Gaza Unsilenced Read online

  House Demolitions in Al-Zaytoun

  “We plant our plants here to claim our rights to the land. We are not making a profit, we are working for nothing.”

  —Ahmad from Al-Zaytoun

  We met the farmers Ali, Rafat, Nasser, Ahmad, Jawad and Ishmael outside Ahmad’s house next to the Malaka intersection area of eastern Al-Zaytoun just south of Gaza City. There used to be a three-story family home on this plot, but there is now a much smaller house next door. This is the result of continuous targeting of the area by the Israeli Occupation Forces, who have a military base close by. Ahmad, who was born on this land, told us that his family’s house had been demolished three times: in 2004, 2005, and during Operation Cast Lead in 2008.

  “In 2008 they destroyed everything around here,” Ahmed said, “they even destroyed my jars of olive oil. We did not have time to bring hardly any of our things. The Israelis came through a gate in the fence in the buffer zone with 14 tanks and four military bulldozers. They were shooting a lot to make us leave before they arrived. We have had to rebuild our home three times.”

  As in other buffer zone communities, it is not only property which is frequently targeted by Israel—it is anyone who attempts to farm the land. All the farmers we talked to in Al-Zaytoun had some land within 300 meters of the fence. The last shooting incident had occurred just four days before our visit. When there is instability happening in the area, everyday activities for farmers become even more precarious.

  The story of the farmers in Al-Zaytoun is a familiar one: before the tightening of the siege in 2007 they all used to be able to make a decent profit from their land, with some farmers getting close to $30,000 a year but now they make no profit at all. Some of them used to export part of their produce, albeit through Israeli companies, but now none of them are able to export anything and all their goods go to the local Gaza market. “No-one has any money so we hardly make anything,” said Ahmed. “Sometimes we have to feed some of the vegetables to the animals.”

  Mustapha told us that farmers in this area have had some help from Norwegian People’s Aid who provided them with an irrigation system for the fields, and they also have a tractor but even with equipment taking care of the land is a challenge under siege. Just like the farmers in Beit Hanoun, they rely on access to electricity for the water pump and petrol for the tractor and those things are often not available. “The water is so salty here that we can only plant very specific plants like aubergines, olive trees, potatoes, cabbage, and spinach. Cucumbers and tomatoes can’t be planted,” said Mustapha. The salty water is the result of the Gaza aquifer having been contaminated by sea and sewage water, partly through a decline in ground water levels and partly as a result of infrastructure damage during Israeli air attacks in 2009. According to the UN 90% of the water from the aquifer, Gaza’s only water resource, is not safe to drink.

  After the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the middle of 2013, life for Gaza’s farmers has become even harder. The men in Al-Zaytoun said that they used to be able to be able to buy cheap fertilizers which had come through the tunnels from Egypt at the local market. However, since the tunnels were destroyed this is no longer possible. Products are now both harder to get hold of and more expensive as they have to come through Israel which means that there are no cheap choices and that tax will be added.

  Despite all the problems they face the people of Al-Zaytoun continue to work their land, they have no other option. As we walked around their fields they showed us how they have started to re-cultivate land nearer and nearer the fence, moving the area of cultivation forward by around ten meters per week. In Gaza simply farming the land has turned into an act of resistance.

  Uprooting History in Al-Maghazi

  “It is not the uprooting of the trees themselves that is the worst, it is the uprooting of our history.”

  — Abu Mousab from Al-Maghazi

  For Palestinians, the buffer zones do not only create financial hardship and humanitarian crises, they also sever people’s connection with their history. In Al-Maghazi, a primarily agricultural community in the central Gaza Strip, we met Abu Mousab, a farmer who also holds down a job as an iron welder in order to make a living. Al-Maghazi is a refugee camp established in 1949 and according to Mohammed Rasi al-Betany from the Al-Maghazi refugee council, approximately 95% of the population are refugees. However, Abu Mousab’s family have lived on the same piece of land for generations. When we visited, his father, who is in his late 90s and who used to work for the British Mandate before the creation of Israel, was asleep in the room next door.

  Staying steadfast on the farmland has not been easy for Abu Mousab and his family. Their land is located approximately 300 meters from the border fence and, despite the fact that conditions have become a little bit safer since 2012, working the land is dangerous. “We have to play a kind of cat and mouse game with the soldiers,” Abu Mousab said. “When the soldiers go away we turn on the water and quickly irrigate our plants, but as soon as they start shooting we have to leave.” Only a week before our visit Abu Mousab’s nephew Medhat had been shot at with live ammunition warning shots when he was trying to weed some crops on the part of the family’s farmland nearest the fence. Some years the family have been able to access their land so infrequently that the crops have failed, leaving them with no income from their land. During good years when they do manage to harvest their barley, wheat, almonds, citrus fruits, olives and apricots they sell their produce to the local market in the Gaza Strip.

  However, many people do not feel able to risk their life to work on the land. One of them is Mousa Abu Jamal, another farmer from Al-Maghazi. He used to have ten dunums of farmland planted with olive trees within the buffer zone, all of which have been uprooted by Israel. When he tried to go back to re-cultivate his land in the middle of 2012 he was shot at. He has not been back since.

  “I was always told by my father that he who has been raised on his farmland must stick with his farmland until he dies and that is what we are doing” Abu Mousab said. His family are so determined not to give up their heritage that during the bombardment of the Gaza Strip in 2012 they made a decision not to leave the area for relative safety further away from the border. “Ten years ago the Israelis came with Caterpillar bulldozers and destroyed olive trees and several 200-year-old sycamore trees on my land. Those were trees my grandfather used to sit under,” Abu Mousab said. “They had to use two of their bulldozers to uproot just one tree, they were so rooted in our history.”

  Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions

  Israel’s siege of Gaza is slowly strangling life in the Strip. It affects farmers’ access to land, crops, water and electricity. It also limits people in Gaza’s ability to buy food grown in Gaza and makes people more reliant on imports of Israeli goods. The situation for exporters is even worse: only a tiny amount of agricultural produce gets exported each year, all of which has to go through Israeli companies. The ban on Gaza produce being sold in Israel and the West Bank amounts to a de facto boycott of Gaza’s export industry by Israel.

  What Can the Solidarity Movement Do?

  During Corporate Watch’s visit to the Gaza Strip the people we interviewed made their hopes very clear: they want boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel, but they also want opportunities to trade and make a living. This presents a challenge to the BDS movement. As the tiny amount of Palestinian produce that is being exported from the Gaza Strip is currently exported through Israeli companies it means that any boycott of, for example Arava, will boycott Palestinian produce too. When asked about this implications of this, farmers were still supportive of a boycott, as they hoped the pressure would be more beneficial to them in the long term than the minuscule benefits the current export levels achieve. “What we need is people to stand with us against the occupation,” said Mustapha from Al-Zaytoun. “By supporting BDS you support the farmers, both directly and indirectly and this is a good thing for people here in Gaza.”

  Farmers all
over the Gaza Strip were particularly keen on getting the right to label their produce as Palestinian, ideally with its own country code, even if they have to export through Israel. Country of origin labels for Gaza goods is something the solidarity movement could lobby for.

  There was strong support amongst farmers for increased action against Israeli arms manufacturers, as they are often on the receiving end of their weapons.

  Mohsen Aby Ramadan, from the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, suggested that one good way forward could be to engage farming unions across the world and get them to endorse the BDS call in solidarity with Palestinian farmers—an avenue that has not as yet been properly explored.

  Corporate Watch, July 4, 2014, http://bit.ly/1m9dTYQ

  Gaza Olive Harvest Hit Hard by War

  Rami Almeghari

  Yousef al-Serhy and his family were cheerful on Friday evening as they waited in a van in front of the large olive oil extraction facility on Salah al-Din road, south of Gaza City. The children sat on top of the large sacks of olives that would soon be pressed.

  “We’re waiting our turn, we have two tons of olives grown on our farm,” al-Serhy, a father of four who is in his thirties, told the Electronic Intifada. “Growing olives has been our main occupation for decades, as my grandfather owned a piece of land in Johr al-Deek,” an area east of Gaza City, he explained.

  Al-Serhy said that the family’s groves in that area were badly damaged in Israel’s summer invasion of Gaza, a repeat of what happened during Israel’s attack in 2008–2009. But fortunately, the family still owns a piece of land in the Sheikh Ijleen area west of Gaza City. “Only God’s care protected the olive trees on that land,” al-Serhy said.

  “During the war we had difficulty accessing the olive trees. It was only during the times of ceasefire that we managed to get over there and irrigate them,” he added, referring to several brief “humanitarian truces” that gave Gaza residents brief respites during the 51 days of bombardment.

  Rafat al-Muqayyad, an olive farmer from the Mughraqa area south of Gaza City, told the Electronic Intifada that his entire family has worked in olive production since before the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine in their village of Niliya, which now lies inside present-day Israel.

  In Gaza, the family managed to continue this tradition, but they have not escaped the impact of the summer assault.

  “My olives groves are right next to my brother’s,” al-Muqayyad said. “While my land was left intact, thank God, my brother’s was severely damaged by Israeli army tanks and shelling. I expect to produce about two hundred liters of oil this year,” he added.

  Machinery Damaged

  Though Israel’s bombardment was utterly devastating, killing more than 2,100 people and leaving many areas in ruins, for some farmers the harvest has been a bright spot.

  Nasser Odeh, owner of the olive oil extraction facility, told the Electronic Intifada that his plant has been welcoming hundreds of olive farmers since the beginning of October and he didn’t expect demand to let up until mid-December.

  No aspect of life has been untouched by the war, however.

  “My facility is considered to be one of the biggest and most advanced in the Gaza Strip,” Odeh said. “I use Italian-made machines and equipment, but unfortunately, many of my spare parts stored in the facility were damaged by an Israeli strike. We managed to save whatever spare parts we could from under the rubble,” Odeh explained as he shifted sacks of olives.

  Promises to lift the siege of Gaza, made at the time of the August ceasefire, have not materialized, which means that for plant owners like Odeh, bringing in parts and supplies to rebuild or repair remains virtually impossible. And while the trees may be producing, Gaza’s economic situation remains challenging for farmers and consumers alike.

  Abdallah Shahin, a farmer from the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, owns a large olive grove.

  “Nowadays we find difficulties marketing our products,” he told the Electronic Intifada. He cited high unemployment, only further exacerbated by the war, and the fact that tens of thousands of government employees have gone without salaries for months.

  Imported olive oil, including a variety known as K18 that comes from Israel, can sell for much less than local oil, which goes for as much as $140 for twenty liters.

  Shahin showed the Electronic Intifada some of his olives trees, which were partially damaged by Israeli shells, as he and his family were forced to flee to another area until the August 26 ceasefire brought an end to the bombardment.

  Sharp Drop

  While many individual farmers have managed to bring in good crops, the Palestinian ministry of agriculture in Gaza estimates that the production of olives and olive oil there has dropped about 20 to 25 percent overall compared to 2012.

  This is because large areas of farmland along Gaza’s eastern boundary were hit hard during the Israeli assault, during which many farmers could not reach their land to tend to and irrigate the trees.

  “Therefore, the weight of olives was less, compared to previous years,” Hussam Abu Saada, an official with the agriculture ministry, told the Electronic Intifada.

  Abu Saada said that the Gaza ministry of agriculture will have to facilitate the import of oil from the West Bank in order to meet local demand.

  “I own about six acres of olive trees in northern Gaza and my land is located about three kilometers away from the boundary with Israel,” Hussein Hammouda, a farmer in his fifties, told the Electronic Intifada. “I could not even irrigate my olives trees during the war, and as a result the olives look smaller in size compared to previous years.”

  Palestinians in Gaza, as in other parts of the country, remain committed to growing olives as a fundamental part of their economy and culture. But even the trees that survive, like the people who care for them, suffer the lasting traumas of war.

  The Electronic Intifada, November 4, 2014, http://bit.ly/1IhiU9X

  Farmers Forced to Stop Growing Strawberries in Gaza

  Rami Almeghari

  With its soft sandy soil, plentiful sunshine and an adequate supply of water, northern Gaza has the right conditions for growing strawberries.

  To be more precise, it would have the right conditions if farmers were allowed to work in safety—and without restrictive export policies imposed by Israel.

  Last summer, Hidaya and Moayad Warshagha had to mostly stay away their small farm in the Beit Lahiya area during a vital time for their crop. Because Israel bombed Gaza for more than six weeks in July and August, tending to their strawberries would have put the couple’s lives in danger.

  When they managed to reach their farm during a supposed three-day ceasefire, “the area looked like a red hell,” Hidaya said. Because the Israeli military was not respecting the ceasefire, “we had to abandon our crop,” she added. “All of the strawberries were destroyed.” The couple lost $6,000 as a result. The horrific events of last summer were part of a series of problems that have beset the couple.

  Gaza farmers used to export strawberries to the occupied West Bank, present-day Israel and Europe. But the siege which Israel imposed on Gaza in 2007 has prevented them from doing so.

  The amount of Gaza’s land devoted to growing strawberries has reportedly fallen from 2,300 dunums in 2007 to just 600 dunums this year. A dunum is the equivalent of 1,000 square meters.

  No Compensation

  Moath Abu Ayash employs seven workers on his 4.5 acre holding, also in Beit Lahiya. He can only sell strawberries to the local market, which is “never lucrative,” he said.

  Like many others in Gaza, his income has plummeted because of the siege. During the first year of the siege, he received some compensation from the Palestinian Authority’s agriculture ministry in Ramallah. He has not received any assistance since then. “I cannot afford any more losses,” he said.

  Many farmers have opted to grow tomatoes and peppers rather than strawberries in recent years, according to Ahmad al-Shafi,
the director of an agricultural cooperative in Beit Lahiya. Tomatoes and peppers are less costly to produce.

  For the first three years of the siege, exporting strawberries was impossible. As part of a supposed easing of the blockade in 2010, Israel allowed a limited amount of the fruit to leave Gaza.

  Restricted Exports

  The following year, however, Israel announced that it was closing down Karni, a commercial crossing. Karni had been established in the 1990s as the main terminal for allowing exports from Gaza to pass through Israel.

  Its closure has forced exporters to rely on the smaller and poorly equipped Karem Abu Salem crossing (known in Hebrew as Kerem Shalom). During the month of January, Israel only allowed five truckloads of food and agricultural goods to cross Karem Abu Salem, according to data compiled by the UN monitoring group OCHA.

  A total of 136 truckloads of agricultural goods were exported in 2014. The level of exports was especially low in June, when just two truckloads were allowed out. There were no agricultural exports at all in July and August, when Gaza was under attack.

  The farmers of Beit Lahiya had hoped to export 250 tons of strawberries to the Netherlands, as well as several other countries in Western Europe and Russia this current season.