem, 16 Oct. 2008

Around 10:30, while I was standing on a ladder picking olives, I heard noises. I looked around and saw four or five settlers running toward my car, which was parked 150 meters away from me on a dirt road leading to the plot. My car is a 1998 Mercedes 250. Using clubs and stones, the settlers shattered all the windows except for the front right one, and they also cut all four tires.

I quickly got down from the ladder and shouted at them: “What are you doing?” They began to throw stones at me from a distance of 50-70 meters and then went off toward the settlement.

I immediately went to the army base situated east of the plot, about 150 meters from where my car was. There were lots of soldiers standing at the entrance to the base. When I got to about twenty meters from the gate, the soldiers shouted at me in Hebrew and told me to go away. I speak Hebrew well, so I told them what had happened and asked them to catch the settlers. Instead, they cocked their rifles, aimed them at me, and ordered me to go away.

I went back to the car and called the village council's office, and they called the Israeli liaison office. About half an hour later, two soldiers came from the direction of the army base and told us to leave our land. I refused, and they shouted at us. Then I asked my family to leave. We went and stood next to the car. I told the soldiers that I had notified the liaison office about the incident and that the police were supposed to come. An hour or so later, two police jeeps pulled up along with two white jeeps with officials from the liaison office. I told them what had happened, and they photographed the car and took my testimony.

We didn't continue picking because we were afraid the settlers would return. In any event, there wasn't much fruit on the trees because we didn't manage to care for the trees very much during the year, since we have to coordinate [with the Civil Administration] getting to the plot to do the work.

I called to have my car towed, and they took it to the garage. The repairs cost me about 3,000 shekels.

Hamdallah Yusef Mahmoud 'Afaneh, 43, married with five children, is the director of the Culture Administration in Nablus and a resident of 'Azmut in Nablus District. His testimony was given to Salma a-Deba'i on 25 October 2008 in 'Azmut.