On Friday, 17 February 2023, four Palestinian families from Silwad discovered settlers had entered their four plots of land northwest of the town and vandalized four recreational structures and items inside them: The settlers broke furniture and sinks and stole farming equipment including an axe, a rake, a hammer, an electric splitter and kitchenware.
Below are testimonies collected from two of the landowners by B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad:
Fathallah Hammad, 44, a father of four:
I bought a three-dunam piece of land in the al-M’ati area, about two-three kilometers northwest of our town, five months ago. I bought it to instill the love of the land and the connection to it in my children. My children were delighted with it. We cultivated it, sewed in it, and I built a masonry fence and an agricultural structure made of aluminum sheets to use. We installed a toilet and sink in it, and put in a bed and chairs. We put up a swing outside for the children. The kids helped set it up and worked really hard for it. Whenever we’re there, they never want to leave. We were planning to add to this structure and turn it into a recreational house for us and to plant fruit trees around it, but apparently, the settlers didn’t like it.
On Friday, 17 February 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., we went to our land, as usual, my wife, the kids and I, to spend time there and enjoy the outdoors. But when we arrived, we discovered that settlers had made holes in the walls of the structure and destroyed things inside. They destroyed everything: The dishes in the kitchen, the sink, the toilet, the bed and the chairs and two aluminum windows and the door handle. They also vandalized a 1.5 cubic meter water tank that was in the plot and stole farming tools: an ax, a rake, a hammer and more, and they destroyed the kids’ swing.
When the children saw the destruction, they burst into tears. I saw them pale and sad, and my heart ached. They don’t understand why the settlers are bothered by them enjoying the outdoors. I know these criminals just want to drive us off the land in order to take it over and build another settlement on it. But we won’t give up, and we won’t let it happen. We were born here in Silwad, and this is our place and our country, and we have no other place.
Iyad Hamed, 46, a father of five:
My brothers and I have a 25-dunam piece of farmland in the al-Burj area, northwest of the town.
We’ve been cultivating this land for about a decade. We’ve put up a masonry fence around it and paved an access road to it. We built a concrete and stone structure in an area covering 45 square meters. It has a toilet, and we use it for lounging and storing tools and other items. We’ve paved part of the ground in front of the structure and planted ornamental plants, so we could go there with the children, enjoy the outdoors and relax. I built it all. I go work there almost every day.
On Friday, 17 February 2023, we discovered settlers had gone into the land and caused a lot of damage. They broke and vandalized 15 chairs, five large plastic tables, eight small tables, three lighting fixtures inside and outside the building, an electrical panel, two solar panels that provided us with electricity, a cooktop, a sink, a toilet, tiles, four aluminum windows and five electrical outlets and cut electrical cables. They also stole kitchen utensils and pots and spilled food products such as sugar, salt, tahini, and olive oil and spoiled them by mixing them with paint they poured from cans. They destroyed everything. I think that what the Civil Administration and the military fail to do, the settler gangs do.